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.

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.  

Kid's Church: God Is Sovereign

This Sunday we continued in the environment of Out of the Comfort Zone, the Spiritual Environment for the month of October.  Every lesson this month has something to do with how God helps us grow by stretching us out of our comfort zones.

We were following the Israelites this week, as they camped at Mt. Sinai and then went all the way to the edge of the Promised Land. . . and back again!   They had to turn around to wander in the desert for 40 years, all because they didn't believe God!  Instead they complained, whined and didn't trust God when things got hard.  . . . hhmm. . . has that ever happened in your family?  

This part of the Big God Story shows us that : 

God is Sovereign. 

That just means God is all powerful and He's in charge.  What that boils down to is that even when He stretches us into places that are hard, we can trust Him.

After our lesson (which for the 10:30 class involved a hillbilly named Linda-Lou who kept talking about possum hunting), we always end with response time.  This is a time when our kids are given a chance to spend a moment alone with God and to listen and respond to His voice in some tangible way.

This week we asked them to think of something they have been complaining about lately.  We all sat quietly before the Lord and asked Him to bring something to mind.  Once He did, they were to write or draw this complaint on a piece of paper and carry it to the foot of the cross.

   They solemnly laid their complaints down at the foot of the cross.

And left them there; trading their complaints and whining for . . .

                               One of the promises of God.


They reverently carried these promise scrolls back to the worship area, grasping them tightly in their determined hands.   . . . Because these kids know about the promises of God.   They know they just got the better end of this deal.  They know that trading their complaints for the promises of God is trading UP.   And together, we all hold up our promises to heaven, shakily at first, and then more boldly, as a prayer of blessing is prayed over every child, that God's Spirit will remind them always to hold onto the promises of God. 

Because now we know that God is Sovereign.  

And if He is in charge, then we are in good hands.

When we are holding onto God's Word - our hands are never left empty, 

and our lives are always full.

The Environment of Out of The Comfort Zone reminds us that:

God transforms me when I step out in faith.

Don't forget to check out the site below for this month's HomeFront magazine

 full of great ideas to do at home with your kids, 

so you can create the environment of "Out of the Comfort Zone" in your family.

homefrontmag.com

How is God asking you to step out in faith and trust Him this month?