Children's Ministries at Edgewood are called Greenhouse, where kids grow like crazy! Just like a greenhouse, we believe our children's programming provides the best environment for kids to grow in their faith. It consists of full-hour children's church classes for preschoolers through third graders, 4th and 5th graders dismiss themselves to their classroom as the pastor goes up to preach. Activity Stations are set up for children of all ages to enjoy. If you have further questions regarding our children's programming, please contact Pastor Mike Giebink or Jane Neevel (324-5007).
Did you know that from the time your kids are born, until they graduate high school, you will only have 940 weeks? They grow up so fast! So I started thinking about how much time we have with them in Greenhouse. From K-5th grade, we will see your kids 40 weekends a year times 6 years (not including our summer fun.) That is only 240 weekends, or 240 HOURS! So as parents, we encourage you to be the Spiritual leader of your home!
We are excited to tell you about a new curriculum that we will be using starting in Sept. 2011. Below is just a little bit of info to help you understand the God’s Story Curriculum. We encourage you, as parents to be the spiritual leaders of your children, as we come along side and support you through your child’s spiritual journey at Edgewood.
Blessings, Jane
Gospel Story
What makes God’s Story unique? Well, it is a gospel centered curriculum for the entire family! On any given weekend all Greenhouse kids 3 years-5th grade learn the same Bible lesson. God’s Story teaches the same Bible lesson on two different learning levels, for Preschool, and Elementary. Each level is available in two parts, Old Testament and New Testament and is broken into 78 lessons each.
Get Into the Story- Having one Bible passage for everyone makes it possible for parents to follow up with their children’s lessons at home. We are excited that this program has a companion family devotional program for Monday-Friday called Get Into the Story. Now, all families will have this great tool! We will teach all the children the same lesson in Greenhouse, one week after you have spent time as a family reading and discovering what God’s Word says! We are asking parents to continue to read one lesson ahead, so that they will be ready on the weekends for the lesson. We will continue with the “Bonus Questions”!
Revealing the Gospel-Every Old Testament Lesson answers the question, “Where is Jesus?” Every New Testament Lesson answers the question, “Where is the Gospel?” It is exciting to see how we can make the most of every opportunity to share the gospel throughout the lessons. The focus is the Gospel from Genesis to Revelation, from preschool through 5th grade.
Be a Doer-Memorizing verses from the Bible can be a real challenge. With the SWORD Bible Memory Program, it will be easy. Each month all the children in Greenhouse memorize the same passage of scripture. (Take Psalm 23 for example. The preschoolers memorize the first verse, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” The younger classes add two more verses; the older classes memorize the entire Psalm). We will focus on 36 key passages that rotate one per month throughout the cycle of curriculum.
Memory verses can be said at the memory verse table before LG or in small group to their SG leader.
Beginning to End- The Gospel Story uses class progression and covers the Bible from Genesis-Revelation.
The Road to Emmaus- Each week the lesson also includes a section that is called The Road to Emmaus. This has the kids looking into how the Old Testament prophesies the coming of Jesus.
A Little More- The upper elementary kids will also be introduced to basic Theology through the part of the lesson called A Little More.
Application Activities-meaningful small group activities will also be part of the lessons. Activities will vary between the different age/grades.
Large Group/Small Group- We will continue to run Greenhouse through LG and SG format each week. 4/5th will continue to worship with their families then dismiss at the sermon and go right to Greenhouse.
Plug in- Each week, we will also get kids involved and engaged before our LG time by plugging into an activity that peaks their interest for what is to come in LG.
Bibles- We will be using the ESV version to do the majority of our teaching.
If you have any questions regarding Greenhouse at Edgewood, feel free to contact me!
Jane Neevel
Children’s Ministry Director
Edgewood Community Church
201 Edgewood Drive
Waupun, WI 53963
(920) 324-5007 ext 229
jneevel@edgewoodcommunity.org
