Advent season is upon us! In our desire to equip parents as they “train their children up in the way they should go,” we have created a blog series to communicate the lessons our kids will be learning each Sunday, family verses to memorize together, and resources to help you as the parent to disciple your children.

Renew Kids

The word “disciple” means to intentionally impact the life of someone in the direction of being more like Jesus.

Disciples follow Jesus and help others follow Him too.

Every week faithful servants enter into this discipleship process with the children in Renew Kids. Their are three classes every Sunday: Nursery (ages birth-3), Primary (ages 3-6), and Challenge (ages 6-9).

This Week’s Family Verses (Call His Name Immanuel)

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive an bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 

—Isaiah 7:14

Family Verses & Scripture Songs

We are trying something new for our family verses. Music is a great way to help us memorize and to have fun doing it. Our family verses will be from the Seeds Family Worship. During the Advent season we will be singing Seeds of Christmas. This weeks verse is #3 on the Seeds of Christmas album: Call His Name Immanuel.

Primary Class 

Our curriculum for the Primary class comes from The Gospel Project for Kids and systematically teaches the stories of the Bible starting in Genesis and finishing in Revelation.

Unit Focus: Christmas

God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to be born as a baby in humble surroundings. Jesus was no ordinary baby. He was the One who would save God’s people from their sin. Christmas is the time to celebrate God’s greatest gift of Jesus Christ.

Unit Key Passage

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. —Galatians 4:4-5

Bible Passage:  Luke 2:1-20

Main Point: Jesus was born as God promised.

Big Picture Question: Why was Jesus born? Jesus was born to rescue us.

Discussion Questions 

1. In what town was Jesus born? (Bethlehem)

2. Where did Joseph and Mary have to stay since the town was full? (a place where animals were kept)

3. Who appeared to the shepherds? (an angel)

4. What did the shepherds do after they saw Baby Jesus? (They praised God and told everyone about Jesus.)

Christ Connection:  Jesus was born! This was very good news! Jesus was not like other babies. Jesus is God’s Son. God sent Jesus to earth from heaven. Jesus came into the world to save people from their sins and to be their King

Christmas Project

The Primary class will continue learning the song Silent Night this week. They will be singing along with the Challenge class in front of the church family on December 18th at the end of our regular church service. This is the version they will be learning, although they are only singing the first 2 verses, and it would be great if they could practice at home:

Challenge Class

The Challenge Class will continue studying the Advent Catechism as we enter into the Christmas season. In the Challenge Class we focus on learning to study and read the bible and learn what God is trying to tell us through scripture.

Challenge Study

This week we will be studying chapter 4 of the Advent Catechism: Beyond Belief. We’ll also use the Seeds of Worship (Christmas) song for our Scripture memory verse.

Advent Catechism, week 4: Beyond BeliefBEYOND BELIEF
Mary was betrothed (engaged) to be married to an honorable man named: Joseph.
When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, he didn’t: believe.
She couldn’t be pregnant because Mary was a: virgin.
So God sent an angel to convince him this was good; this was the work of the: Holy Spirit.
Joseph believed God and took Mary as his: wife.

Scripture Memory Verse

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive an bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 

—Isaiah 7:14

Discussion:

In the Challenge Class we really encourage the kids to ask questions and think about how the scripture is alive for them today. We would really like encourage the parents to continue to model this at home with open ended questions about the scripture we are studying. The goal of the Challenge Class is for the kids to be able to read and study the bible themselves with the help of their parents and teachers as they grow in Christ.

Ideas:

  • Where do we see the gospel in this Scripture?
  • How does this scripture apply to your life?
  • What does this scripture tell you about God?
  • What did you learn this week?

Christmas Project

The Challenge class will continue learning the ASL for the song Silent Night this week. They will be singing and signing  along with the Primary class in front of the church family on December 18th at the end of our regular church service. This is the ASL they will be learning and it would be great if they could practice at home:

Hannah Hoover and the World Race

We heard from our own Hannah Hoover about her joining the World Race beginning in October. (She’s in Vietnam now!) The Challenge Class is excited to follow her during this journey and are committing to praying for her regularly. Here is the link to her blog: Hannah Hoover