Archive for 'Early Childhood'
Child Dedication: Tweaking what’s working
Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
So, now I had one Child Dedication under my belt doing it a way that was much better than anything I’d ever done. Now it was time to tweak it.
I love the required Prep for Child Dedication Class concept, I just didn’t like the content from my first time. So, I needed to re-write. You do know that there is nothing new under the sun, right? I used some statistics that were already in the class. I took some additional statistics from a video my friend Sam posted a long time ago on his site. I then watched a video of a child dedication class Gina did and she totally gave me the idea of what I wanted to do for the meat of my class.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: A New Plan
Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Just before arriving at Gateway I decided I wanted to figure out a new way to do Child Dedication, a very Orangy way. I wanted to engage the parents. At previous churches, parents signed up for Child Dedication and then just showed up on that day. I knew I wanted to have a pre-dedication meeting or class. Fortunately when I got to Gateway, I discovered that this class already existed. It was required. In addition, the dedication was held an hour before our once a month Sunday evening service. So, we had a special service for dedication where each family received individual attention as one of five or six pastors prayed over them. Then at the 180 service, the families/babies were recognized and the whole church prayed over them.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Idealistic thoughts
Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Nope, I’m not telling you what we’re actually doing… yet. That will come tomorrow. Before we arrived with the idea of what we’re doing right now, I had many thought of what I would like it to me.
Primary thought: Do child dedication exclusively in small groups. Want to eliminate the dog and pony show aspect of child dedication? Take away the audience. So, if child dedication is really about parents making a commitment in front of people they are doing life with, why not do child dedication exclusively within small groups. Group leaders can be equipped to do this or someone from the kids team can help lead the occasion. If we’re a church that really believes that small groups are the way people are going to grow, then why not let his happen exclusively in small groups.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Why I hate Child Dedication
Posted on 02. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
This week I’m going to be writing about Child Dedication. Most Children’s Pastors are responsible to hold these 2-4 times a year. Most I’ve talked to hate them. Maybe that’s too strong of a word. Most really don’t like them.
Let me tell you why I don’t like them and what I’m doing about it.
I’ve been responsible to host 2-4 of these suckers a year for the last 8-9 years of ministry. To some degree, they’re an administrative nightmare. All year long people are either asking about them or signing up for them. Then when the day comes, you call and email to see who is coming. Then you call and email to double check. You print out certificates and write in Bibles.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Child Dedication: Know any good songs?
Posted on 01. Mar, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, this Sunday we’re doing a child dedication. We’re revamping many things about this dedication, so I’m going to write about it this week.
However, I need a little help. I’m creating a few slide shows for the dedication service and I need some songs to play for the slide show. I’m not looking for just “Christian” music, but anything current that seems appropriate for the situation, positive songs about kids, parents and whatnot. Again, something fairly current.
I’m probably going to use a Jack Johnson song from the Curious George soundtrack, but I’d love to find two or three more.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Later this week I’ll tell you exactly how I’m doing the slideshows, somthing I’ve never done before.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Children’s Ministry in Portables: Part 6
Posted on 30. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
Now that the outsides are painted and ramps and completed, all the focus in on the interior. The insides of these portables look so tacky with the wood paneling and ugly carpet and sagging tile ceiling. The plan is to replace the old ceiling tiles, sheet rock over the wood paneling and lay down a new tile floor. When we’re done, it shouldn’t feel so much like a “portable” building. Next is the decor.
… Continue Reading
Children’s Ministry in Portables: Part 5
Posted on 23. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
When planning for our portables, we had to plan out our foot traffic. These buildings are almost behind our main kid’s building, so a clear path needed to be built. In addition, we had to create suitable entrances to the portable buildings and the rooms within. If we can expect 100-120 kids in these rooms, we had to create space or drop-off and pick-up lines. To solve these issues (as well as conforming to ADA standards) a beautiful deck was built to link the portables together and provide wheelchair access. We also intend to put in a door between the two rooms in each portable. This way parents can all walk into one portable door, go through the door that connects the two rooms and out the other portable door to exit.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Children’s Ministry in Portables: Part 4
Posted on 22. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
We had a big task ahead of us. We had to help the portables blend in. Well, we didn’t really want them to blend in. We just didn’t want them to be so dang ugly. Honestly, Gateway is one of the coolest and most beautiful church campuses I’ve seen. It’s got a very modern, outdoor "shopping center" type of look. Portable just don’t fit into that genre of building.
Initially our interior designer developed a plan to paint and mural the outside of the portables to create a "destination" for the kids. One that would lure the kids to come and check them out. Honestly, I was afraid that this would make them stick out even more than an ugly portable would stick out.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Name my environments…
Posted on 19. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
If you’ve been following this blog recently, you’ve read about our portable buildings. We’re working like crazy right now to get them open for the first of January. So much to do!
Well, we need to name the classrooms and boy could we use some help in naming them. To avoid using the word portables ever again, we’re referring to the space as “The Backyard” or Kids Quest Backyard. It’s fun and it’s fitting. Each building has two rooms, so were saying the backyard consists of 4 classroom environments. We need to name each of these environments. Here are the themes:
- Underwater
- Jungle
- Tree House
- Downtown City
Here is the challenge. Every room in our Children’s are has a two word name, each starting with the same letter.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
Children’s Ministry in Portables: Part 3
Posted on 18. Dec, 2008 by Kenny.
We found our portables.
There is one main reason why I dont’ love portables. They’re freakin’ ugly. We picked out two portables that looked very similar to each other. They’re used portables from Colorado. Enjoy the pics.
My favorite part is all the wood paneling. Honestly, do they make these things ugly on purpose. It was only a few years ago that someone had the bright idea to make a computer a different color than beige. Now it’s almost impossible to find a beige computer. What’s up with the innovating trailer colors. Not really a fight I have any interest in taking on though.… Read the rest
Continue Reading
