GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)–Tim Cheeks never has a problem getting his daughter Courtney, 11, excited about church. It’s what happens when they can’t make it to a service that sends his pre-teen into a tizzy: “What do you mean we’re not going to church?”
It’s a problem many parents wish they had.
The Cheekses are members of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas. More than 4,000 children participate in Fellowship’s children’s services each weekend using “G-Force,” a new curriculum line from Fellowship and LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention that combines Bible study, worship and personal application through music, interactive games and large-and small-group activities.
“We want to give kids two things –- a knowledge of Christ and a love for the local church,” said Mike Johnson, Fellowship’s children’s minister.
Johnson’s 10 years of experience tweaking and improving the children’s ministry at Fellowship serve as the foundation for G-Force, launched nationwide by LifeWay last summer. The materials include take-home study cards, a weekly parent newsletter and a CD for families with songs from the classes and computer games to reinforce the weekly lessons.
A typical children’s service lasts 45 minutes with large-group worship sandwiched between two small-group times. Two adults — a host and co-host — lead the large group while other volunteers support the small groups. The music, on CD, doesn’t have your typical child-like voices –- instead, simple lyrics are sung by adults, with contemporary style arrangements. The service is fast-paced and supported by a DVD that provides animation behind text such as the week’s “main point” and memory verse.
“I like that we actually get to participate in the service and do motions to the songs,” said Courtney Cheeks. “The leaders tell us stories that relate to our lives and do skits and stuff.”
Power Cel collector cards contain colorful, fun activities used during small-group times and are taken home to share with others in the family. Parents receive the Parent Connection, a weekly newsletter the church prints out from a CD-ROM that includes the week’s memory verse, main point, Bible story reference, parent article and a family activity to build on what the children learned.
The kids’ excitement about church is so contagious it often draws parents in as volunteers.
Paul Hakes, who works the sound system for his daughter’s G-Force class, loves seeing the kids run to their seats for worship from small-group time.
“I grew up Catholic and I remember hating to go to church,” he said. His daughter’s reaction was completely opposite the first time they visited Fellowship five years ago. “She said, ‘I don’t know where you’re going, but I’m coming back here.’”
A TV, a DVD player and a CD player are all that’s needed to get a G-Force program started in a local church.
Larissa Daggett and her husband, William, lead the children’s ministry at Calvary Worship Center in St. Louis Park, Minn. They recently purchased G-Force and were excited about its potential impact.
“We were very impressed with how versatile the curriculum is,” said Daggett, noting that they currently have 20 children in attendance. “Our biggest impression was how professional everything looks and how convenient it is to have everything pre-packaged. Since my husband is bivocational, we don’t have a lot of time to come up with new ideas.
G-Force, she said, “makes a good Sunday School experience very simple.”
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at https://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: TEACHING TOOL and FROM CHURCH TO HOME.
