Over the last few months, I’ve been keeping you posted on the Books for Books project undertaken by my covenant group. (If you’re new to The Daily Voice, the first and second articles are archived on the Different Voice blog.) In summary, a literacy report stating that in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio of age-appropriate books per child is 1:300 caught the attention of our group. We dreamt up “Books for Books”. We had a used book sale and raised money to purchase new books for every child at a local elementary school.

The summer months are a good time to look at the Sunday school schedule and think creatively about the options available to you in Fall and beyond. One of those options is to hold a special event or study a special theme on the 5th Sunday of the month. All classes for all ages would engage in the event or study the topic.

Here are just a few possibilities that could be adapted for your setting:

The sign on the bulletin board caught my eye as I walked into one of my favorite cycling stores: Blessing of the Bicycles, May 26th, Faith Lutheran Church in Clive. I had to find out more, so I gave the pastor, Mark Saline, a call.

It turns out that the congregation does a number of blessing services throughout the year—a Blessing of the Backpacks at the start of the school year, a Blessing of the Keys for teens who are getting their license, and a Blessing of the Animals service on St. Francis of Assisi day. These blessing rituals are simple ways to acknowledge the things of life that are highly important at certain times in one's life, to celebrate the joys of living, and to connect theology with the real events of congregants' lives. Mark said this service was very simple—a litany, an anointing of bikes with oil, a gift of a sticker and water, and a prayer for the cyclists.

A siren
A baby crying
A teacher handing out a test
Rain
A fork

Seemingly unrelated items, each one of these things could be a prayer cue. Prayer cues are reminders to pray. Teaching children about prayer cues encourages them to make prayer a part of their everyday life.

I was recently at a warehouse sale of children’s books and noted a small section of books labeled as “Christian”. Perusing the titles, I determined that the booksellers’ requirement for a book to be displayed in this section was that it must contain the word “God”. Now if I ran the book sale… I would have a section labeled “Children’s books that convey a Christian message without ever mentioning God”. (The sign-makers would love me!) And if I ran the book sale…I would place I Love You the Purplest by Barbara M. Joose on display in this section.

Looking for a service project for a Sunday School class? Preferably one that would last several weeks, allow class members to take ownership and be actively involved in the development and execution of the project? A class of older children, youth or adults can plan, organize and carry out a recycling awareness program for your congregation.

Earth Day has come and gone this year, but our planet's environmental crises grow bigger and bigger every day. In climate science, the number 350 is a very critical number. That number represents the upper safe limit for CO² in our atmosphere, in parts per million. In other words, pump more than that number into the atmosphere, and our planet is in serious trouble. Unfortunately, we're at 388.79 and rising right now.

Global warming has been called the single greatest challenge to ever face humankind, and it is essential that churches communicate the necessity of making lifestyle changes now, not later. As Christian educators, we need to partner with effective efforts to educate people about global warming. Churches are some of our culture's institutions that are best-suited to organizing, to communicating with a large number of people, and to developing support networks. When we partner with other effective organizations, we don't have to create something new from scratch, and we build relationships with organizations in our communities that otherwise may have no association with faith groups.

A month ago I wrote about a ministry opportunity that evolved from a conversation with a friend after I read a recent study on children and literacy. The first part of Books for Books happened this past Saturday – a used book sale and coffeehouse. The second part – using the money from the sale to purchase age-appropriate books for the children at a local elementary school – will happen during the next six weeks. I had promised to keep you updated about this ministry idea as it developed.

A fun summertime intergenerational activity you can organize easily is a Hobby Expo. Many individuals in your congregation have unusual hobbies that they rarely get to share with others. At a Hobby Expo, persons who are willing to share their pastime with others have an opportunity to do so. It's a great opportunity for community building, bringing people of many generations together.

Palm Sunday worship at our church was great! In addition to sharing special music, the children of our church served as worship leaders in other capacities. They led prayer, read scripture and invited us to pass the peace to one another. It was a meaningful worship service and I heard many people comment that the kids did a fantastic job (which they did). There was only one thing that bothered me…