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seeking ultimate meaning moving toward the heart of God repaining the world

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Dear Parents,

One of the reasons I felt called to be the Associate Pastor for Children's Spiritual Formation at Hope Central is that this congregation values our children enough to create space for our kids to grow in their spirituality. After three years in this role, watching our children grow in age and our program grow in number, I have come to trust that putting our children first sometimes means taking a leap of faith on their behalf. That's what you did when you called me to this role; that's what we have done in selecting curricula and building multiple classrooms through negotiating space with Integrarte, our renters who have been so generous and flexible.

Our older children are getting older--even up to seventh grade, which is very close to teenage. And we still have young children, our youngest being under a year old. Mindful of the ever-widening age range, I have been imagining how to keep Sunday school fresh, relevant, even exciting. Our field trip to Andree's JP Green House made me realize that our kids are amazing at working together across age and that they are far more engaged and interested when they have ownership in what they are learning and creating. To that end, I am asking us to take another leap of faith together and try something that is just crazy enough to work.

Here are the logistics: Sunday schoolwill be before worship, from 10 to 10:30. At 10:30, the kids will come into the sanctuary for the beginning of service. Because the lesson time is short, we are asking families to arrive by 9:55 so the lesson can begin on time. We know this is a big shift in Sunday routines, so please know there is grace while we adjust! Instead of the curricula we have been using, we are going to try having a single theme across the fall and another single theme across the spring. To coincide with Laura Ruth's sabbatical, the fall theme will be sabbath (holy time, holy space, for rest and renewal, to experience God, etc). Each Sunday will begin with check-in and prayer time, followed by a lesson with all the kids together, and then my hope is that there will be a communal project or series of projects that the kids will work on in small groups across interest and skill. It might be that the kids will be done by 10:30, and it might be that some kids want more time to work on whatever they are doing on a given day. They will still have to go upstairs to church, but there will be an opportunity to utilize playtime to finish up their work if they'd like. The children will start in service. During the passing of the peace, they will gather with the adult teacher/volunteers and go outside or downstairs. I'm asking that each of you sign up for one week in Sunday school and one week supervising playtime in the fall. The kids will either play or work on their creative projects from Sunday schoolduring the prayers of the people and the sermon—roughly 30 minutes. If children would rather stay in service, they are (of course) welcome to do that if you are okay with it! Then they will enter for the Amen Parade as normal.

We are continuing to work out details in these last weeks before Sunday school begins again. This is a lot of information, and I'd be thrilled to talk more in person with anyone who has questions, concerns, or creative suggestions.

Thank you for the honor of watching your children grow into faithful, wise, moral leaders.

Love,

Courtney

Rev. Courtney Jones
Associate Pastor

Hope Central Church85 Seaverns AveJamaica Palin, MA 02130(617) 522-0600