Sunday, February 16, 2020

What is this site

From  September 2012 to June 2017, I used this website to help families and others connected with Emmanuel Baptist Church disciple children.

Some of the posts were specifically related to the weekly lesson.
Others were "Kids In Church" resources that were designed to help parents help their children become active participants in the Sunday morning service.
Because this website is no longer updated, some of the links may now be unavailable.

If you are viewing the desktop version of the site, there is a list of various labels/topics found on the site.  


Thursday, June 22, 2017

Sonshine Lessons for this Sunday!

We had a great week of Sonshine this week!
And this Sunday we have designated Sonshine Sunday.

Here are the two goals of the Lesson:

CONNECT the lessons with the Bible Verses - Proverbs 3:5-6



Here are the Bible stories with the character quality and a verse connection!!!

Bible Story:  David & Goliath (Courage)
Passage:  1 Samuel 17
God has won the victory for us!
We need to remember that He is the One who has won the battle for us!
We need to trust in His strength 

Bible Story:  The Good Samaritan (Compassion)
Passage:  Luke 10:25-37
God loves us so we should love others!
We need to remember the great love that God has shown us.
We need to love not because of what we will get but because God first loved us.

Bible Story:  Nehemiah & Rebuilding Wall (Cooperation)
Passage:  Nehemiah 4:7-21
God has a great plan to protect His people!
We need to remember that God has a plan for His people 
We need to trust His wisdom.

Bible Story:  The Story of Achan (Character)
Passage:  Joshua 7 & Psalm 86:5-6, 11
We cannot hide our sin from God!
We need to remember that God know what is going on in our hearts and minds!
We need to remember that sin has VERY serious consequences because 
it is against a holy God!
We need to repent of our sin!
You can read more about Achan HERE

Bible Story:  Abraham Sacrifices Isaac (Confidence)
Passage:  Genesis 22:1-14
God is a faithful God and we need to trust Him!
We need to remember that God gave His Son as the sacrifice for our sin.
We need to trust in God's plan for our salvation, which is Jesus Christ.
You can read more about God giving his son, Jesus HERE

For more Sonshine lesson ideas go to 
http://ekidzministry.blogspot.com/search/label/SONSHINE


Thursday, June 8, 2017

Achan - a Scary Vacation Bible School Story

In teaching children, there are many difficult narratives in the Bible.
There are many difficult narratives for adults in the Bible.

The story of Achan, Wednesday night's lesson, is one of those stories.
AND
It is one of our lessons at Sonshine this summer.
Tell you as a teacher, leader and/or parent, I wanted to share a part of a good book entitled Show Them Jesus
The author writes specifically about this story.

