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 (To The Ends Of The Earth)

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for Me One who is to be Ruler of Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from anciant days. Therefore He shall give them up until the time she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace. 

—Micah 5:2-5

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 #2 on the Seeds of Christmas album: To The Ends Of The Earth.

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 1:26-56; Matthew 1:18-24

Main Point: God chose a family for Jesus.

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

Discussion Questions 

1. What special job did God give Mary? (Jesus’ mommy)

2. Who did Mary go see after the angel told her the special news? (her relative,Elizabeth)

3. What special job did God give Joseph? (Jesus’ earthly daddy)

4. Whose son is Jesus? (God’s)

Christ Connection: Many of God’s prophets talked about Jesus before He was born. Everything they said about Jesus came true. Before God created the world, He planned to send Jesus. Jesus came to do God’s plan, to rescue people from sin.

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 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

Advent CatechismThis week we will be studying chapter 3 of the Advent Catechism: Hope Dawning. We’ll also use the Seeds of Worship song for our Scripture memory verse.

HOPE DAWNING
Soon after, God sent the angel Gabriel to visit a young Jewish girl named: Mary.
Mary was frightened, but Gabriel said to her: “Do not be afraid”.
Gabriel told her that she had found great favor with God and she would be: blessed.
She was going to give birth to a king; the child would be the anticipated: Son of God.
In humble belief, Mary responded: “I am your servant”.

Scripture Memory Verses

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for Me One who is to be Ruler of Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from anciant days. Therefore He shall give them up until the time she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And He shall stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they shall dwell secure, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace. 

—Micah 5:2-5

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. (Wrapping up a month in Nepal now, headed to Vietnam.) 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