Christian Education Building
Gathering Room - lower level
The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of each month
immediately following Time with Children
(Available only during the 11 o’clock service)
Children are encouraged to remain with their parents during the 1st service of each month
when the Lord’s Supper is celebrated.
A parent walks the child from the Sanctuary to the top of the stairs located outside the Fellowship Hall
in the Christian Education Building.
Parents return to the Sanctuary
once the person designated as “The Door Keeper”
leads the children quietly downstairs.
Immediately following the service,
a parent picks up the child from “The Door Keeper” at the entrance of the Gathering Room.
“Godly play”, known at MVPC as Children in Worship, describes a way of spiritual formation that creates a sacred space as a way to present the stories of our faith. This approach, authored by Jerome Berryman, also presents children with open-ended opportunities to engage the story on their own terms.
The stories from the Bible are told very simply, with simple props, and without interpretation or moral instruction. After a story is presented, the children and the storyteller wonder together about aspects of the story that draw their interest. After a time of exploring the story with wondering, the story is put away, the children choose the art supplies they would like to work with, and they spend some time creating whatever they choose, in response to what they feel is most important or most interesting in the story.
According to Jerome Berryman: “This is play. It is Godly. It is meeting God along with children rather than teaching them what we adults think they ought to know. Our faith stories are very powerful and offer plenty to think about even without our elaboration on what they mean.”
The order of worship in Children in Worship is modeled after the order of worship used each Sunday in the sanctuary. As children graduate from Children in Worship they should be enabled to participate more fully in the regular worship service.
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