God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards

First of all I apologize for my inactivity in regards to the blog these past couple of weeks. Last week and the week before that were quite busy, and this week is pretty busy too! But get excited reader because after this week it’s smooth sailing for me and my blogging habits will be back in full swing 🙂

Last Sunday we continued our study of the virtue of Friendship. We learned from Jesus that a true friend will make time for you. Jesus spent so much time with His friends/disciples. Check out John 21. It’s also important to remember that Jesus wants to be OUR best friend, and He wants us to make time for Him! Remind your kids of that everyday, and help them to spend time with the Lord so that their friendship can grow.

Here are your GT & RD cards for the week.

April 18, 2010GTcards

April 18, 2010RDcard

God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards

Sunday we talked about how a true friend will help you believe. Jesus was a true friend to Thomas when He helped him defeat his doubts. Jesus wants to be your child’s best friend too!  Here are the GT & RD cards for the week.

April 11, 2010GTcards

April 11, 2010RDcard

GRAPPLE for 5th Graders!

So we just kicked off our brand new small group JUST FOR 5th GRADERS!

We’re using this really cool curriculum called “Grapple” It’s basically a time for the 5th graders to discuss things about God and then dig in the Bible to see what God says in His word. This past Sunday was our first time meeting and we talked about “why everyone doesn’t go to Heaven.” It was cool hearing what the tweens had to say. A tween is usually someone between the ages of 8 and 14 who regularly watches the Disney channel but already feels the need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends; tween girls are described as “too old for toys but too young for boys.” We have a smart group of tweens!

Along with the discussion and games they play on Sunday mornings the curriculum comes with access to an easy-to-use and secure website where the 5th graders have to answer clues during the week which involve them studying up on what we’re going to discuss the following Sunday. They can also send messages to the leaders and chat with each other in forums. It’s a secure website because the only people who have access to our specific site are you the parents, the kids, and me. And we can see everything the kids are saying and doing. Before I gave the kids their user names and passwords I had them bring back a signed consent form.

Our motivation for starting this group was that it’s about this time each year that the 5th graders find themselves bored with our normal kids curriculum. It wouldn’t matter how fun or engaging it was, the truth is they think they are ready for more mature things and that is that! The small group leaders for that age group know not to take it personally, it’s just what happens. But we wanted the 5th graders to know that we care how they feel and want them to enjoy their Sunday morning experience! I think one of the things they will enjoy most is that the group is lead by a few awesome junior and senior students from the youth group. Juniors and Seniors in high school are cooler to 5th graders than I or any other adult volunteer could ever be. Now we have some really awesome adult volunteers, and our 5th graders know that. But the idea that a high school student would come hang out with them every week makes them feel pretty cool! No adult volunteer can compete 🙂 It’s just another one of those “that’s just the way it is” things that we’re better off accepting 🙂

So if you have a 5th grade student who maybe hasn’t been too into children’s church this year, we have the soluntion! Encourage them to come to our brand new small group just for 5th graders! I’m pretty sure they’ll have a good time!!

God-Time & Refrigerator Door Cards

Hey Families!

We started a new series this past Sunday. It’s on the virtue of ‘Friendship’. We taught the kids that friendship means “I got your back”. When you surround yourself with friends who you trust they will have your back!

Here are the GT & RD cards for the week.

April 4, 2010GTcards

April 4, 2010RDcard

Also, don’t forget to plan a Fort Night with your family! This week would be perfect since your kids are on Spring Break and can stand to stay up a little bit later than normal 🙂

Remember to take a picture of your fort and email it to me, autumn@crossroadswalton.org

What Happens @ Home is More Important Than What Happens @ Church

I was paroozing (sp?) around the North Point Community Church Childrens Ministry’s webpage and came across this cool idea…It’s called ‘Operation Family Blueprint’ and it’s all about helping families incorporate God’s idea of family into their families. They actually did this last Summer, but it’s still up on their website, which is cool because then I found it and I think it’s an awesome idea. Every two weeks they had a different night planned out from beginning to end, but I’m going to give you all month to have a Fort Night with your family. I thought the idea of a Fort Night sounded like so much fun! It’s centered around the idea that when you’re a part of a family you should be able to talk to each other about anything. So long story short, you build a fort with your kids and climb on in for family talk time. You can find more in depth ‘blueprints’ by clicking on ‘Fort Night’ above or ‘instructions’ below. Normally they have a ‘Parents Secret’ video for each OFB night but for some reason the one for ‘Fort Night’ is not there. I looked and looked and thought about emailing the Children’s Minister at North Point but then kinda figured that you could do without a ‘Parents Secret’ video this one time. Seriously though, this looks so awesome! I want you to make it your goal to have a Fort Night sometime in the month of April. I know it makes me want to have my nieces and nephew come stay with us just so we can have a Fort Night 🙂

So read over the instructions and plan a night for Fort Night! And make sure to take pictures so that you can email them to me. Then I can share them on the blog and other families will want to have Fort Night 🙂 I may even print these ‘blueprints’ out to give to your kids! I know that once they get the idea to have a Fort Night you most likely won’t stop hearing about it until you do it 🙂