What a melodious sound to hear little footsteps as they enter the sanctuary every Wednesday morning!  At the beginning of this school year, we started a new form of worship experience with our children called “Worship and Wonder” which is held every Wednesday morning at 8:35 a.m.  This program grew out of the desire of our staff to give even our youngest children a place where they can worship, praise, and learn about their Heavenly Father within a setting that has been specifically suited to their developmental needs.  The worship experience builds on our weekly bible curriculum that the teachers use in their classrooms.

Worship and Wonder begins from the moment they step out of their classroom door and hear the song “God loves you and I love you and that’s the way it’s gonna be!” This song is our call for all the children to come from their various places in the building and gather for worship.  Our PreK classes go to our toddler classes to pick up their “chapel buddies” before heading into the sanctuary.  As the children are situated in the sanctuary we sing additional songs that may incorporate concepts from our thematic curriculum and give the children a balance of active and more contemplative praise.

Our Worship and Wonder service follows a simple liturgy that the children pick up very quickly.  After opening songs, we have an invocation, litany, and prayer that use simple language the children can understand.  We have taken time to explain the different parts of the service to our older children so they can recognize and look forward to the structure.  Our prayer is a beautiful little song we came across last year that asks God to “hear your little children and bless us in our school today.” Each of the classes sings this in the morning at their Jesus time as well.  How wondrous to see even our young two year olds fold their hands and sing this prayer!  One of our young toddler mothers asked us for the words this week as she has been finding her son waking up at night singing the phrase from the song asking God to help us be “more like Jesus every day.”

After the prayer we retell the bible story of the week using an interesting visual prop such as a flannel board, puppets, or stand up characters.  Different church and school staff members take turns telling the bible story to allow for a diversity of experiences.  As part of the storytelling, we “wonder” about the implications of the story in the lives of our children.  After the story we have a prayer and conclude with several more active songs of praise.  As children leave they are given the benediction for Jesus to bless their day.  The children enjoy this so much they are often moved to spontaneously give hugs to each other or those who have helped lead Worship and Wonder.

Over the last few weeks I have been caught by the many ways our Wednesday worship is changing the faith life our community.

When we were learning about creation, the children learned a simple phrase “God made (frogs)!  (Frogs) are beautiful!” We filled in different parts of God’s creation.  One day when a little boy brought in the first picture of his new little sister, the children were moved to happily call out “God made Shannon!  Shannon is beautiful!”

Parents are understanding the importance of worship in their children’s lives.  Parents told me how it has become a priority for them to come in time for Worship and Wonder.  Several parents also stay and worship with their children before they head off to work.  What a glorious way of supporting their children’s faith lives!

Some children are so enthusiastic to come to worship, they maneuver through the other children to sit in the front row.  Imagine that!

Staff members have found that this is also a time of worship for them and a time that they look forward to spending with the children each week.

As you sit in the pew each Sunday morning, consider all the little voices which have been praising our creator in the sanctuary each week!

Cori Berg
CDC Director