CHILDREN

YOUTH

Children and Youth Ministry 2013:  Come Join the Adventure!

The Christian formation team invites you to join us for a year of mission, worship, spiritual deepening and fun! We spent the spring listening to our families and the summer responding to your thoughts in our planning process and we are excited to tell you about our plans for the months ahead.

Join us for Sunday School…

Three to Seven year olds (10 - 11am Sundays, Godly Play room)

This class will continue to learn using the Godly Play curriculum of stories and parables. On the first Sunday of the month, they will join the nine to twelve year olds in hands on mission learning. We are also working on creating more opportunities for them to sing.

Eight to twelve year olds (10 - 11am Sundays, Fellowship Hall)

This class will enjoy a varied format of experience, play, worship and teaching as follows:

• First Sunday, hands on mission learning with the younger class;
• Second Sunday, re:form curriculum;
• Third Sunday, special children’s worship at 10am followed by games and fellowship during the 11:15 hour;
• Fourth Sunday, re:form curriculum;
• Fifth Sunday, re:form curriculum.

YOUTH CHRISTIAN FORMATION

Grades 7-9

Post Confirmation Class

How can you partner with our ministry team and the children in our community?

We are so glad you asked! We believe spiritual formation is far more about forming relationships than following specific programs. It is about spending time together in a faith filled community and connecting to each other in ever deepening ways. It is about being open, honest, trusting and caring of one another. God will use all of us to speak to each other and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that experience?

If you are excited about a particular mission project, you can work with us to present a program on the first Sunday of the month. If you want to play with the children, join us the third Sunday in Fellowship Hall during the 11:15 am service.

If you are a parent, you can partner with us by keeping us informed of your schedules so we can plan our teaching and make the best use of our volunteers’ time and talents. Your presence matters, and we want to pray for you while you are gone and adjust our schedules if too many children will be absent. Our program is only as strong as our faith community. We see so much love and wisdom out there, and we are looking forward to seeing what God will do when we connect that with our growing children

and youth. Come and be part of the adventure. Who knows, you might even grow a little yourself!

Godly Play  ages 3 to 7

 Have you ever sat and watched a child really play? The total involvement they exhibit combined with their ability to plunge fully into their imaginings and become part of the story is a window into another world.  Church of the Covenant’s children’s spiritual formation program, Godly Play, creates a joyful, sacred space for children to play their way into God’s presence. Through storytelling, wondering time to explore the story, and work time to respond to the story through art, journaling, retelling the story or other play, our children learn the history, tradition, liturgy, sacred stories and parables of our church. Godly Play offers children a counterpoint to the busy secular world they inhabit; it provides them with a vocabulary for what they already know about God’s presence in their lives; and it builds a faith community in which they can explore existential issues of life and death in the context of God’s love and grace.

This year, we are exploring what it means to be a part of God’s big story. Beginning with the story of the creation, we are journeying through the Old and New Testaments using stories to reflect on the nature of God, our relationship to the divine, our individual places in God's story and what it means to love God.   

Godly Play Covenant  

• We promise to be prepared: prepared to teach, prepared to worship, prepared to listen.  
• We promise to create a safe place where we listen first and do not fight; where each person's contribution is valued.  
• If we argue, we will talk together to work it out or we will agree to set it aside.  
• We promise to be careful with our work and the work of others.  
• We promise to be kind to each other.  
• We promise to respect each other.  
• We promise to be responsible for ourselves - not for anyone else, just for our own decisions and actions.  

Time with Children

Children are invited to participate in all parts of the 11:15 am worship service, including a special Time With Children designed just for them. This is often a Story Sermon given by a member of the congregation or the pastor. Sometimes it is more dramatic such as a “Walk to Emmaus” or the Christmas Pageant, other times it is a quieter time for reflection and prayer. These messages are tied to the preaching theme for the year and intended to introduce the same topics in a way that makes them more accessible for children. We continue to explore ways to help our children become comfortable in worship and feel welcome in our sacred space.

Holy Communion

Our congregation generally celebrates communion once a month. We welcome children to participate in this important part of our community life of faith.  

Choristers
Many of Covenant’s children are members of the Choristers children’s choir. Choir Director and Organist Barbara Anderson works with the children to develop their voices and teach them the music they sing which adds so much to our worship services. The children learn the basics of singing as well as gaining self confidence from performing together in front of the congregation. Some children are willing to try a solo.

Youth Activities

Other youth activities include coffee breaks, social activities, mission days, and worship and Sunday school leadership.