Worship Response Stations: Wall of Blessing

The Blessing Wall!

Walking into the room and seeing all the kid's blessings just makes you smile. 

Isn't it a WONDERFUL thing to count the blessings

that God has deposited into your life?

This station is designed to get kids excited 

to really see how God has blessed them and their friends.

During Response Time, we turn off the overhead lights, using lamplight to quiet the mood of the room. We play quiet, worshipful music and explain to the kids that this is their time with God.  We have enough stations around the room so that every child can interact in some tangible way with the Holy Spirit. You can read a brief explanation of why we believe Worship Stations are so fruitful with this generation, HERE.

The basic concept is that we are making space for our kids to practice responding to God's Spirit.

And they look forward to it all morning.

For all of you creative "Pinners", here's how you can make it yourself:

We used pressed plywood - the cheap stuff!!  

One of the "Alpha" Men's Groups in our church

took a Saturday morning and cut out four of these plywood frames.

Then they drilled small starter holes every few inches and screwed in i-hooks.

I strung it with jute twine from the craft store in nice randomness.

We used i-hooks that were large enough for at least two strands of twine 

to pass through.  As I was stringing it, I had to be careful to keep it 

pretty tight along the way so there wouldn't be slack when tying it off. 

 I went around once with the twine, 

tied it off, and repeated once more to make sure 

there were plenty of lines to clip prayers onto.

We bolted it into the wall (on the studs since it is somewhat large).

And I cut out squares of colored card stock (With a scrapbook cutting tool) 

for writing prayers of blessing.

We added a table lamp (the main lights go off in the room during this time to "set the tone"),

buckets of pens and clothespins, and then we were in business!

Here is a close-up of what the instructions in the frame say:

It is a blessing to ready what the kids are thankful for...

God's blessings are greater than all the stars in the heavens!

Worship Response Stations: God's Family Tree

God's Family Tree.  

We are adopted, grafted, into the family

of the King of kings.

We are children of God.

This station is a place kids come to 

reflect over who they are in Christ.

The world may label you many things.

But who does GOD say you are?

The instructions are to simply take

a label and ask God which words of identity

He is speaking over them.

Write them on the label and hang it on 

God's Family Tree.

Remember who you are!

Remember WHOSE you are!

And now for those of you who are interested in how 

this station was put together...

The tree is actually from a manzanita branch that

a friend picked up from her family's home

in the mountains not too far away.  

You can buy them here however.

We simply "planted" it in a painted terra cotta pot.

... With rocks in the bottom for weight and to steady the branch....

My 10 year old son helped with this.

Then we sprayed that foaming gap filler stuff 

from the hardware store into the pot.  

Be sure to purchase the Big Gap Filler (1" +).

It's great stuff.  It sprays right in and dries firm.

We let it dry (and expand) over night.

Then cut out and shaped it.

And then using a glue gun and Dollar Store fake moss, 

covered the top with green and brown moss.

For the labels, we purchased some here.  

But once they got here I realized I could make

them for much cheaper.  So I just drew the outline

of a gift tag onto brown card stock and found 

I can get 10 per page.  So, with a little time and effort,

you can make each label for less than 3 cents!

Punch a hole at the top, 

and string a piece of thread for hanging.

Worship Response Stations: The Great (Com)Mission Station

This is such a special station.  

The Great (Com)Mission Station is all about 

stirring up a desire in the hearts of the next generation 

to make Jesus known all over the world.

There are two giving buckets for the kids

to collect offerings for children in need.

These were simply recycled coffee cans 

covered with brown packing paper 

and finished with a homemade "label".

One can is for kids to give to World Vision:

to purchase farm animals for children 

in third-world countries.  

The other can is for Foursquare Gospel Boxes:

A box filled with Sunday School supplies for

missionaries to share the story of Jesus with

children all over the world.

I printed the instructions for using this station

on plain printer paper and displayed

it in a cheap dollar store black frame.

The instructions simply say to take

a green dot sticker and find a place

on the map they would like to pray for.

As they touch that place, 

placing their sticker there,

they cover that ground in prayer.

May God touch this place.

May Jesus be known there.

We love this station!  

Our Children's Ministry Mission Statement is:

"To cultivate a harvest of world-changers, 

growing up in the presence of God."

We are asking God to give these kids

 a heart for changing the world.

And for those who are interested in the details 

of how this station was put together...

The map is from a local school supply shop (for $5!)

that we just stapled up with a staple gun.

The stickers are small transparent dot stickers

just like these.  It is very simple to do!

Hard At Work...

We have been hard at work over the last 2 weeks,
getting everything ready for the new Worship Response Stations.
  

Here's a little sneak peak of what we've been working on...

New speakers, sound board and projector went in this week.  Yay!

Our new Worship Response Tables arrived in boxes and some lovely volunteers put them together.  Here is a sample of a couple of the tables and lamps. Both the tables and lamps came from Target (on clearance!!) for 50-70% off!  Maybe that goes to show that with God's timing, even the little details can fall into place better than expected.  

On the right of the above picture you can see the Sound Booth which we have made-over into the first of our new Worship Response Stations.  

Here is what it looked like before:

We painted it with chalkboard paint (3 coats), stenciled the words 

"I Believe" with white paint and painted the trim red. 

