Anabeth was so excited! She had spoken to the church leadership about starting "Pew Packers" at her congregation, and they decided to begin having brief sessions for the kids each Sunday evening for about ten minutes before the worship period. The congregation's youth minister volunteered to lead the sessions, but he wanted some help with planning the content. He sent her the following message in a text:
"Hey, Anabeth! I love the idea about Pew Packers, but I need some ideas. Would you like to get together with some church friends and brainstorm?"
Anabeth replied that she would love to help, and they set a date to have coffee and put some ideas down on paper. She had a lot of ideas! By the time the group of church members got together, she had already written down some notes so that she would not forget. Since she has a knack for organization, she put her ideas into categories.
At the Pew Packers planning meeting, everyone had a lot of ideas. They enjoyed putting together the first lesson, but it became very long and detailed. It was obvious that they would need to revisit their goals for Pew Packers and scale back the project into a simpler design. Here are some of the decisions they made based on their goals to edify and provide fellowship for their youngest church members:
Study one topic per month (Repeat the same lesson each week for a month.)
Limit time to ten minutes.
Use one visual aid per lesson.
Sing only two songs per lesson.
Say Bible verses using a "fill-in-the-blank" style.
Provide parents with the lesson materials.
Correlate sessions with Bible class teachers.
After refocusing on their goals for Pew Packers, the group realized that they did not need to create another Bible class since they already had an effective education program. Instead, they needed to work with the teachers and parents to reinforce what was already being done. The Pew Packers program would allow the children to gain encouragement by demonstrating their knowledge and enjoying fellowship with other young people.
What do you think about the ideas that Anabeth and her friends discussed? Do you have other ideas or questions? What are your goals for Pew Packers? Are they the same as the ones list above or do you have different purposes?
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