It's no secret that times are tough in many communities across our nation. Charitable organizations, homeless and battered women's shelters, and churches are experiencing high demand for their services. Your congregation can have a huge impact on an organization--and learn a lot in the process about how our everyday skills can have a possitive effect on others--by planning an A.H.A. (All Hands Activated) Month.

Start by choosing an organization to assist. The ideal organization would be one that has a small staff but which offers many services, such as a shelter. Set up a meeting with the staff to talk about what their needs are, especially anything that never seems to get done. Get as long a list together as possible, with details about such things as specific hours or days the work needs to be done, supplies available, and specific skill requirements. Find out if they would like to have congregation members contact a specific person or phone number. 

Increasingly in many congregations, visitors do not attend a worship service, instead taking part only in Christian education classes or other mid-week groups. If your congregation is only collecting the names and addresses of those in worship, you may be missing an opportunity to provide great hospitality to those who take part only in other activities.

Provide your teachers with a simple contact card that they can give to and ask visitors to fill out. If your budget will allow it, also have teachers give small folders or envelopes available to give guests with such items as a church brochure, a business card, a Christian education guide, a notice about the church's child and youth protection policy, a guide to your church library, a map of the room locations, a magnet, an imprinted pen, and so on. I also recommend putting together a list of recommended reading and websites so that individuals who are new to progressive theology can begin to explore this topic on their own if it interests them.

Children know about friendships. And they know that friends don’t always get along. So they will definitely be able to identify with the main characters in the book, When Pigasso met Mootisse by Nina Laden.

When you are a child, starting a new school year is an important event. It takes preparation – getting school supplies and sometimes new clothes. It invokes anticipation and sometimes trepidation – Who will my teacher be? Will I be in the same class as my friends? And as a child advances to a new grade, it is a visible recognition that he or she is growing up. Even as an adult, I find that there is something special about the start of the school year.

Going to school is the “work” that children do. It occupies a large amount of their time. Learning is their job. As the beginning of the new school year approaches, churches have an opportunity to affirm the work of our children and to encourage them to share God’s love as they learn about God’s world. One way to do this is to have a Blessing of the Backpacks the Sunday before school starts. This is also a good time to affirm the work of those adults involved in education – teachers, parents, cafeteria workers, custodians, school secretaries, etc.

“God, we ask that you be with each person in this class during the upcoming week.” The children jump up and immediately begin high-fiving one another while saying each person’s name. Each child shares a high-five with every other child in the class before sitting down again. When the last child sits down, the entire class shouts, “Amen.”

Has the teacher lost control of this class? No, the children have just prayed for one another.

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.