Barnabas E-News June 2010

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I wonder what's on your mind this June. Taking exams? Looking forward to the holidays? Planning a holiday club? Hoping for some outdoor activity time with your group? Or maybe working on ideas for all-age worship over the summer? It's hard to believe we are about halfway through the year already! And there aren't really that many sessions left with your teaching groups this term.

Whatever is on your mind, we hope that our Barnabas books and ideas have been useful and this month's new crop of resources will inspire you for whatever lies ahead.

What is Worship?

So, at the midpoint of the year, we thought we would focus on worship. What else should be central? And we are talking about worship in its fullest sense.

Check out:

• Exploring worship - an outline for your group and material for an all-age service that unpacks this small but very big word

• Something to shout about - a session based on Psalm 9 with ideas for a musical activity, craft, poetry and reflection

And surely worship is at heart saying 'yes' to God with our whole life. Perhaps one of the most important 'yes's of the Bible is that spoken by Mary, and not just the once.

• Mary's story - is a reflective story using pictures that explores how Mary said 'yes' to God. The whole gospel is here.

Finding our gifts for worship

We are in the season of Pentecost, celebrating how the Holy Spirit not only fills us with Jesus but also stirs up gifts within us to serve and worship God. At Barnabas we are strong advocates for children being encouraged to use their gifts in the full worshipping life of the church. But how do they discover their gifts from God? And how might they use them?

Our feature article this month by Jane Butcher opens up this whole topic:

Children have gifts too! - with a link to a website to help your group discover their spiritual gifts from God

Worship and reflection

Twice recently we have been asked to lead sessions on how to help children pray. This is an aspect of worship that we long should become part of the everyday experience of our children's walk with God. For this to happen it needs to be modelled when we meet together. How easily time for prayer and reflection slips off the agenda in our programme! Our website already has some useful ideas and articles on this. Check out:

• A huge prayer section with 40 ideas!

The following training articles:

• Children and Prayer

• With Eyes Wide Open

And dads worship too!

'Who let the dads out?' is the catchy title of a movement that is encouraging dads to get involved in toddler groups and children's work at church.

Dirk Uitterdijk wrote to us:

'I run the local "Who Let The Dads Out?" project in Chester and also work part-time for the national WLTDO? initiative. We now have 25 groups around the UK but with an estimated 27,000 parents and toddler groups run in churches attracting mainly mums, we still have room to grow!

'We are organising a special conference on Saturday, 19 June in Chester, the day before Father's Day. And did you know that Father's Day is 100 years old this year and was started by a woman in a church in America who wanted to honour her widowed dad?'

The Old Testament finishes with the verses 'turning the hearts of the fathers to their children' and the New Testament starts with these same verses by John the Baptist hundreds of years later.'

• For more information visit the Who Let The Dads Out website

400 years of worship!

2011 is the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible (also known as the Authorised Version). Barnabas has been working with the 2011Trust and will be offering special Barnabas RE Days on the Bible for primary school children as well as INSET sessions for teachers on how to handle the Bible in the classroom.

Linked to this, The People's Bible is an upcoming publication from Barnabas, which briefly outlines the story of how the Bible came to be translated into English and explores its impact on our culture. It includes a wide range of activities for children. Why not plan to include this in a programme at your church next year? There are a many other initiatives being proposed by Biblefresh, which is coordinating this year-long focus on celebrating our special book, for 2011. This book could be some useful summer reading!

And finally

Worship is an often misrepresented concept. It is far more than just a period of singing songs as part of a service in church. It is a whole-life response to God, at all times and in all places.

At a recent service of all-age worship I learned the following simple response chant. Why not try this out this month to help you and your children keep worship at the heart of all you do?

When do we worship? All the time!

When is God God? All the time!

When does God love us? All the time!

When do we worship? All the time!

With prayers for your work,

The Barnabas Team
barnabas@brf.org.uk
www.twitter.com/barnabasteam
www.barnabasinchurches.org.uk

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