It is now two years since we have changed the names of our Sunday morning children’s groups – and now we have new logos as well (thank you Clare!).
As some of you may remember, the names changed to put over the idea that we long to see our church filled with children who cannot keep quiet about God because their hearts are on fire for Him (Jeremiah 20 : 9). For this to happen, our children need to know about God: who is He? What’s He like? What did He do in the past? What does He do now? How does He speak to us? A great way to start helping them find out all those things, is of course by reading the Bible with them!
All of our groups programmes are Bible-based and planned to help us look at a passage and unpack it’s meaning for us today. In Sparklers they are running a 3-year programme working through some of the main stories, whilst the other two groups are following a 3-year programme using Scripture Union material.
A couple of weeks ago, in Wildfire, we were looking at how the Bible is full of wisdom to help us live life God’s way (Proverbs 19: 9-16) and followed by talking about how many of us read our Bibles at home and how important it is if we want to know God better. Several of them, as a result, would like Bibles of their own and some Bible notes to help them (we looked at several examples of devotional books, etc., available for their age).
Of course, we only have the children for an hour each week when they come, so the real work of really encouraging them to get into their Bibles daily, comes from home! Life is busy and sometimes it’s hard to fit everything in, but I would encourage you all (parents, grandparents, godparents, aunts and uncles, family friends …), to make that time to help the children in your life on their faith journey, to share what you know of God as you journey together.
Please pray for our children and their parents. Thanks,
Caz Gatehouse, Children’s Minister
PS: If you would like to look at a few examples of Bibles for different ages, and devotionals, Bible notes, journals, etc., please come and have a chat!
