Classroom Skills Applied

The life of an intern…well it’s learning to juggle many tasks at once. Let me start off by saying that there are several times within the church year when one is bound to feel like there are never enough hours in the day. Fall kick off (Rally Day) is one of those times. I am incredibly blessed to have been taught and mentored by several great people in preparation for these times. My professors, field work supervisor Andy, and my involvement in activities as a High School youth.

So here I am, end of summer gearing up for all things church. I rather enjoy working on many things at once as it keeps my life interesting. My past few weeks have been focused on Children’s Church. Children’s Church would be the equivalent of Sunday School except that it takes place during the church service. The format for Children’s Church is “Rotational”. It’s funny how I recall sitting back in the college classroom reading about the different types of Sunday School and here I am using one of those types-Workshop Rotational Model. The Workshop Rotational Model (in a larger setting) means teachers stay-put for our three week tours of duty in the workshop medium of their choice -- teaching nearly the same lesson each week to different classes which rotate through. Classes rotate into a different workshop each week but stay with the same story three weeks, learning it in-depth through a variety of media like games, crafts, music, Bible Story etc.

Our curriculum for Children’s Church is not pre-packaged but rather we ordered a VBS curriculum and from that re-wrote it for a Children’s Church format. I took each area (craft, game, music, Bible Study) and went through to select material that would fit with a smaller group, and stay within the time frame.

In addition to selecting and re-working the curriculum I got to put my volunteer recruitment skills to work. Another thing that I learned all about in the college classroom came to life. It was slightly challenging since some of last year’s volunteers had stepped down, and since Children’s Church happens during the church service some do not wish to miss worship, but with the guidance of Pastor and Ericka we filled the positions. For anyone reading who has ever been a volunteer for anything, church related or not, you really deserve a pat on the back. So many things could not be done without volunteers so THANK YOU!

So Children’s Church keeps me mildly busy, and there is also confirmation. Confirmation here is team taught with Pastor and myself. The confirmands and their parents meet once a month for a “mini retreat” at the parsonage. One month I teach the youth while pastor instructs the parents, and the next month I teach the parents and pastor teaches the youth. Since we meet once a month three lessons are covered at each 3 hour retreat. This makes me really get to read into the curriculum and pick the stuff that is really important and leave out the less important items.

Another thing that is a continuous mission is selecting music, singing and playing guitar at the once monthly connections service. I am recruiting potential guitar players, and additional vocalist so if you’re interested it would be much appreciated. I should also note that I will be offering free guitar lessons this fall in an effort to set up a rotation for this worship service.

And Then there are my youth. I love my youth so much. I love watching their sporting activities, getting to know them and I love that although they are small in numbers we join in to make big things happen. Starting this Sunday I am teaching Youth Group based on the PULSE Concordia Publishing House curriculum. I am excited to start and look forward to hearing the youth’s ideas for the upcoming year’s events.

There are of course other day to day tasks, meetings, phone calls, e-mails, sending out Birthday and thank you cards, and parent letters but those are all behind the scene stuff.

So there is a lot going on, but once fall kicks off the rhythm of ministry will beat like a drum. As I mentioned before I am so glad that I had people to prepare me for these moments, in preparation for internship. As I always say the life of an intern is never dull! :)