Children and their Elders

Kids Friendly Churches is a vision that has been up and running for up to five years now in New Zealand. It aims to make Presbyterian and Co-operative churches more aware of the children in their midst and ways in which they can be incorporated into the overall life of the church. Here's a recent story about Calvin Community Church in Gore which has just been accredited as 'Kids Friendly.'

The story comes from CWM (Christian World Mission) news - CWM has been involved in funding the Kids Friendly movement.

Youth leaders from Calvin Community Church in Gore recently helped children organise and invite church elders to an evening meal where they could sit down and and get to know each other over a roast dinner.
Each church elder was assigned one or two children to greet and take care of them throughout the duration of the meal.
The idea of the event was to get children sharing a bit about themselves with the elder they were taking care of, and to help pave the way for better communication between younger and older members of the church in the wake of their new Kids Friendly status.
Youth worker at Calvin Community Church, Sandra Gow [pictured at right] said the evening was a great success for both the children and the church elders.
“During dinner the children shared a bit about themselves using photos and props. They then asked the elders about their leadership using a number of questions like: What is an elder? Why are you an elder? What do you find hardest about being a Christian?
“We ended our time of serving with one of our favourite action memory verses from Matthew 22.37 'Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' The evening was a moving and memorable time for all.”