CommunityKids

Children's Ministry Spring Volunteer Meeting

There will be a children's ministry volunteer meeting in the Student Venue on Monday, May 18th at 6:30 p.m. on the Fort Smith campus. Finger foods will be provided. Please let Matt, Stacey, Julie  or Mike know if you will be attending and if you will need childcare. This will be a time to review the past year and discuss ways to accomplish our mission.

Van Buren

Wow God is so amazing!! Just two years ago, it does not seem that long ago, the Van Buren campus came into existence. After a year being in the school, with some growth but not much, we moved to are wonderful new building.  At first I had my doubts on how are church will be received and if we will grow, but God has always been in the midst of everything.

Over the year God has opened my eyes to see that our church is growing slowly becoming one body of believers but not only that, family.  Just in the past couple of months, when our numbers should have been leveling out, God keeps sending people to visit and eventually join the church.  We have had one membership class after another and they are full to the point that we had to move it to a bigger classroom.

Our children’s ministry and Junior High home groups are doing great as well. Both ministries have sky-rocketed to the point that last week we had to open up two new classrooms for the children ministry and next year we are thinking about having two Junior High home groups.  Isn’t God AMAZING!!

Please continue to pray for the Van Buren campus and the work that is being done in the community.  I also want to take the time to thank my volunteers for their hard work and dedication they have put in these past two years.  Without them our ministry would have not become what it is today.

Appearances

Easter is almost two weeks removed.  Usually we have eaten all the candy, shown off our new close, found most of the eggs that were hidden and moved on to other things.  But wait, there's more.  We forget about, after the exclamation point of the Resurrection , the appearances that Christ made.  We forget about or don't realize some of the teachings after the crescendo of the Resurrection.  I am excited to be able to teach the C-456 about "what happened next".  I am thrilled to sort of be able to "extend" the Easter celebration that is normally left alone by Sunday evening or Monday morning.  And most of all, I am pumped, to have the parents and their children (most of them) learn about the same thing.  Makes the conversation interesting.

How does concentrating on Christ's appearances make you feel?  What has it taught you? Don't miss the next four weeks as we, as a church, follow the appearancesof Jesus after the Resurrection.  Also, don't forget to talk to your kids about what they learned on Sunday.  -Matt

Boy Scout Troop 7

Boy Scout Troop 7 has recently taken up post here at Community Bible.  Though Community doesn’t financially support Troop 7 we do support their eagerness to train young men on the aspects of the outdoors, life lessons, as well as how to be a man.  Troop 7 meets on every Monday evening on the Fort Smith Campus.

Troop 7 will be hosting an informative meeting on Sunday May 3^rd directly after the second service (around 12:00) in the Student Venue.  They will be there to answer questions as well as have booths set up (back packing, repelling, first aid, canoeing and others) to show a little about what scouts are about.  They start with age 11 and go up to age 18.  If you know someone that is interested please check out this meeting on the 3^rd of May. 

 

Matt

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Congratulations to our first winner of Monday Giveaways..Tami Arnold.  Tami you have won the $25 gift card to TGI Fridays and can claim your prize by making arrangements with Matt. (click to email)

Don't forget that this week we start over with the drawing to give away TGI Friday's gift cards again this week.  See this post for rules.

Thank you for playing.  Please spread the word to your blogger buddies.  We want to generate as much energy with readers as we can.  This blog is to communicate and encourage parents.  I hope it is serving its purpose.

Today's question is to give other parents, and myself, ideas to teach children.  How do you teach your children to be servants, to serve?  Thanks ahead of time for your responses.

Good day! - Matt Whitson

Parenting Scares Me!

Hello!

I'm not to proud to admit it - parenting really does scare me sometimes! Let's take last night for example, when my daughter told me that the older sister of a good friend  has recently made some bad choices that will affect the rest of her life. Go ahead, read between the lines there and I'm sure your conclusions will be correct. I was not in the mood for yet another "talk", but we had it anyway! To be honest, I usually have to mentally prepare for these "talks" - I'm always worried I'll say something completly wrong and clueless - hopefully I'm not the only one like that. Please, tell me I'm not!  :)

We work so hard to teach of children right and wrong - they know backwards and forwards what the correct choices in different situations are - the question is how do we make sure that when they are in the moment, whatever it might be, they will be able to make that decision. I came across the following article this morning - read it and let me know what you think.  It's a little long, but stick with it!

http://www.almenconi.com/articles.php?art_id=106

So, what do you think?  What are your ideas for teaching our children to make wise choices, to be leaders and not followers when they are around their friends and others at school or anywhere else?  Would any of you be interested in some sort of parenting class/discussion group where these sorts of topics were tackled?