 Tonight I bought black command hooks to hang white tin pails filled with white chalk on the wall.  The kids will then get to graffiti on the wall the things that they believe.  Statements of Faith.  Declarations.  

On Sunday the kids will begin filling it up.  

And there are many more little projects in the works.  

We are getting everything ready so that when the paint is on the walls, 

our new stations will be ready too.  Stay tuned! 

Thanks for taking a little sneak peak!  More to come in just a few days.  (I can't wait!)

Kids Church Makeover

Our Kid's Church room is beautiful.  Truly amazing.  

About 15 years ago a team of talented artists got together and created this:

And this:

And have you seen the rest of the room?

We have loved this room and its beautifully cheerful design.

And yet here we are, wiping the slate clean...

Making room.  Creating space.

It feels CRAZY to me, to be whitewashing the beauty that was created here.

And yet I am convinced of what we are doing.  

The conviction comes from a vision for Kids Church to be more experiential.

Starting fresh for us began when we discovered Worship Response Stations.

About two years ago we began carving out space and time for the kids
to personally respond to God after each lesson.
And what we found is that kids truly want to know God's Spirit
for themselves and it is natural for them to learn to hear His voice.
...And so here we are, literally rearranging everything for more of that to happen.

Because at the end of the day, our number 1 goal isn't that our kids would just
know ABOUT God, but that they would KNOW Him for themselves.

Each Sunday we spend time responding to God about the message we've just heard.

You can learn more about this Large Group Response time here and here.  

Then we pray a prayer of blessing over them and invite them to
continue their worship by independently visiting a Worship Response Station
of their choice.  The lights are low, worshipful music is playing.
And they come up with notes to God like this:

So these beautiful walls are becoming blank slates to post permanent,
artistic and meaningful Worship Stations.

The new decor will be functional, filled with alters of remembrance
of what God is doing in our kids.  

So I guess you could say we are putting our "money" where our mouth is to do what it takes to make room for the Holy Spirit to interact with our kids ...so that they can experience God for themselves.  Regularly.  Repeatedly.

Today we wrote scriptures over all the newly-primed walls.

To declare who God is in our lives.

...To proclaim what we believe...

...and to claim His promises over this new season.

And so it has begun!  Our Kids Church Makeover.

Check back often for updates over the next 30 days to watch the progress.
We will be posting about each of the new Worship Response Stations as we create them.

Update: To see how the Makeover turned out, go here.

Kid's Church: Worship Response Stations

Welcome!  Below is last year's post about many of our Worship Stations for kids.
We'd also like to invite you to see our recently NEW and improved stations here.  

Today's post is for my new friend, Jan, in Singapore.  May God bless you, Jan, as you seek His Spirit for the children in your ministry.  You've already inspired me!  We pray blessings on your pursuit to create authentic worship experiences for kids.  

Every Sunday in Kid's Church we end with quiet, one-on-one worship experiences.  These are self-guided "Worship Response Stations" where we pray that our kids may experience a personal moment with God.  

This post is a description of some of our most-used stations.  They are simple, for now.  We will soon be upgrading them to something more artistic and permanent (Yay!)

Prayer Wall:

At this station the kids are encouraged to write or draw a special prayer to God.  Then they pin it to the board.  If they want privacy, they can either fold it in half, or face it inside.  The kids generally don't put their names on the requests so they are anonymous.

There is usually a teacher standing nearby in case anyone needs help or wants to pray together.  

When the wall becomes too full we take them down and add them to scrapbooks.  We often leave these scrapbooks out on the Prayer Wall table for anyone to look through if they are interested.  

Pastors Matt and Jenna are honored to pray over these prayer requests during the week.  

Most of them are very touching.

Promise Station:

Possibly the most popular station is the Promise Station (above).  The kids love picking out one of the brightly colored promises, rolled up into little scrolls.

Each scroll has a scripture printed on it: one of the profound promises of God.

Some of the kids save their promise each week in their Bibles as keepsakes.  Some of the teachers have even grabbed a promise scroll and find that it is exactly the encouragement they needed.  

God's Word never returns void.

Search My Heart Station:

This is one of my favorite stations.  It is a place the kids can open their hearts to God.    

This station came about one week when we were learning about King David.  King David was a man after God's own heart.  David always wanted to have a clean heart before God, and would often pour His heart out to Him.

God wants our hearts!  The kids come here to ask God for forgiveness (Create in me a clean heart, O God!), or perhaps to open up to God about something that hurts or saddens them.

Or, like David, they could praise God out of the overflow of their hearts!

Encouragement Station:

 We ask God to put someone on the hearts of our kids - to bring to mind someone in their lives in need of encouragement.  We all need to learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's promptings and to enjoy the feeling of blessing or thanking others. 

The basket is full of notecards and stickers.  The kids see if God brings someone to mind.  Then they draw, decorate and write a personal note to lift their day.

Blessing Wall:

This is a wall full of praise reports and notes of thanksgiving.  It is so important for all of us to look into our lives and recognize how God has blessed us.  

Thank you for touring these stations with us.  

If you are a parent visiting this blog, would you take a moment to pray that God will touch your child (and all of our children) as they use these stations each week?

  Don't forget to take a minute to stop by our recently 

NEW and improved stations here.