Calling and Sending

I went to look at my story schedule for this week, and found that it was on the 3 wise men, which we covered in "I knelt at the stable" last KFW.  Oops!  So, after seeing the lessons this week and feeling inspired by the Old Testament and Psalm which talked about God's calling and providing, I went in a slightly different direction :D  Hopefully it prepares us for what's coming up--the winter season will be FULL of stories that deal with symbols and signs in the bible and how they fit with imagery in our stories!  This deals with an element we often talk about--our calling and sending--and how that fits even into each service we do at KFW!

Callings and Sendings

Drawing from the Spark bible, pp. 90-93

Have you ever played “Marco Polo”?  It’s a game we usually play in the pool, but we could play here today!  Someone closes their eyes and calls out “Marco” everyone else has to say “polo,” and the closed-eyed person has to try to find you with their hands!  Can we try it?  (play for a couple of minutes) The bible is FULL of stories like this—well, sort of.  You see, God is often calling for someone, (though he doesn’t say Marco—he calls each person by name!) and when he finds them, and they know him as their God, he sends us out to tell others.  The story you heard in bible story time today is like that.  God had called Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt.  They had met him and learned his message and his laws and were on their way out, into the promised land.  But they got lost, and angry, and scared!  They were afraid they were alone and would die of hunger and thirst.  Have you ever felt that way?  What did you do?  Well, when the Israelites complained, God sent bread and meat and water.  You see, even when God sends us out, he goes with us!

We  remember this each Sunday in our service.  What do we do together to start our service after we sing?  We have our call to worship—why? it reminds us why we are here and what God is calling us to do.  What do we do at the end, before we sing our last song?  We do our blessing and sending, which does what? Reminds us that we don’t just KNOW God, we can and should share him with others as we leave this place!  We are not alone though!  What are some ways you see God with you when you leave KFW and before you come back the next week?  Now that our manger scene has come down, we need something new on the wall to remind us that God is with us.  Let’s write our “God sightings” down on this BIG piece of poster board together to remind us that God is with us this week, and that he calls and sends us all the time!

My Unofficial Board Report

My Unofficial Board Report

All board and staff reports were turned on November 15^th and mine was what it needed to be—simple thank yous to volunteers and the major events and activities of the year. But that’s not how I best operate.  I live in narrative, understand in narrative, rejoice in story—and that’s what I want to share with you here. 

I tried to tell Tristan this morning that today was a school day.  “No!  I want to go to church!  I want to go to church and see kids and play with BYRON!”  He yells.  I find it hard not to smile.  I never anticipated a year ago that my son would beg to go to church.  Most Sunday mornings are a little tricky—getting dressed, stop the brotherly arguments over toys, and then getting around to get there on time.  It’s often much easier if I just say to Tristan, “We’re going to church today and you can go see Kizzy/Byron/Craig/Ashton and Kobe.”  Any and all of the above names usually get him to the car quickly, sometimes before we’re ready to go.

Yesterday was rather intense.  We’re used to being rather low on numbers the Sunday after Thanksgiving as many are still traveling back.  Though Jeremy Murrish was out of town he had, as is his usual and constant gift to KFW, prepared the powerpoint of songs and service order earlier in the week and sent it to me.  I’d forgotten my personal laptop (Mommy brain!) and was downloading it onto the youth computer upstairs while Craig Standley, who I could not do this job without, was playing with Tristan and helping set up the projector. Once the order of service was there (and the misbehaving laptop had finally stopped trying to do updates to the system), I moved it, more devotions and advent calendars downstairs for the families who were requesting more to share.  We found the backdrop I’d ordered for advent—a silhouetted manger scene—and went to hang it on the bulletin board.  Justin Smith immediately jumped up and asked how he could help.  Quickly, we had it pinned and he was asking what else could be done.

It didn’t seem very long until it was time to start service.  Justin took the cross down to the Sunday school rooms for processional, and Luke, Ashton and Tristan all begged him to let them process the cross.  As Ashton and Tristan had helped process recently as I’d remembered, we told Luke it was his turn.  The kids came, joyous (and a few running) as we sang.  Luke took his duty very seriously, walking at a reasonable pace and placing the cross in the holder after circling the room once.  Kizzy and Tristan arrived at the front and immediately noticed the nativity.  Kobe and the Sides twins joined them, putting the angel on top, taking the cow and sheep and camel in and out of the stalls, and talking about the baby Jesus.  “He’s so cute!” commented Tristan, as is his norm these days when it comes to babies.  “I love baby Jesus,” said Kizzy.  

