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Children's Ministry helps make disciples
By Boyce Bowdon

If you worship some Sunday morning at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, you will quickly discover that children in this 3200-member congregation are not only seen and heard. They are cherished.

Besides serving as acolytes, children gather prayer cards and lead the Lord’s Prayer. When the senior pastor, Robert Rose, invites children to come to the altar for their special time, scores rush down front and sit close to him.

Kid’s involvement in worship at Chapel Hill reflects his passion for children’s ministry.

“When I first became a pastor, children’s ministry was important to me because I thought, if you don’t get children to church, you don’t get their parents to church,” he says. “It didn’t take long for me to realize that was not the mission for children’s ministry. Our mission is helping children become disciples of Jesus Christ. From the time children enter our nursery until they are confirmed, we must help them learn to make mature decisions of faith.”

 

Children Grow In Worship
Involving children in worship is one way Chapel Hill seeks to help children become disciples, Rose says.

“Children need to learn to do what disciples do. Disciples pray. How can we help children make prayer a part of their lives? One way is to give them the opportunity to lead the Lord’s Prayer in front of our congregation. First, they must memorize it.”

Rose also believes that what kids experience during their special time in the service can help them grow as disciples. It’s show and tell time. A child who volunteered the previous Sunday shows and tells about the item she has in a container called “The Box.” She holds up the item she has brought for everyone to see. Rose hands her the microphone. In a “big voice,” she says her name, tells what the item is and why it is special to her.

“We are helping children learn to stand in front of a group and vocalize something important to them,” Rose explains. “So when these children are adults they won’t be afraid to share what they value. We are also teaching them to assume responsibility. The child has ownership of The Box. He has to decide what goes in it and remember to bring it back. Hopefully, this helps him learn that you don’t just show up for worship. You prepare for worship.”

Before the pastoral prayer, acolytes go down the aisles and pick up prayer cards people have prepared and passed to the end of the pew. They bring the cards down to Rose, who places them on the altar.

“I think it is good for the congregation to look at the altar during the pastoral prayer and see a pastor and the children kneeling at the altar, taking the congregation’s burdens to the Lord,” he says.

“All we are trying to do is to build within the context of worship that the child is important to us and to God.”

Rose says the staff shares his commitment for the children’s ministry. “We are not trying to compete with other churches to see who can offer the flashiest programs. When you do that, the substance of ministry takes second seat to the style of ministry. Our mission is to help children become the best disciples of Jesus Christ they can be.”

 

Children’s ministry reflects congregation’s diversity
The neighborhood around Chapel Hill is not the same as it was even a decade ago, says Marilyn Henderson, who is in her 12th year as the church’s director of children’s ministry. Racial diversity has increased and average household income has decreased. When the church was organized 46 years ago, most members lived in the neighborhood. Henderson says children now come from at least 25 elementary schools and some live 20 miles from the church.

“Our kids have a wide range of interests and needs,” she says. “Different ministries help different children so we have a variety of ministries, all designed to help kids grow as disciples.”

In addition to Sunday school classes for children of all ages, the church offers mid-week programs, choirs, vacation Bible school, summer camps, and numerous other activities.

Chapel Hill’s children’s facilities are modern and well maintained. The church complies with Safe Sanctuary and other standards to protect children. Teachers are carefully chosen and well-trained. To make Sunday school more interesting and meaningful for children and more appealing to teachers, elementary classes follow the Rotation Sunday School plan.

The church also sponsors a Christian moms’ group that emphasizes fellowship and support for moms with young children. Rose says in keeping with Chapel Hill’s commitment “to connect people to God, to the community, and the world,” the church seeks to minister to children beyond its membership. Programs such as “Grandmothers Expecting Miracles” and “Whiz Kids” are examples.

 

Grandmothers Expecting Miracles
One fall day in 2007, Phyllis Tarpenning, Priscilla Davis, and Joyce Chaffee were sharing their concerns about their children and grandchildren. They knew other members of Chapel Hill had similar concerns.

What could they do to help? Mrs. Davis suggested that they form a team to pray for children in the church. So she put an article in Chapel Hill’s newsletter inviting women to a meeting to create the team.

“Seven or eight women came,” recalls Davis. “When I mentioned that we were all grandmothers, Phyllis immediately suggested that we call ourselves GEMs—Grandmothers Expecting Miracles. The name fit, Davis says. “We are all grandmothers and we all expect God to perform miracles.”

