Youngchurch
Engaging children in worship, service A
t Living Grace Lutheran Church, Tucker, Ga., raising children in the faith means the
bread isn’t going to rise but vegeta- bles will rise from the ground. The majority of the congrega-
tion’s members is over age 30. They have four youth, with the rest of the children ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years. “We look at these children as our future church,” said Leanne Beutler, worship and music chair. “So how can we enfold them into the worship experience and ser- vice to the church?” This topic came up one day as
Beutler and a few members dis- cussed how to “engage the children in the life of the church and not just in the Sunday school.” An idea on how to do this came about after member Stephanie Cunefare told Beutler she would like to help with the children. While she didn’t want to teach and music was not her strong suit, Cunefare said she could bake. She had found a recipe for unleavened bread in a cookbook that had Bible land recipes. Using this recipe, Cunefare and members decided to involve the kids in worship by bak- ing communion bread. On a Sunday in March, the
Send stories of your youth group (pre- school-confirmation age) to: Andrea Pohlmann Kulik , 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago IL 60631; andrea.pohlmann@
thelutheran.org.
children and their parents came to church 30 minutes early to start bak- ing the bread. “The children enjoyed handling the dough, putting it in pans, [and getting it] ready for the oven,” Beutler said.
While the bread baked (the congre- gation reportedly enjoyed the smell dur-
40 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
At Living Grace Lutheran Church, Tucker, Ga., youth make bread for communion and plant a garden. The congregation hopes activities outside of Sunday school will help engage the children in the life of the church.
ing the service), the children heard how the Israelites prepared unleav- ened bread for their escape from Egypt and slavery (Exodus 12). During the offering, the children
each carried a basket of bread up to the altar to be blessed. The bread was then distributed during communion. “The children were so proud of what they accomplished and that [the bread] was used in the service,” Beu- tler said.
From this project came another idea on how to engage the children in
service. The kids got down and dirty and planted a garden on the church grounds in April. Their crops include sweet potatoes, tomatoes, green pep- pers, okra and eggplant. Planting the garden taught the kids about how God provides for God’s
children and how they must care for the earth. Now every Sunday the children come to church to tend to their garden. The congregation hopes to harvest the garden in time to decorate their Thanksgiving altar. The produce will be given to NetWorks, an organization that gives food and monetary donations to help the community. “From these two Sundays, we have gotten positive responses from both the parents and the congregation as a whole,” Beutler said. “The children are excited and we are excited.”
For more information, contact Leanne Beutler at
lbeutler@aol.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52