Thanks for your input!  We love hearing from you guys and reading what you have to say on different topics and with a topic like this one, I need all the input I can get!  

Do your best to have a great week and I will see you Sunday or at Walmart.

Julie

What Do You Think?

Hello!

I hope you are having a great week! I have a request - we need some input. Right now, we are looking ahead to fall and making plans. I know, that seems like forever away, but September will be here before we know it! We always want to make the best use of our resources and we want to know what you think about Wednesday nights.

So, this is your chance to tell us what you like or dislike about Wednesday nights for kids at Community. Should we continue Wednesday nights or use our resources in other ways? What would you like to see your kids learning and doing?

Any and all suggestions, thoughts, and ideas are welcome, appreciated, and wanted - we want to hear it all!  Seriously, we are looking forward to hearing what you think.

Have a great day and I'm waiting for replies! As always, thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your children's lives.

Julie

Preview of Elevate series

Beginning this Sunday, the 3’s, 4’s and Kindergarten will be learning about worship in our Elevate series. I am listing the themes and scriptures so that you can talk with your children about each week.

 

Lesson 1- I worship God when I am thankful. Exodus 15:1-21

Lesson 2- I will worship God when I sing to Him. Psalms 8:1-5, 19:1-6, 139, 145:1-13

Lesson 3- I will worship God when I pray to Him. 1 Samuel 1:1-20, 2:1-10

Lesson 4- I will worship God when I help others. Luke 10:25-37

Lesson 5- I will worship God when I give. Luke 21:1-4

Lesson 6- I will worship God when I love others.  Acts 3:1-26

Lesson 7- I will worship God when I obey Him. Genesis 12

Lesson 8- I will worship God because He loves me. John 3:1-18, 19:1-32, 20:1-9

 

You can also use the family devotional sent home with your child on Sundays to supplement each week’s topic. Talk with your child often about what they learn. I would love for you to share with me some of their comments. Children always have an interesting perspective.

 

Stacey

What works?

Transformed Children Transforming Their World

Children's Ministry at Community is about teaching God's word in safe, clean, and fun environment.  We want children to be so excited to come to church that they are reminding their parents to take them.  We strive to put together the best activities for kids so they can have one of their favorite hours of their week and learn what the Bible says and how to apply it to their lives.  We want children in Community's children's ministry to know God better and learn how to make Him known to others...while having fun.

Parents...after your child's church activities do you ask them questions about what they did and what they learned?  Do you use the take home sheets that children get in some of the classes (preK3 - 3rd grade)?  Do you talk to your 4th - 6th grader about what they learned?  4th -6th grades learn about the same things that the adults learn in their worship time.  Let me know what works for you as this will hopefully encourage another parent.

Our thought as a children's ministry is that parents are the primary teacher....children's ministry at CB is the secondary.  We are just here to help.

Matt Whitson

Giveaway Mondays!

We all know that few people actually like Mondays, but that is about to change.  Starting next week, CommunityKids Blog will start Giveaway Mondays!  Each week, we will give away a gift certificate or other prize to the winner.  Here's how to play:

• Make a comment (instructions below)! For each comment you make that week, your name will be entered once. Only one comment per post will be counted.  We might ask a question or for feedback, or you can just give us your opinion about whatever that day's blog post was about. Not hard.
• Tell your friends! If someone makes a comment saying you sent them to our site, your friend will be entered and you will be entered again.  So if a friend sent you here, make sure you tell us! 
• Blog about us! If you have a blog, post about us and include that link in your comment.  We'll enter you an extra THREE times for that!

Our very first Giveaway Monday will be a $25 gift card to TGI Fridays!  Next Monday, we draw a name from the week's entries, announce the winner, and tell you about the  prize for the next week. 

HAVE FUN AND GOOD LUCK! Oh, and this post counts, so start typing!

*Instructions for commenting:
Below each post, there is a black line with small words beneath it. Click on "Comments."  It will have parentheses with a number inside.  That's the number of comments already made. When you click that, it will bring up a white box into which you will type your comment.  Below that, you will add your name and email address (plus your website address if you have one). When you are finished, click "Post." That's it.  Your email address will not be made public.