Focus was not our friend this week, as the kids were excited after the holidays.  Byron immediately jumped in though.  “Can I lead?  I really want to lead,” he told me, as he put the “worship assistant” tag around his neck.  He lead the covenant: “ I am here to show my love for God with my hands and my feet and my voice!”  All the kids were gesturing and joining in.  Justin Smith asks to lead next. He leads the call to worship: “In the name of God our creator, Jesus our Savior and the Holy Spirit. Amen!” We practice Christmas songs for the program coming up on the 15^th.  Angels we have heard on high, Away in a Manger—songs that most of the parents know really well.  And then we get to “Jesus!  Jesus!  What a wonderful child,” and I wondered how much they’d remember.  Snapping and shakers moving, they remembered it VERY well from last year.  After several times through, and they were singing with total confidence and enthusiasm.

Story time introduced them to the innkeeper and the knowledge that “there was no room in the inn,” but before that they try to guess who the story teller is.  They all shouted it out after 2 clues.  They knew Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus and the wise men when I point to them in the little people nativity set and on the bulletin board.  In spite of this familiarity, they were excited to hear the story and see the playset.  Following the story, we sang and then collected offering.  Six different kids got up to collect the offering from each table, and walked it forward (well, run in Tristan’s case) and then joined in our song and dance of thanksgiving afterward. 

We got ready to pray together.  Hands grab other hands and pull into the communal circle.  Sentence prayers were offered by many and we rejoice that Wyatt Hunter is back with us again. He’s playing the tambourine on the floor and so many of the kids have made sure to welcome him back.  Madelyn prayed for friends, Byron prayed for those in the Tsunami a few weeks ago, Ashton prayed for his mom’s grandma and Sandra, others pray for pets and thank God for the weather.  After our sentence prayers, we pray the Lord’s prayer.  Pastor asks for someone to lead and Kizzy volunteers.  I heard her dad whisper (you don’t know it.  We start “Our father”).  She started—and added words she already seemed to know, much to her dad’s surprise, “Our father who art in Heaven.”  She struggled after this, but it didn't matter because every other voice had joined hers.  She and Tristan both pray along, saying the words they know louder and mumbling the rest.  Justin and Byron both asked to lead the sending before we could even ask for volunteers.  They lead together, “God sends us into the world to love everybody with our hands and our feet and our voices.” 

Afterward, the Sides twins, Kobe and others helped me put drums away.  They were excited for the caroling coming next week, and other upcoming events.  In fact, Alanna messaged me on facebook the other day about YRU.  “How many people can we bring?”  She asked.   I ask why.  “I want to invite my whole school, if that’s okay.”  I didn’t know whether to be shocked (Lutherans speaking about faith and inviting others to faith events?) or overjoyed.

There were many reasons this year to become discouraged—lost friends, loss of family, loss of jobs and so many other points of grief.  It would be enough to drive some away.  Not our youth, and not our families—they have instead chosen to step up, ask to lead MORE, do MORE, say MORE and have grown closer.  As I said earlier, I never imagined my son would beg to go to church, but that’s what’s happening.  Our volunteers are spectacular people—did you know that for the week of “The Gospel according to the Jedi,” Jeremy Murrish put together not only the story but also created a very special powerpoint with Star Wars font for everything AND scrolling text?  It was beyond anything I could have imagined and it was such a neat celebration. Craig Standley also makes time in his schedule to just come be at the office and bounce around ideas and event planning with me.  I never cease to be amazed at “The Michelles” (Stevenson and Curry) and Nicole Lickleider who lead our Sunday school classes each week and help the kids learn the bible stories, even with the energy levels we see.  Aimee Sides commented this week that “most churches seem to not have many little boys in Sunday School,” while we seem to have boys coming out our ears (I think we have a handful of little girls, and at least twice as many boys on any given Sunday). 

Something is happening in our church—something vibrant.  The families are passionate about our community, are leaders, and loving and kind and eager to engage in acting out the gospel.   More than events or activities or services—the mindset in the face of challenges speaks far more about who we are and where we’re going than any list could tell you.  This is why our narrative and the story of our service this week is so important (and yet something that probably doesn’t fit into a formal end of year report). 

