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 Verse (Scripture Song: Out of the Mud)

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

—Psalm 40:1-2

Listen & sing along:

Family Verses

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. We will be starting out with Volume 1 Seeds of Courage, and Out of the Mud is song #4 on that album.

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. We are currently studying the Old Testament going from Creation through the life of Joseph.

Unit Focus: God is Holy

As the rescued people of Israel traveled toward the promised land, God gave them laws to guide them in how to live and to help them understand God’s perfect holiness. God also gave rules for worship. God’s laws show that no one can keep all of them perfectly and that the only way to be right with God is through faith in Jesus.

Unit Key Passage

For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holyLeviticus 11:45

Bible Passage: Exodus 1-27

Main Point: God provided a way to forgive His people.

Big Picture Question: Who can keep God’s law? No one can keep God’s law except Jesus.

Discussion Questions

1. What do we call a gift someone gives to God? (an offering)
2. Who were leaders who helped God’s people worship God by making sacrifices? (priests)
3. What does atonement mean? (It means making right what is wrong.)
4. Why was the special sacrifice the priest offered on the Day of Atonement so important? (It paid for the sins of all the people.)

Christ Connection: The Book of Leviticus is about the sacrifices God told His people to offer. God wanted to show the Israelites that He was going to forgive people who disobeyed Him. God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the perfect sacrifice. Jesus forgives our sin for good.

Challenge Class

The Challenge Class is back (!) and will continue to study the Gospel of Mark. Mark emphasizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus announced the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, and died as a ransom for sinners. Three main groups of people are focused on in Mark: the disciples, the crowds, and the religious leaders, none of whom understood Jesus.  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 re-continue the Gospel of Mark and will focus on Mark 14: 32-52. We’ll also use the Seeds of Worship song for our Scripture memory verse. This section of Mark is where Jesus goes to a place called Gethsemane with His disciples to pray. His disciples fall asleep numerous times even though Jesus told them to be on guard and pray. After this Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Scripture Memory Verse (Out of the Mud)

I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

—Psalm 40:1-2

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?

Hannah Hoover and the World Race

We heard from our own Hannah Hoover about her joining the World Race beginning in October. (She departs this week!) 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