Kids Sunday Resources and at Home Family Worship Opportunities

Grace and Peace to you all through our Lord and Shepard Jesus Christ.

Welcome to a new resource for our families, from your 
Children's Ministry Director Liz Grandon.

Our Elders continue to respond with wisdom and care for our physical and spiritual lives during the COVID-19 pandemic and they have shared the River City plan for the next few weeks.  We also want you to consider this an opportune time to engage in continued or begin a new discipleship rythmn with your precious children, youth, and teens that are in your care.

I am drawn to prayer for you all and myself to abide in Christ as we go about a new "normal." I am encouraged at the opportunity to provide you with additional resources during our time of in home worship and discipleship.

My husband Jon and son Wyatt, 4 years old, and I are all home together during this time and are taking opportunities to build in better ways to seek God and build our faith, love and knowledge of Him instead of fear and cultural comforts. I hope these few resources will be an encouragement to you and helpful to your family worship time. Let's make these slow moments fruitful for the Gospel in pointing those in our influence to their need for Christ and His sufficiency in all things.

Sunday School Resource: LifeWay Kids

The Gospel Project for Kids is offering temporary solutions for families to conduct Bible study times at home. There is video content geared more toward school aged kids, through a log in to lifeway.com, as well as downloadable Activity Page, One Conversation Sheet; available weekly.

This family worship time will be most valueable to your family if you preview the materials ahead of your planned family gathering so that you can assess what is appropriate engagement for the age of your kids. 

In general a child's attention span is 3 to 5 minutes per year of a child's age for best enagement of their listening and comprehension.

Sunday March 22nd, 2020

Unit 1: Session 4/ Jesus Told Three Parables

Unit Verse: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  Luke 4:18 CSB

Main Life Point: Jesus taught about God's love.

I would suggest that you first discuss what will be seen on the Bible Lesson video, then view the content together; last part of your discussion;

Preschool and age 5: 
How much does God love you? (Remember that God loves you and is with you no matter what happens.)
What were the parables(stories) that Jesus told? (the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. These stories helped people understand the kingdom of God.)

Ages 6 and older: 
Follow up with a three questions method 
What did our Bible Story tell us about? (Facts)
What did you learn about yourself/humanity/character?(Lesson teaching)
How will you apply/tell others about what you learned? (application/main teaching called to action)

Close your time in prayer thanking God for His love.

To get the Digital Pass and access LifeWay Kids at Home, follow the steps below on your computer.

Step 1: Go to mylifeway.com/redeem
Step 2: Register if you are a new user or log in if you already have an account
Step 3: Enter this redemption Code:
VZMD4SSQ38
Step 4: Click "Access" (if prompted to sing in again, sign in) and then click "My Dashboard," and go to LifeWay Kids at Home
Step 5: Download your Activity Page and One Conversation Sheet to use as you watch the video session. **This download is also available via direct PDF on our Rivercityfargo.org website banner under River City Kids Resources.**

These resources are free and available for anyone to use, as LifeWay's first concern is for the health and safety of families, both physically and spiritually they are making these availble, which is a rich place of encouragement for families to recieve great content right at home.

Please feel free to share our blog with your friends and family to encourage their family worship time. "We hope that these sessions and downloads are impactful for you and your family"- LifeWay Kids

*Because of royalties and other issues, normal music videos cannot be shared.

Additional Family Worship resources:

**All life stages can benefit from these, NOT just dual parent homes, but single parents, and even unmarried singles who might have roommates or a group of individuals that want to study, worship, and grow in God's Word together. 

Power of Change; Reid S. Monaghan: The Home Team; Gospel & Family

Reid Monaghan provides a great outline for the why and practical how's for Family worship. He came and lead a parenting seminar several years ago at River City. It was a great time of encouragement and exhoration to take the gospel to our families and the world.

This is a PDF format and free resource that can help you begin Family worship or help deepen your understanding and resources for your time together in the Word. 

Foundations: 12 Biblical Truths to Shape a Family

By Ruth Chou Simons (Artist and author of Gracelaced) and husband Troy Simons
Devotional style book to use for Family Worship. Each Foundation is broken down into 5 daily studies all supporting the foundation (ex. 1.Love God aboe all else and with all you've got; 5.Be an encourager and build each other up; 11.Keep you hope in heaven and hold lightly the things of earth.)

The end of each devotional includes something to Dwell On; Discuss; and To memorize. 

They also have a Podcast that takes a deeper look at the how and why of family worship time each day and utilizing their Foundations resource. Additionally, they answer great questions about parenting sent in by their social media followers.

Blessings to you and yours. May the Lord be with you. 

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen" Matt. 28:20