A Thanksgiving Story

When we started talking about a thanksgiving story in the bible, I found a few psalms and of course the Gospel lesson of the 10 lepers.  Having just done that recently, Pastor challenged me to dig a bit deeper and find a story less familiar that we could still make "Kid-Friendly."  Below is my attempt at doing that (and keeping it short and gore-less.  Chronicles may talk about Thanksgiving, but it was a bit tricky to take out all of the killing...) Let me know what you think :D  

Thanksgiving Eve Service

2 Chronicles 20—Learning to give thanks together

Narrator:  A long long time ago, there was a King in Judah named Jehosephat! One day, he learned that two of his neighboring countries were coming to fight with him.  He was surrounded and scared—and so the people of his country came together to talk with the King.  Jehosephat stood and spoke to the people and to God:

Jehosephat: Lord God in Heaven, you have watched over us for many, many, many years.  You brought our people into this land, and we built this temple for you, saying that no matter what, we would praise you.  We stand here now to say that we are overwhelmed and scared, but we stand here now watching you and knowing you will care for us.  Everyone say “We will praise you”

Narrator:  a prophet came and said to them,

Prophet: Listen!  This is what the Lord says to you—do not be afraid or discouraged because these people are coming to fight.  This battle is the Lord’s, not yours!  You will not have to fight, but go to this place, stand firm and watch as the Lord will come to help you.  Do not be afraid and do not be discouraged—go and see that God is with you.

Narrator:  Early in the morning, they left for the desert where they were to meet the neighbor’s armies.  Jehosephat addressed his people:

Jehosephat: Listen to me—have faith in the Lord, and he will uphold you.  Everyone, as we go into battle, let us sing the goodness of the Lord.  Repeat after me:

Give Thanks to the Lord our God

His love endures forever! (3X)

Narrator: as the people continued to sing thanks to God, a miracle happened.  Smaller groups of fighters from other countries snuck up on the armies coming to fight Jehosephat and his people. There was confusion in the fighting and soon, as Jehosephat and his people watched, their neighbors destroyed each other but left Jehosephat and his people alone.  They were safe!  They didn’t have to fight at all.  Hooray! Jehosephat and his people collected the treasures left behind by the armies, and then returned to the land of Judah, celebrating the goodness of God!

What about you?  What are some things you can give thanks for today?  Maybe you haven’t faced an army and come away without a scratch, but can you see the love of the Lord in your everyday life? 

Pondering Heaven

NOTE: Job, Thessolonians and this passage in Luke for this week.  WOW.  Not texts that translate easily into children's stories.  At first, we'd talked about skipping the lectionary and celebrating Martin Luther's birthday with stories on grace and a birthday cake.  But things have seemed sugared and hyped a lot the last couple of weeks, so I decided to try again.  I was surprised to find the gospel lesson in the spark bible (it covers 150 bible stories, so often some are left out.  For instance, Job?  not in there at all).  What stood out to me about the way they framed it for the kids is where I hope to go with this.

Luke 20:27-38
The Sadducees' Question

Pages 406-407 in the spark bible

One day, Jesus was walking with a friend.  WALK WALK WALK.  A group of people came to talk to Jesus and ask him questions.  You see, they didn't believe in living with God after death.  They weren't sure how the rules of life would work after death.

"Teacher, Moses said that if a guy dies, his brother should marry the widow if she has no children."  SOOOO, here's a question--There are SEVEN (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) brothers and the oldest one is married.  The oldest one dies.  The next one marries her and doesn't have kids.  He dies.  It happens over and over and over until she has been married to all 7 and they have no kids.  When she dies, who is her husband? She was married to all 7!" 

Jesus looked at them.  He sighed (can you sigh with me? SIGH) and shook his head.  "Don't worry about the brothers or the wife," he told them.    "After they die, they will all go live with God.  God has a place for us to live forever that's AH-MAZING!  They will be so busy praising God and enjoying Heaven that they won't worry about wives and husbands.  Live right now how God wants you to live!"

What do you think Heaven will be like?  Think about a REALLY good day--what was it like?  What did you do?  Now imagine Heaven is ten times BETTER than that!  Can you imagine?  That's why Jesus tells us not to worry about how things here on earth will be when we get to Heaven--it will be so different and so wonderful! 

"Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer"

Several weeks ago, as we were really struggling with Tristan challenging everything we asked him to do, we were able to attend a seminar through our school district called "Therapeutic Limit Setting."  The goal was to teach us language we could use to communicate better and leave us all feeling a bit more empowered.  It seeks to give kids' choices, but choices everyone can live with like so:

Parent:  It's time for bed!
Child:  No, I wanna play!

Parent:  I know you want to play, but it's time for bed.  You have a choice--do you want to crawl to your room or do you want to race mama to your room?  It's your choice.

