For families and children
Worship. Wonder. Play. Find yourself in God’s story. Our church believes in the power that stories have to connect us with God, and no one is more in tune with stories than kids. From babies to young adults, our Kids Church program is centered on sharing stories from the Bible as we worship, wonder, and play together in community.
Online Resources for This Season
Just like our main Sunday Services, our Kids and Youth programs are also taking place online these days. We’re hosting online meetings for Preschool and Elementary kids on Sunday mornings and Youth Group on Sunday afternoons. We also post videos and other online resources here to help you and your family access our Kids and Youth Curriculum and stay spiritually connected in this time of physical distancing.
Preschool and Kindergarten
Our Families Pastor, Kim Messenger, brings a story from the Godly Play curriculum from her home to yours via Zoom on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM and via the video recordings listed here. Contact Kim at kim@reservoirchurch.org with questions, or to learn ways you can get connected to our community of families. She’d love to add you to her weekly family email.
Stories:
- Trading Burden for Blessing
- God’s Gift of Creation
- Jesus and Creation, Parts I and II
- Jesus and Creation, Part III
Elementary School
Our Kids Pastor, Dan Archibald, holds short weekly Zoom gatherings for kids in 1st through 5th grade on Sundays at 9:30-10 AM. Dan also shares his weekly stories in text and video here. Email dan@reservoirchurch.org if you would like to take part.
Reservoir Values
The Acts of the Apostles
- An Ending and a Beginning (May 3, 2020) (Video version here)
- Kingdom Power In Jerusalem (May 10, 2020) (Video version here)
- Not Unclean (May 17, 2020) (Video version here)
- Moved By the Spirit (May 24, 2020) (Video version here)
- Seeing the Light (June 7, 2020) (Video version here)
- Spreading the Good News (June 14, 2020) (Audio version)
- Rules for Following Jesus (June 21, 2020) (Audio version)
- All About Paul (June 28, 2020) (Audio version)
Youth Group – Middle and High School
Youth Group is a safe place where youth learn how to integrate God’s story into their understanding of the world and their own lives. Each person is celebrated for who they are as an individual and as an integral part of our diverse community. Youth are equipped with a variety of exploratory and meditative tools to engage with Jesus and tell their own stories, as they work to make earth more like heaven. Youth Pastor Tory Tolles is connecting with Youth Group members one-on-one and organizing a variety of virtual gatherings. Email her at tory@reservoirchurch.org to connect with the community.
Our Jesus-Centered Faith and Anti-Racism
In this season we’re devoting ourselves to encouraging and doing work of antiracism and justice together. We want to help our preschoolers, elementary kids and youth confront racism from the perspective of a Jesus-centered faith, and to make church a safe place for them to talk about how they are affected by racism. One way we’re doing that is through our Guest Reader Program, which invites guest readers and storytellers who are people of color or parents raising children of color to share stories with the children during Kids Church on Sundays. If you’d like to be a Guest Reader some time, please contact Kim or Dan @reservoirchurch.org.
GUEST READER STORIES
- Dumpling Dreams, by Carrie Clickard and Illustrated by Katy Wu (July 19) read by Linda Kang
More thoughts from Kim, July 2020:
Steve Watson recently wrote about three goals currently animating the work of the church’s staff and we hope the work of the Reservoir community: Alongside, promoting physical health and public safety in the ways we do church together this year and continuing to offer spiritual and social connection with God and one another, we are devoting ourselves to becoming a community of deeper belonging and healing for all our members, and to encouraging and doing work of antiracism and justice together.
Along these lines, we want to help children, our preschoolers and elementary kids and youth, confront racism from the perspective of a Jesus-centered faith. We want to make church a safe place for them to talk about how they are affected by racism. One way is what we’re calling our Guest Reader Program. We’re inviting guest readers and storytellers who are people of color to share stories with the children during Kids Church on Sundays. About once a month, our Guest Readers will be reading picture books and telling stories that invite children to see themselves in the stories shared and in the faces of the storytellers. We hope this kind of storytelling helps children feel affirmed as God’s beloved ones in all their uniqueness, equipped to talk about racism and courageous to become anti-racist themselves.
To kick things off, Linda Kang visited the preschool Kids Church on Sunday, July 19 and the elementary Kids Church on Sunday, July 26. Linda is a long-time member of Reservoir. She and her husband Brian have two daughters in elementary Kids Church and have volunteered for several years in the classrooms. In raising two Asian-American children, Linda feels it is important for all children to feel special and loved equally by God. Linda shared the picture book Dumpling Dreams: How Joyce Chen Brought the Dumpling from Beijing to Cambridge, by Carrie Clickard and illustrated by Katy Wu. Linda asked the children to wonder about their names and share about favorite family foods. She shared a bit of her own story and affirmed that God knows our names and loves each of us for all of who we are. We hope Linda’s visit with the children inspired further conversations for families at home.
In an on-going effort related to the Guest Reader Program, we’ve been slowly acquiring books for our classrooms that represent the diversity of the children in our rooms. Whenever possible we look for books about faith topics, but we also value books that feature children of color simply being children–welcoming new siblings, learning new skills, etc. We want the children to have great books to come back to once we return to campus and a rich list of titles for our guest readers to choose from. We welcome any book recommendations you have along these lines. Please send them our way.
Also, please let us know if you’d like to be a Guest Reader some time. We’re hoping to make this a regular monthly part of our children’s programming. You can contact any of us to let us know:
kim@reservoirchurch.org, dan@reservoirchurch.org and lindainkang@gmail.com.