Children’s Ministry
Most Recent Post
A Story For The Child In All Of Us: “Zen Ties” by Jon J. Muth
In “Zen Ties” by Jon J. Muth, Stillwater the Panda returns in a delightful companion to his Caldecott Honor Book, Zen Shorts.
Summer has arrived — and so has Koo, Stillwater’s haiku-speaking young nephew. And when Stillwater encourages Koo, and his friends Addy, Michael, and Karl to help a grouchy old neighbor in need, their efforts are rewarded in unexpected ways. Zen Ties is a disarming story of compassion and friendship that reaffirms the importance of our ties to one another.
Previous Posts
A Story For The Child In All Of Us (For Seasons of Life): The Circles All Around Us
In the circles all around us, everywhere that we all go, there's a difference we can make and a love we can all show. This is the story of a circle. When we're first born, our circle is very small, but as we grow and build relationships, our circle keeps getting bigger and bigger to include family, friends, neighbors, community, and beyond. Brad...
A Story For The Child In All Of Us: “Ada’s Violin”
From award-winning author Susan Hood and illustrator Sally Wern Comport comes the extraordinary true tale, "Ada's Violin," of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, an orchestra made up of children playing instruments built from recycled trash. Ada RÃos grew up in Cateura, a small town in Paraguay built on a landfill. She dreamed of playing the...
A Mother’s Day Story For The Child In All Of Us: “Runaway Bunny”
A little bunny keeps running away from his mother in this imaginary game of hide-and-seek. Children will be profoundly comforted by this lovingly steadfast mother who finds her child every time. The Runaway Bunny, first published in 1942 and never out of print, has indeed become a classic. Generations of readers have fallen in love with the...
“A Story For The Child In All Of Us: “Ida, Always”
"Ida, Always" is a beautiful, honest portrait of loss and deep friendship told through the story of two iconic polar bears. Gus lives in a big park in the middle of an even bigger city, and he spends his days with Ida. Ida is right there. Always. Then one sad day, Gus learns that Ida is very sick, and she isn’t going to get better. The friends...
“What Grew In Larry’s Garden” – A Story For The Child In All Of Us
Inspired by a real person, author Laura Alary has written a heartwarming story, "What Grew In Larry's Garden,"Â about how amazing things can grow when you tend your garden with kindness. In this case, Larry, a teacher, is helping to grow community. He has his students grow tomato plants that they then give away to their neighbors with personal...
An Earth Sunday Story For The Child In All Of Us: “The Wildlife Tree”
The Wildlife Tree ushers your child into the mystery and wonder of the northern woods. Beautiful illustrations and well timed questions spark the interest of the reader to turn the page and discover answers. Children are invited into the enchanting world of the woodland creatures who inhabit these seemingly dead trees, but which are actually...
A Story For The Child In All Of Us: “The Peace Book” by Todd Parr
The Peace Book delivers positive and hopeful messages of peace in an accessible, child-friendly format featuring Todd Parr's trademark bold, bright colors and silly scenes. Perfect for the youngest readers, this book delivers a timely and timeless message about the importance of friendship, caring, and acceptance.
God’s Help
Each Sunday in Lent, we hear a section from the Book of Psalms. The Psalms are prayers that the Israelites sang to God, and that we and many others continue to read and sing. Some of the psalms are happy, and some are about hard times. The psalm we will hear on Sunday was written by King David, when he was going through a VERY hard time. It...
Temptation and Trust
Have you ever had someone DARE you to do something that you didn’t want to do? Or have you ever been tempted to do something that might break a promise, hurt someone’s feelings, or upset someone?  This Sunday Lindsay Crouse will read a lesson from the Book of Luke telling about Jesus resisting temptation. This story begins right after Jesus...
Shining From Within
Have you ever taken a walk at night and looked at the stars and moon and the lights shining from houses? Have you ever been to the beach or on the water at night and seen a lighthouse casting it’s light across the water to keep boats and people safe from harm? The light of a lighthouse can be seen up to 20 miles.  Maybe you have gone by a church...
Forgiveness
In church this Sunday you will hear two stories about forgiveness. I will be reading a story from the Old Testament about Joseph. This story is not about Joseph the carpenter, who was Mary’s husband; it is about a young man named Joseph who lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born. It is one of the many stories that were read to Jesus from...
Trusting God and Blessing Others
If you made a list of all your blessings, what would you put on the list? You might list people in your family and your good friends, your pet, your neighbors or your home. On Sunday morning Jim O’Neill will read a passage from Luke. This reading is about the blessings of trusting in God and in others, and not thinking we have control of...