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Children & Youth
Children's Program 2007-2008
The overarching theme for our program this year will be Piecing Together our Faith. Our faith is like a quilt. Each prayer we say, each person we encounter each Scripture passage we study, each experience we have, each song we sing are like patches added to a quilt, making our faith ever stronger and more beautiful. We want to help our children add several patches to their quilt of faith this year
Sunday School - We will continue to meet for an educational program following worship at least three Sundays a month. We gather at 11:15 a.m. and are done by noon. There will be no education hour on those Sundays when we share a congregational meal. Our foundational curriculum will be Piecing Together the Brethren Way. This is a new curriculum resource developed to help children explore their denominational heritage and practice in honor of the 300th Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. We will be doing at least one lesson from this curriculum each month and then using the remaining weeks each month to build on what we've learned about a particular belief or practice in light of our life together at Open Circle.
Music - We will begin our education hour each week with 10-15 minutes of music. Even if your child(ren) will not be staying for Sunday school, they are welcome to stay for the music piece. The primary goal is to teach our children songs of faith, but we also anticipate them singing in worship several times throughout the year.
Worship Participation - We will continue to have a children's story each week. In addition, we plan to involve the children in worship leadership at least once a month. This may take the form of them singing as a group (a children's choir), some of them participating in a drama, one or more children taking part in a reading, or a variety of other ways. The worship bags continue to be available; as appropriate we will insert activities related to the worship theme or our monthly Sunday school theme.
Spiritual Partners - We hope to pair each child/family up with an adult or another family. These spiritual partners will be intentional about building a relationship with your child(ren) and supporting them as they grow in faith and life. (If there is an adult in the congregation with whom your child already has a special relationship or someone you think would have a special impact on your child, please let us know so we can take that into account as we make the pairings.)
Service - We will be involving the children in service projects throughout the year. We are working closely with the Outreach Team to consider congregation-wide projects in which children and families could take part. But we also anticipate involving the children in a project or two that are developed specifically for them.
Questions about the children's program? Contact Rhonda Gingrich.
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