A SCARY LESSON  
A few years ago I was teaching a large group of elementary kids from the book of Joshua. I taught how God brought his people through the Jordan River and toppled the walls of Jericho. From there, the curriculum I was using skipped a chapter—the story of Achan.  
Achan was an Israelite soldier. He spurned a direct command from God by taking some of the plunder of Jericho for himself. His sin was uncovered when God caused the Israelites to be routed in a subsequent battle. To reveal whose sin was responsible, God used a dread-filled process of picking first the tribe, then the clan, then the family at fault. The members of the guilty family came forward one by one, and God picked Achan. So the people stoned Achan, along with his wife, children, and livestock. Then they set them on fire and heaped stones on their charred bodies. Only after that did God turn from his anger.  
Well now, it’s easy to see why that story gets skipped. 
What should I do? I don’t like picking through the Bible for just the cheery parts, but my group of kids was fairly young. I was worried that the lesson might be too scary. I finally decided I could teach about Achan—if I made sure that the good news of Jesus was my theme.  
One of my helpers that day was also the mom of a student. Just before class she asked what the lesson was, and when I told her she became worried. Her daughter got nightmares, she explained. Tense stories often brought them on. I got a sick feeling. Surely I’d been stupid to think I could teach such a lesson to little kids. But there was no time to change it, so I taught about Achan. Dead soldiers. Selection process. Stoning. Fire. The whole ugly scene.  
As I taught this, the concerned mom looked even more worried. So did some of the kids, who were particularly bothered that the other soldiers, family members, and animals got killed too. What had they done to deserve that? It was a good question, so I had the whole group gather around me as I sat on the floor with them.  
“Yes, many were killed,” I told them, “but that’s what we should learn from this.” I read to them the Bible’s own commentary on the incident: “Didn’t the LORD’s anger come on the whole community of Israel? And Achan wasn’t the only one who died because of his sin” (Joshua 22:20, NIrV).  
“You see,” I said, “just one man sinned, but many died. That’s the lesson.”
The kids gave me confused looks. It wasn’t the sort of lesson anyone was expecting. I had their attention and pressed on.  
“What if you sin? Or I sin? Does God punish us like he did Achan? Does anyone else get punished too? Or has God made a way to punish sin that has a better ending than this story has?”  
The kids weren’t sure. Several knew that God wouldn’t be holy if he didn’t punish sin. They also knew that God forgives. They weren’t certain how it all fit together.  
“The idea that a person might die for someone else’s sin is very important,” I said. “In our story, one man sinned but many died. But what if later in the Bible we found one man—just one man—who never sinned in his whole life, but still got punished? If that man never sinned but still died, then many could live.”  
They knew I was talking about Jesus.  
I went on to tell how Jesus lived the sin-free life each of us don’t. I told how out of all the tribes and clans and families of the world, only Jesus is not guilty—so God picked him. To die. To take our place. God selected Jesus to take the punishment we deserve so we don’t have to stand sinful and quaking, waiting for judgment like Achan did.  
“Your sin is very bad,” I told the kids. “It can hurt many people. But God loves you so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to become a man and die for your sin. Jesus was hurt most of all.  
“I wasn’t sure I should tell you this story because I thought it might be too scary. It’s about the scariest thing ever—getting punished by God. But when you know the whole story, it isn’t scary. If you belong to Jesus, he took your punishment and God becomes your Father. So I hope you won’t be scared. You don’t have to be scared of anything. Jesus makes the scariest thing of all go away.” 
I knew I’d done okay once it was over because the worried mom thanked me. She loved the story. The real surprise, though, came a few weeks later. The mom came up to me with a huge grin and told me her daughter’s nightmares had stopped. The girl insisted it was because she knew that, due to Jesus, she didn’t have to be scared anymore.  
Well, that’s the kind of result a teacher very rarely hears of, and my first reaction was skepticism. Could a little lesson about Jesus really cure such a problem? The nightmares would probably come back in time. But months went by and the mom remained delighted.  
I finally came to see that I was the one who lacked faith in the power of the good news. In spite of teaching it, I never expected it to work so wonderfully. It was all due to Jesus, of course, who lived the story I had the privilege of repeating. There’s no story like it. I should have expected such results. 
When the account of Achan is taught at all, it’s usually with the moral point that stealing is wrong. Okay, but that girl needed to hear the larger biblical point: that sin destroys life with God. Then she needed the biggest point of all—the theme of the whole Bible: that wherever sin destroys, Jesus heals.  
That girl learned about Jesus and believed. She also discovered that belief in Jesus is life-changing, that he truly is better than anything else.

Klumpenhower, Jack. Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids (Kindle Locations 181-232). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition

HERE is a review of the book.
HERE is where you can purchase the book at Amazon and don't forget LifeWay on Talmadge will price match Amazon.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

For the Cause - Sonshine Training!!

Here is my goal for the Kid's Group Leaders at tonight's Sonshine training...
Trust in the LORD and help the kids who will be at Sonshine trust in the LORD!
Proverbs 3:5 - 6 is this year's Sonshine theme verse.



This song from the Gettys



Click HERE for the powerpoint from Wednesday night's meeting tim.

Here are each of the lessons for the week.

Sunday:
  • Wrangler quality:  COURAGE
  • Bible Story:  David & Goliath
  • Passage:  1 Samuel 17
  • God has won the victory for us! 
  • Click HERE for a Alistair Begg's sermon "You Cannot Be Serious."  It serves as a great reminder of the big idea of David & Goliath.

