Where our Kid Zone came from and how It Got to where it is.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

For years we have had one morning service and one children's worship. In 2004 we began have two morning worship services, but decided to have only one children's worship during the 2nd service.  The main reasons I originally chose to have only one children's worship was thinking that families with young children weren't going to attend the early service, then beginning at 8:00 AM. Those that did come usually came in late and their number was few. And I knew it was going to be a lot more work on my shoulders.

Beginning in January of 2005, we moved our early service to 8:30AM and started a children's worship hour for 3 years to 3rd Grade. Some of the reasoning behind the new kids service was to make the first service meeting time just as valuable and family friendly as the second. Our numbers in the first service increased and our initaial first service children's worship included 12 kids. A surprising start.  We have four teams that staff that first service, though they are far from full, and four teams that staff our second service children's worship, which we call Kid Zone. 

Kid Zone had and continues to be quite a production. It contains puppets, videos, drama, songs, object lessons, and few games and quite a bit of multimedia and lighting. Along with four staffed teams of volunteers (volunteer once a month), Kid Zone also has three other full time staff members (volunteer each week) and myself. This has given us much stability and the ability to do quite a bit more each week. Kids also go straight from Bible Classes into Kid Zone which gives us a bit more time.

Our new, First Service Children's Church which still doesn't have a proper name, is a shorter, modified version of Kid Zone. Kids begin in the main worship service and are dismissed about ten minutes into the service.

Any month with a fifth Sunday in it, we do not meet for children's church. We do not meet during most special services. Baptisms are an important part of our church life and anytime someone decides to become a Christian, we are notified and the children come in and sit at the front of the auditorium for the baptism.

Kid Zone has changed formats over the years. We continue to adjust and experiment with methods to teach and engage kids in worship. I have found short segments, that change quickly work. We move from puppets to drama or singing, or storytelling. We also have started making videos for use in Kid Zone.