School holidays in church

The thought of being in church with the entire family will make some of us smile endearingly while others of us grit our teeth fearfully. Kids are active little beings and can never understand how adults can just sit around so much! Holiday times, while testing for parents, are a great time for kids to experience church in the grown up world. We want this to be a positive experience and not something kids learn to resent so here are a few tips for surviving the holidays in church:

·  Screens - Yes or No? While screen games can be good time wasters/occupiers for kids it will mean they disengage with the church setting and to be honest works against the idea of bringing kids into church. So by all means use them if you are at your wits end but maybe challenge your kids this holidays to stay engaged and present in the church service.

·  Activity sheets are available in the auditorium and hall. These will have colouring or puzzles for kids to do, which while not specifically engaging with them with the sermon will be at least Biblically based, and who knows what else they might pick up as they take a break from time to time?

·  Sermon notes are a new idea (for us), these sheets encourage older kids to pay attention and think about different parts of the church service. These are a great way for kids to learn how to attend to what is happening. (Maybe some adults could use these too!!)

·  Worship with your kids. Strongly encourage your kids to worship with you and to only start colouring etc. once the "talky" part starts. This will give you a wonderful time of actually worshipping God together as a family and will model for your kids giving God praise before everything else.

·  Be aware of what your kids are doing. While we want our kids to be comfortable and happy to be in the church service if they are kicking the chair in front of them it can be distracting for others. A little bit of "kid noise" is welcome in church because that's what families sound like, but it is also a great opportunity to teach our kids about being considerate of others.

·  A quick clean up is always appreciated if required before you let the kids head off after the service and a good reminder for them to be responsible for themselves and their activities. Note "their activity" means "their responsibility" not yours!

·  Finally take the opportunity, maybe over lunch, to talk about what they thought about church. What songs did they like and why? What was their favourite part? What did they understand from the sermon? These conversations are valuable in teaching our kids that what we hear in church is for applying in our lives outside church and Sunday. It's even worth asking how they think they can apply what was talked about in their life.

Looking forward to seeing you all in church as families within our big church family and seeing lots of young, eager faces worshipping God along with the "regular crowd" in church on Sunday.