Monday:
  • Wrangler quality:  COMPASSION  
  • Bible Story:  The Good Samaritan 
  • Passage:  Luke 10:25-37 
  • God loves us so we should love others!
  • While Jesus's command says "'Love your enemy.'  Jesus' story says 'Your enemy loved you.'" 
  • “The larger context—the rest of Luke and the entire Bible—tells us that ‘while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son’ (Romans 5:10). Jesus loved us with an even more sacrificial love than the Samaritan. He not only risked his life but gave it.” from Show Them Jesus
Tuesday:
  • Wrangler quality:  COOPERATION 
  • Bible Story:  Nehemiah & Rebuilding Wall 
  • Passage:  Nehemiah 4:7-21 
  • God has a great plan to protect His people!
Wednesday:
  • Wrangler Quality:  CHARACTER 
  • Bible Story:  The Story of Achan 
  • Passage:  Joshua 7 
  • Psalm 86:5-6, 11 
  • We cannot hide our sin from God!
  • Joshua 22:20 
  • One Sinned & Many Died 
  • One died & Many were Saved
  • HERE is another post about Achan 
Thursday:
  • Wrangler Quality:  CONFIDENCE 
  • Bible Story:  Abraham Sacrifices Isaac 
  • Passage:  Genesis 22:1-14 
  • God is a faithful God and we need to trust Him!

Click http://ekidzministry.blogspot.com/search/label/SONSHINE for some specific Sonshine posts on our EKIDZ ministry site.

Originally posted at drodgersjr.blogspot.com

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Promotion Sunday and Ministry Transition


Sunday, June 4th is Promotion Sunday

We are in June and school summer breaks have started or are starting very soon.

Our EKIDZ practice is to move kids up to the next age group the FIRST Sunday in June.

We also recognize that some children might need a little more of an adjustment period. 
Please feel free to use these next two Sundays (June 4 & 11) to help your child adjust to this transition, if you want to.
It is our desire for this transition to go well for you and your child.   
If that takes a few weeks, that’s ok.

If you have any questions, please be sure to contact Diane Smith or Pastor Dave.

Here are a couple of important reminders about EKIDZ:
  • 4th and 5th graders are usually in the 10:30 service with their families.  There are some special occasions when we have a 10:30 meeting for these students.
  • 1st - 3rd graders are in the music portion of the service with their class and then return to their room for their own lesson.  A great Sunday dinner conversation might be to  connect one of the songs sung in the service with a Biblical truth
  • Also, 2 or 3 times a quarter the 1st through 3rd graders are in the service with their family.  This is a great opportunity for you to help train your child to listen to sermons, pray and sing.
  • Occasionally it is necessary to combine classes.  When this happens the 2 & 3 years old class meet together and the Pre-K & Kindergarten class meet together.  If this happens, notes will be posted on the classroom doors.
We want to help parents disciple their children.   
Two very specific ways you can do this are:
TAKING TIME AT HOME to talk about this week’s lesson and connect Biblical truths to life. 
SERVING AT CHURCH in your child’s class or another class.  This helps you better understand what your child is learning about and it also helps EBC serve the children and families God gives us to minister to.

Over the next month, there are going to be a number of transitions at Emmanuel Baptist Church.  As I (Pastor Dave) close out my ministry at the end of June I want to let you know a couple of things.
  • It has been a great pleasure serving as the pastor of children and family ministry at EBC.  My prayer is that parents, grandparents and those who spiritual mentor children will understand that we have great opportunities to teach and serve children AND there are so many more opportunities we have outside of the church building.
  • I have greatly appreciated those of you who have faithfully served and made disciples over the years.  Continue serving God and discipling children and families for God's glory.
  • During transition times there are often many things that need to be learned.  I know that you will show Pastor Andy the patience and grace that you have shown me.  
  • On a practical side of things, online resources will be transferred from this website to our church blog.  ekidzministry.com will still get you to the resources.  You will see this change gradually through the month of June.
  • You can also keep up with what is going on in our lives and what God is teaching me at drodgerjr.blogspot.com




Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Sonshine Theme Verse!



Sonshine is a an amazing time for fun and games.

It is also a great time to remind
kids who attend EBc
kids in our community 
and others
the most important truth.  
The Gospel.
We want to show kids and families that
everyone needs to trust in the Lord.

Please 
Pray that those serving in Sonshine 
will clearly present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pray that those attending Sonshine 
will have open ears and open hearts.


This year's theme verse is Proverbs 3:5, 6.





Here is Lantern Light's song Straight Paths.