It sets up a pattern: 1) acknowledge feelings 2) set boundary or boundaries 3) offer choices that still fit within the boundaries we're maintaining.  Many times even step 1 makes a HUGE difference in our house or allows Tristan to explain more about  his feelings and thoughts and allows us to create choices that make him happier (and easier to put to bed or transition to the next thing):

Parent:  It's time for bed.
T:  No, I wanna play!

Parent: I know you want to play, but it's time for bed.
T: I wanna play with the train!
Parent: ah, you want to play with the train, but it's time for bed.  You have a choice--do you want to drive the train to the bathroom, and then brush your teeth or do you want to drive your train to your room and read a bedtime story first.  It's your choice.

This doesn't always work.  Admittedly.  Which is where the most valuable piece of advice we were given came into play.

"Be a Thermostat, not a Thermometer"

It's all about how we approach situations.  If we're constantly reacting to tantrums, we're causing an escalation, instead of maintaining our own boundaries.  It's hard NOT to rise to our kids' challenge.  You want to defend against "you're a meanie! I hate you!"  But it's intended purpose often is to simply make you forget the boundaries.  So the 'trick' is to be a thermostat--stay set within the parameters/boundaries yourself, and not reacting to where the kids are trying to push.

Then a very funny thing happened last night.  We were discussing worship and some concerns that had arisen with behaviors, and I was trying to make a point about how kids wouldn't learn by us shushing (which we'd already outlawed in our kid-friendly worship anyway) or by telling them not to do things but that we needed to model for them-constantly and consistently--what worship looks like and what our attitudes look like.  I didn't have much success putting this into words, I don't think.  But when I talked to Rob (my husband) later, he said

yeah, it's like "be a thermostat, not a thermometer," right?  and it suddenly clicked.

Some perceived boundaries were gone when we stopped shushing (a conversation I had with a high schooler earlier in the week had informed me of this), and so we needed to establish others clearly.  It wasn't a matter of those in service not adopting worship practices--it was a matter of not knowing what those practices were/are.

So the challenge now becomes establishing that thermostat in such a way that is loving and embracing, instead of creating one that turns into a thermometer and causes frustrations.

Zaccheus

KFW 11/3/2013

Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10)

Once there was a man named zaccheus.  There are four things you need to know about Zaccheus before we get started:  1) Zaccheus was very very short. 2) Zaccheus had a LOT of money 3) nobody liked Zaccheus very much because he had a LOT of money, which he got by collecting taxes.  Ask your mom and dad—they probably don’t like tax collectors much either.  And 4) Zaccheus lived in the city of Jericho.

Our story today begins with Jesus coming to Jericho.  People were very excited to see Jesus.  Can you cheer “Hooray!  Jesus is here!”  There were CROWDS of people EVERYWHERE just trying to see Jesus!  Zaccheus stood trying to see Jesus, but he couldn’t see over all the people. He was too short! He tried to move closer.  “Excuse me!  Coming through!”  He’d say—he though he was VERY important because he had such an important job and he knew Jesus would want to see him!  He still couldn’t see Jesus! He was too short! He tried to move closer, and STILL couldn’t see him.  So do you know what he did?  He climbed a BIIIIIIG Sycamore tree!  Can you climb with me. Up, up, up, up!  And he looked out over the crowd (put a hand over your eyes) and he kept looking for Jesus! Far in the distance he could see Jesus coming!  He kept watching as Jesus got closer and closer and closer! 

As soon as Jesus got to that spot, he looked up into the tree and called, “Zaccheus!  Come down!  Right now! I must stay at your house today!”  (have the kids repeat with you, a phrase at a time).  WOW!  The people around him were mad!  They said, “how can Jesus go to his house?  Zaccheus is not very nice!  He takes our money and then talks all about his money!”

Zaccheus thought.  He came down and said to Jesus, “Here Lord—I now give half of everything I have to the poor, and if I have been unfair, I will give them each four times what I should give them to be fair.”   

Jesus said to him, “Today, you have made me very happy and have shown how much you love me.  You are acting like one of my children.  I came, hoping to show you my love and to love all who feel lonely.”

What did we learn?  Jesus came to love us.  Jesus will help us when we are lost or afraid, he loves us even when others think we are not nice or can’t be loved.

The paragraph that's highlighted is the one I'm struggling the most with to change into something kids can understand.  The original says that "Today salvation has come to [Zaccheus], because he is a son of Abraham."  Jesus says then that he came to save the lost.  In your own understanding, do you feel that saying his actions show him to be like one of God's children and that Jesus came to share love and help those who feel lonely is an okay interpretation for kids?  How else can we maybe integrate the story of Zaccheus into their frame of understanding?