Focus on children

On the CWM website, there is a post about Jill Kayser and her work with Kids Friendly.

She says"A new year prompts one to take stock of the past year and plan for the future. Our church is undergoing change. The formation of new 'super presbyteries' creates opportunities for identifying new ways of being."

Ms Kayser said the launch of the Kaimai Presbytery in September included a range of workshops to promote mission - including mission relating to children.

She said: "When the Rev Lance Thomas invited me to contribute to the launch, he explained that the church wanted to start off as it plans to carry on and that mission with young people is key to the success of their churches.

He said we should make 2010 the time to 'do whatever it takes' to reach and serve young people and incorporate them into our communities of faith."

On top of their work with individual churches, the Kids Friendly team have also been encouraging churches within the presbytery to watch their "Next Generation" DVD - a film that features children challenging churches to make a difference to their youth programme.

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.”