Building Community . . . from the Archives The first minutes of a session can set the tone for the rest of the time with children and youth. Everyone arrives with differing attitudes and experiences from their week. Some may be excited to be there, while others may need more

As our faith formation program returned to in-person programming a couple of years ago, it was clear that there were a number of very energetic, active children. These children needed particular attention and structure to help nurture their participation in Sunday school. Teachers of these students began to take their

Build relationships. Your relationship with the children and youth is very important, more important than any planned activity. Children and youth learn best when they are with adults who genuinely like them. They are observing and learning from you—even if it doesn’t always seem like it! They are affected by

Welcome to the Fall 2023 quarter of Shine: Living in God’s Light! The theme for the quarter is “Becoming a People of God.” We begin with stories from Genesis, focusing on the family of Abraham and Sarah. This family has many challenges, as all families do! They struggled to get along and love

“Why is the Bible so violent?” My son asked me this many years ago, after reading The Brick Bible: A New Spin on the Old Testament, which tells Bible stories in comic book form with LEGO® figures as the characters. My kids spent long hours every day playing with LEGO®

Kids are streaming into the faith formation wing, laughing and talking. In an ideal world, each child will make friends, pray, explore a Bible story, sing songs, have some fun, and go home with things to think about. However, there are too many stories of children who are harmed or