Thursday, March 3, 2016

Children's Church--Interactive Object Lesson!

 I am thankful to be able to share that here at our church the Lord has been drawing in lots of new kids for Children's Church! Having grown up in an Apostolic Pentecostal church, Sunday School/Children's Church has always been a special part of my life, and it is exciting to see it beginning to grow in our local church.
 By way of encouragement to small churches and home missionaries families who may feel discouraged--keep at it! Even if you only have one kid coming, keep putting the word of God into them and work at it as if you had a whole class. I remember a time when we pretty much had no kids coming, but we still put on a Kid's Church program in the sanctuary. I am thankful that the people of our church had vision and still took time to plan, pray, and decorate even if we didn't have hardly any children coming...yet. We plant and water, but it is truly God who gives the increase. Slowly but surely He is giving the increase. Thank you, Jesus!
 With our building situation we do not have separate Sunday School rooms, so we have what we call Kid's Church in the sanctuary at 9:30 every Sunday morning. I would like to share a little lesson that one of our teacher's, Sister Halstead taught recently. It really got the kid's attention and was effective when it came time to pray.
 Sister Halstead called Moshai (in the blue) up to the front and asked him if we wanted a dollar. She held it up above his head and told him to close his eyes and really reach for it. If he really wanted the dollar, then he had to be willing to reach up and get it! What kid doesn't want a dollar? Of course reached up and kept searching with his hands until he found it!
 Then she asked for a volunteer, and lots of hands shot up in the air! Once the kids realized she was giving out dollar bills, they were very ready to volunteer and very willing to close their eyes and reach up far while groping around until their hands grasped that prized dollar bill.
 Look at all those attentive faces!
 She used this as a lesson on reaching out to God in praise and worship. When new kids come in they really don't know how to pray, so this was a great way to show them that if we truly want God, we need to reach up to Him! I wish I had pictures of the kids praying during altar call, but alas! I do not.
 This is a great lesson to use to get kids thinking about reaching out to God, and is especially good if the kids are new and don't really understand how to pray at church. I hope someone can use this in their Sunday School class or Children's Church services. This can also be incorporated into a kid's Bible study.
We are thankful for what God is doing and are believing Him to fill these new kiddos with His Spirit! To God be the glory!

8 comments:

Carol Connell said...

Jen,

Sis. Halstead taught a great lesson that day.

I am excited too about what the Lord is doing in Kid's church. At ladies prayer on Tuesday night, I wrote on the marker board the names of children and young people that have visited the church in the past month. We had almost 20 names up there! I'm believing God that we're going to see many children repent of their sins, be baptized in Jesus' name and receive the Holy Ghost! En el nombre de Jesus!

Peter C. said...

Great lesson - and it has been great seeing these hungry kids reaching out to God Sunday mornings (and evenings).

Jennifer Connell said...

Amen! Thanks for commenting, dear parents. :)

Unknown said...

Excellent idea! I love getting new ideas for Sunday school. Thanks for sharing, both the lesson and the encouraging word:)

Jennifer Connell said...

You're welcome! I thought the way she conveyed it all to the kids was attention getting and proved to be affective. Thank you for commenting! :)

R. Keith Nix said...

You guys have a tremendous Sunday School program – great job! Exciting to see the harvest starting for you.

Jennifer Connell said...

God is good!

Sis Stephanie K. said...

Thank you for that great object lesson! I'm going to have to find a way to incorporate that into a Sunday School lesson or a Children's Church service at Victory Tabernacle! I'm always looking for good ideas! :)