Family Services
There can be mixed reactions when people realize that they have come to CORE on a morning when it’s the family service. If you’re under 11 you’re likely to run up to the front and get involved with the pre-service game that one of the family service team will be leading. If you’re a parent you may breathe a sign of relief you can be with your kids at the front of church and you won’t miss out on meeting with God because they’ll be enjoying worshipping Him as much as you. If you’re an adult with no kids you may have a whole mixture of reactions, you may even want to turn around and leave. My prayer, and the prayer of the team of volunteers that help run these family services is that this is the last thought that crosses an adult’s mind.
CORE’s Family Services are our opportunity to come together as a complete church family and together celebrate all that God has done for us, encouraging each other on in our faith, however tall or small we are. I frequently have a smile brought to my face when, at the end of the service an adult comes up to tell me how much they’ve enjoyed the service, you see, they always start with ‘I normally try to avoid the family service, but today I forgot…’!
Our main aim is to seek to discover what it means to have a ‘family’ service and not just a ‘kids’ service. I believe that’s Jesus’ heart too, but even the disciples struggled to get their heads around it (Mark 10:13-16). However, as we as a church family have been willing to engage and participate in seeking to make this a reality I believe we have all been richly blessed.
Children have been able to learn about Jesus from the teaching and testimony of members of the church, discovering what God’s up to today as well as in Biblical times; parents have found out what their children have been learning and doing in Sunday school; people of all ages have been released to use their God given gifts and everyone has had a laugh seeing me wear some very strange outfits!
If you want to find out more, come along, Family Services are on the second Sunday of the month.
