Sundays in the Lab

As most of you know, our kids spend the first Sunday of every month upstairs in the lab. This is an important time for them because it brings all of the kids together into one common space. The other three Sundays of the month are spent in their classrooms, divided by age. We have a huge age range present during this time of worship. Kids from the age of 4 to the age of 12 all sit together in one room, listen to the same lesson and participate in the same songs. As a teacher sometimes it's difficult to plan for such a large age gap. How do I teach a lesson that a four year old will understand and a 12 year old will want to listen to?
I find myself getting nervous on Saturday night before these large group Sundays because I am so concerned that something is going to go wrong, or the 6th graders will get bored or a preschooler will get overlooked.
This Sunday something amazing happened. Our lesson was about thankfulness and being thankful for the gift that God gave us with when He sent Jesus to the earth. The kids opened their Bibles and took turns reading the prophecies about Jesus' arrival. We talked about the stories of Anna and Simeon who had waited their entire lives to meet the Savior. As I stood and watched the 47 precious kids in that room I noticed something. They were engaged, they were listening, they were raising their hands to talk, they were asking questions. ALL of them. A 10 year old boy sat next to a 4 year old boy and helped him tie his shoe. Three 6th grade girls sat next to two 1st grade girls. Kids helped each other look up passages in the Bible and kids that have been coming to this church since they were born introduced themselves to the visitors. It was incredible. I sat there in amazement. The crazy thing about all of it is that I had nothing to do with it. God was working in that room with those precious children and He simply allowed me to observe. It wasn't because of anything I said or because of anything I did.
I was incredibly blessed and incredibly humbled in that moment. What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.

From Our Pastor

Kids & Worship

Here's a cool thing. Beginning on Sunday, March 22, we'll have children sit with their families for the first portion of the worship service. They will then be dismissed to participate in our Sunday morning children's program. I'm excited about this change because it will enable families to experience worship together. Parents, look for a letter sometime next week that will give procedural details. In the meantime, I look forward to the enthusiasm our kids will bring to worship.

Looking for a Place to Serve?

Are you looking for a way to get connected? Do you want to get to know some amazing kids and some great adults?
We are currently looking for a 5th/6th grade girls small group leader for our Wednesday night AWANA program. These girls are amazing and very fun to work with! If you are a female and have a passion for girls this age please contact Cady at cadystephens@fallcreekonline.org or by calling the church office at (317)841-8749.

Parents' Meeting

Want to know what your kids are doing in Sunday School?
Are you interested in getting involved in our Children's Ministry?
Want to know some important dates coming up?
What about summer programming?
Just a reminder that this Sunday, JANUARY 25th, we will be having an informational meeting for parents immediately following our morning service. We will be covering all of the information above and sharing some BIG NEWS for our children's ministry! Don't miss out on this!

Please RSVP to office@fallcreekonline.org so that we know how much food to order! We look forward to seeing you there!

Success!

For those of you that weren't here last Sunday, it was a great program! The kids did such a wonderful job presenting the Christmas story. Our lead characters did well remembering all of their lines and the choir sang beautifully (and loudly). I was so proud of them! Our kids have been practicing for months and they Sunday morning they got to showcase all their hardwork in front of the entire church. It was so great to be a part of this event!

If you have pictures or video of the program please share them with us! We would love any photos that you have to put on the church website and in the newsletter. You can either email them to me at cadystephens@fallcreekonline.org or copy them onto a cd and drop them off at the church office. Thank you so much and I look forward to seeing all the pictures!

Calling All Stars!

Can you believe Thanksgiving is in two days and Christmas is just around the corner?! It seems like time has just flown by! As most of you know, the children's ministry is preparing for our Christmas musical. We are very excited to perform The Tiniest Christmas Star on Sunday, December 14th (10:30am). Below is the picture that Danielle promised all of you. This should give you an idea of how to make your child's costume. Every parent with a participating child should have gotten a letter last Sunday explaining that you will need to create a star for your child to wear in our performance. We are so excited to see all of your creativity and I can't wait to see our diverse star choir together on the day of the performance! Each child will wear a star made of foam board and a yellow party hat (the point of the star). The party hats are available at the children's check-in and can be picked any time between now and our dress rehearsal, December 13th. All costumes must be completed and ready to be worn for our dress rehearsal, Saturday, December 13th (9am-12pm). Thank you so much for your help! I look forward to seeing your stars!

Special Thanks to Alex Branam, our star model!

Post-Baptism

I don't know how many of you were able to be a part of our service on Sunday but it was absolutely amazing! We had six students get baptized! What a great time of celebration and unity for our church. Pastor Larry Wilson did a great job explaining the importance of baptism and challenging us to live together as one body, one church with one vision.
The students were so thrilled to be able to make this commitment in front of the whole church body. It was a great time of family worship as our kids joined us in the adult service. I loved looking around and seeing the little kids standing on their chairs or being held by their parents, craning their necks to see what was going on. It was so great to have everyone in our sanctuary for this blessed event. Thanks so all of the parents for being such good sports! I would really like to incorporate our kids into the service more often to promote families worshiping together.
I have heard from many parents that his was their child's first time witnessing baptism. It is so important for our kids to know that they are a part of our church! Involving them in our adult services once in a while is a great way to do this!
I would love to know your thoughts on Sunday and would be interested if you have any ideas for better ways to get our kids involved!