We are teaching doctrine. Yes, in Children Ministry!
Jan 2022
Loran Tang, recruiter and training coordinator of Children Ministry

 

We put five questions out of the New Catechism on the board
which is decorated with cosmos background

In my last blog, I mentioned about the alarming rate of youths and young adults dropping out of churches. There are many reasons indeed. One of them is that they are baffled by the harsh realities such as injustices and brokenness in the world and find what we teach in church irrelevant or not useful to address their questions. 

We teach David defeated Goliath by a sling and some rocks only; Noah survived the flood happily with his family and animal friends; or Jesus fed 5,000 people. Dramas with happy endings. Who doesn’t like them? Unfortunately, from what we see in the real world, David is oppressed, humiliated and even killed by Goliath. Good people like Noah are sometimes mocked and isolated in their lives. People who live in poverty starve to death rather than being fed in a miraculous way. If we, Sunday School or worship teachers, are not serious about scripture and its principles but treat the accounts in the bible as fairy tales, we will not be able to equip the kids well enough for their navigation in the real world in future. 

I believe to show our kids what does an authentic Christian life look like relies on two things: 1) our solid knowledge in God’s word, and 2) our relationship with God. I’m very proud and grateful to tell you that Combined Children Worship (for Gr 1 to Gr 6 kids) are building up kids in these two areas. 

We re-started in-person worship with a new curriculum “The New Catechism” (kids’ version) in October 2021. The New Catechism covers the core doctrine of Christianity in 52 questions. We teach the kids one question each Sunday. I don’t want to downplay the challenges in getting our kids understand the doctrine teaching. Even adults have difficulty to fully comprehend “three persons in one head”! However, if we want to help our kids to truly know what they believe, we need to teach them layers and layers of this doctrine over years. Also, parents’ participation is an important role to enhance our teaching. Please open up conversation with our teachers and with you kids. Ask us what questions we are teaching and review that with you kids at home. 

Beside the curriculum, I am also excited about “Pajamas Sunday” which happens on the second week of each month. On Pajamas Sunday, the kids will wear comfortable clothes and bring their blankets and stuffed animals with them. We will encourage the kids to pray to God (minutes’ prayer) and write down their prayer requests as a journey. Through prayers and seeing how God answers our prayers, we experience and know Him at first hand! After minutes’ prayer, I’ll tell testimonies from different individuals so that kids know how God works at people’s lives in this world. 

Building up kids in their spiritual journey is a long way to go. Without parents’ participation, our jobs are only partially done. Come and see what we do. You’ll be excited too. 

Quick Facts about Combined Children Worship 

  • Combined Children Worship is the combination of Junior Worship (Gr 1 to 3) and Children Worship (Gr 4 to 6). Because of the reduced attendance and manpower capacity in the pandemic, we combine the two worships in the new basement from 9:30 to 10:30
  • Our speaker team: Milly Eng; Mimi Chei; Karen Siu; Kyle Kiang; Joan Fong; Mabel Law (also the coordinator) and Loran Tang (also the coordinator)
  • Our beloved song leaders, Kim Mak and Samantha Fung, are taking a short break after devoting much time and efforts for years. We love to have new song leaders to help leading songs in combined worship. Please contact Mabel or me if you are interested.  

Connect to Combined Children Worship, please contact:

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