Children at FUMC are part of our worshiping family.

Worship is one way people and children learn to be in relationship with Christ and other Christians. Children learn to worship from their surroundings.  They learn from watching you at home and by coming to church on Sunday with their family. 

In Worship on Sunday Children will learn:

• Through repetition, the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, the Gloria Patri, and other traditional elements of worship

• Different ways to express worship, through songs and Bible readings.To be part of a Christian community  

• About and participate in Sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper

• To listen and begin to seek God’s voice and message of love and grace  

• Model for your children enthusiasm about worship through the week.  Talk about the joy and privilege of Worship. Children are always watching. Express your joy about having them in worship. Communicate expectations.  Explain to children what to expect and the order of the service.  Talk about appropriate behaviors and remind them that this is a time to focus on God.  

• Pray before arriving at worship. Give thanks for being able to worship as a family.

• Arrive in time and take care of physical needs like bathrooms, before the service.

• Find a place to sit where children can see and participate. Don’t be afraid of sitting near the front.

• Prepare children for the various parts of the worship service, explaining special events ahead of time and answering questions that need an answer "right now" in a quiet whisper.

• Allow children to place your offering in the plate or let them bring their own coins.

• Encourage children to use the children's worship activity bags (available from the ushers).

• Encourage children to bring their own Bible storybooks.

• Model for your children enthusiasm about worship through the week.  Talk about the joy and privilege of Worship. Children are always watching. Express your joy about having them in worship.  Communicate expectations.  Explain to children what to expect and the order of the service.  Talk about appropriate behaviors and remind them that this is a time to focus on God. 

• Help children memorize the Lord's Prayer, Gloria Patri, and the Doxology.

• Pray before arriving at worship.  Give thanks for being able to worship as a family.

• Arrive in time and take care of physical needs like bathrooms, before the service.
• Find a place to sit where children can see and participate. Don’t be afraid of sitting near the front.

• Review the bulletin with children to identify new or difficult words, previewing together those parts where the congregation responds by reading and speaking.

• Invite children to follow along and mark on the bulletin, put their own offering in the plate, and find the hymns and sing (go over words that they might not know in the songs).

• Use transitional times to whisper to your child something to keep them engaged in worship and will show your participation. Explain what is happening next.  Ask if they liked the song or how they felt about the prayers or what the scripture meant to them.

• Encourage children to bring their own Bibles and to follow the reading of the Scripture lesson in the Bible. Discourage items that will be a distraction and cause them to miss the opportunity to be with God.

• Ask children to remember things from the sermon like: stories, answers to questions, or important thoughts. Discuss these items on the way home.  Talk about what you learned from them.