The GEMs decided to gather in the church’s prayer room from 10:30 until 11:30 on the first and third Saturday mornings of each month and pray for children. Word quickly spread through the church and members began requesting prayer. After an article about the GEMs appeared in the Oklahoma City newspaper, requests for prayer came from the community. In a few weeks, the article appeared on the Internet and since then GEMs have received e-mails and phone calls from far away requesting prayer for children.

Each time the GEMs meet, they update their prayer lists. “We always have people to add,” Davis says. “We pray for children with all kinds of needs, including two Chapel Hill children who are cancer patients.”

Davis says she and a couple other mothers come to the church a few minutes before the GEMs meet. “We go down to the children’s area and walk from room to room. We pray over the cribs and over all the rooms from the nursery through the sixth grade. We thank God for the children and teachers and parents and siblings in our Sunday school classes and in our Mother’s-Day-Out. We ask God to protect them and guide them and help them grow strong in body, mind, and spirit.”

Davis says between seven and ten grandmothers usually attend the prayer sessions. “We have become a tremendous support for one another and praying has deepened our compassion for others and strengthened our faith in God.”

She says she and the other grandmothers had not realized how many families have so many concerns. “We had underestimated God’s power,” she said. “We expected miracles, but we never dreamed we would see God do so many awesome things.”

The Rev. Rose says the grandmothers’ ministry is an example of what happens when people realize God is eager to do miracles through them.

 

Whiz Kids
Chapel Hill is one of 21 churches in Oklahoma City that host Whiz Kids, a faith-based ministry that provides one-on-one tutoring for children in elementary schools that have a high percentage of students from low-income families.

Since 2004, approximately 20 Chapel Hill volunteers have been tutoring at Covenant Life Church, which is eight miles away. In 2007, Rose asked David Orwig, a Chapel Hill member and Whiz Kids tutor, if he thought children in the community could profit from Chapel Hill hosting a Whiz Kids program. Orwig and others began a feasibility study.  They concluded that there was a need.

Stonegate Elementary School, three blocks from the church, had recently qualified for Title I funds. School administrators and teachers confirmed that many Stonegate students needed tutoring. So, Chapel Hill became a Whiz Kid site in September 2007.

David Orwig and Beth Hammack, a former public school teacher, became coordinators of the ministry. This year the site serves 36 students. Each student has a tutor and several substitutes stand by to help when they are needed.

“In addition to the tutors serving at our church, we have 28 others serving at Covenant Life,” says Hammack. “That means more than 60 members of our church are devoting most of one afternoon every week to helping a child.”

The children come to Chapel Hill immediately after school. They eat a snack and play games, then gather as a group for their 30-minute “club” meeting. They hear devotionals, sing, memorize scripture, pray, and hear guest speakers.

One recent speaker talked about gang activity in the area and gave the children tips for minimizing their exposure to gangs. Hammack says the speaker asked the children to raise their hands if they had heard gunfire within the past week. “Half of our kids raised their hands,” she said.

“Public schools cannot pray or teach Christian beliefs, but we can because we are faith-based,” says Hammack. “A lot of our children don’t have a church connection. We are a bridge that enables our church to connect with them and their families and to connect them to God. What better way can an aging church like ours, in the midst of ethnic diversity, tear down barriers and build relationships?”

While the children are in their club meeting, tutors are meeting for a devotional, teaching tips, and fellowship.

After the group meetings, each tutor gets with his or her child and they study for an hour together one-on-one. After reading for at least 30 minutes, they do worksheets or play educational games.

Twice during the year, the church invites the Whiz Kids and their families along with the tutors to an evening of entertainment, fellowship, and food. During and following the meal, tutors and families visit with one another, and their relationships grow.

The Rev. Rose says Chapel Hill’s efforts to make disciples start in the church nursery, where babies experience God’s love.

“Our Sunday school classes, our Grandmothers Expecting Miracles, our Whiz Kids, and all our other children’s ministries have one mission,” he says. “We seek to help children of our congregation and our community become the best disciples of Jesus Christ they can be.”

Boyce Bowdon was a United Methodist pastor for 20 years and director of Oklahoma Conference Communications for 24 years before he retired in 2005. The author of three books, Dr. Bowdon is writing inspirational articles and books in retirement.



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