Prayer, Welcome and GENESIS DNA!

• Devotional with Aneena Ananth: One Hour a Week!

   Proverbs 22:6 – Bring up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not            depart from it. 
  

Parents often see the discipleship of their children as the responsibility of the church or the children’s ministry. However, looking at the rope representing a whole week, the amount of time we as the children’s ministry actually have (1 hour) is tiny. Yet the majority of believers accepted Christ as a child. Every moment matters! Every moment we have on a Sunday morning with the kids in front of us matters immensely.

Serving In GENESIS Kids with our GENESIS DNA

• Serving with a team mentality in unlikely places and spaces Serving with JOY and with our GENESIS values, serving as you’ve been served and loving as you’ve been loved

  • Serving Unconditionally, Titus 3:5, “He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”
  • Serving Sacrificially, Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” there is a cost... there is time you set aside to be prepared, to have your lesson ready, to wake up early etc.
  • **Serving Joyfully, Hebrews 12:2, “**We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.” No matter what is going on, we lead with Joy!
  • Our desire is for every child to have a living faith

• Serving with our GENESIS Attitudes and Behaviors

  • Gratitude, We are always thanking, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, Ephesians 1:16. We serve in thankfulness that God has saved each one of us and has placed in a position of being His witness to those around us.  We are thankful that parents and families are willing to share their most precious resources with us, their children.
  • Intentionality, we are focused on doing the will of God like Jesus was! We have thought and prepared our best for kids, and we are not being hindered by anything or anyone who seeks to derail the mission of helping all kids walk with God. Our personal walk with God helps keep us focused on God’s direction for our lives and the children we have the opportunity we have to make an impact on.
  • Excellence, we have high expectations and standards for GK because we want to reflect the excellence of Christ, His truths and the Gospel, therefore we come in prepared, ready to lead kids with the best we have!

Overview: serving in GK at Woburn Memorial High School

• Slides of WMHS are numbered 4 through 10 on the provided Slide Deck
• Programming will be available for infants up to 4th graders!
• Parents will check in at the KIDS Welcome Desk and drop them off at their assigned classroom tables, children will be walked by parents directly to age/graded tables.
• Babies, toddlers and preschoolers (age up to 4 years old) will have a space of their own in the cafeteria. It is located on the right hand side as soon as you walk into the cafe.
• Kindergarten through 4th grade will be in the main cafeteria and enjoy:
  • Time of worship through song and story
  • Craft or other activity related to the bible story
  • Connection with other children in their grade
• Who will the coordinators be? (Jennabeth, Jane, Rachel, Alicia, Helen, there will be 2 per service)
• If you aren’t scheduled and want to serve, please come! With your shirt/lanyard and we will fnd a spot for you! See Jennabeth or Jane for direction regarding where to jump in.
• HUDDLE: We are asking team members to be there 30 minutes before the service for the huddle and to be in place. So if you are serving at 9, your Huddle begins at 8:30, serving at 10:30, arrive for Huddle at 10am.

Safety and Details at WMHS

• What will it be like (how will classrooms etc. be broken into groups)?
  • Kid’s will be in 2 groups, 0-4 years (Garage, Station 1 and Station 2), and then 5 years through 4th grade. Children going into 5th grade will be encouraged to join their family in the worship service.
  • Activity bags will be available for kid’s who prefer to sit in the service.
  • 5 year olds and older kid’s will be in groups by the grade they are entering, the tables will have a grade listed on it so that parents know which table their child belongs at.
  • Parents will be encouraged to bring kids to the bathroom before the service, since there is only 1 kid’s bathroom and it is a bit of a walk.
  • The floors at WMHS will be slippery as they will have just been waxed. There can be no running at all in GK especially at WMHS. The floors are also hard and are a safety concern, please be cautious.
  • Kids will be checked in as normal at the Welcome Desk, however there is no copier/printer for printing rosters. Small group leaders at each table will keep a handwritten roster.
  • 5 year olds and up will have one large group lesson together lead by 1 teacher each week. Small group leaders will need to assist with managing the kids in the grade they are helping with.
  • GENESIS’ Nehemiah team will keep GK safe

Questions and Answers re: WMHS

• Can I bring a drink? Genesis hospitality will be offering small water bottles because no coffee/food is allowed in the auditorium. GK team members may bring water/coffee with a lid into the cafeteria space (Puffs will still be available for early childhood kids)
• What will be the rule for kids that check in after services start? Welcome Desk will have activity bags available for kids not getting checked in.
• Are we bringing Bibles? No, not for everyone. They’re heavy! Each teacher will have a bin with materials a Bible for their table.
• How will check-out work? Similar, they still need to show their ticket to pick up. You will cross off the child’s name on your handwritten roster when they are picked up.
• What games/activities will there be for when kids are coming in or leaving or if there is extra time? Tabletop games like Uno/Spot-it, or make up your own games, coloring
• What is the containment plan for the nursery? Baby gates to close off the exit. Some combination of gates and tables to mark different age spaces.
• At the welcome desk, will the whole family present go back to drop off? Are we asking just one adult to drop off to limit the number of people moving through the cafeteria space? Especially at the beginning, people will be interested. We won’t stop people from going back, especially if they have multiple kids. But we will encourage families to simplify and limit the number of people as much as possible.
• Talk about classroom management – how will we enforce rules when kids are distracting others? 3-strike system? Due to safety, it will not be 3 strikes. Use your coordinators or extra volunteers as needed, and let’s not allow things to escalate. Ultimately if a child is being unsafe, we will get the parent.
• From a sound perspective – How far is the auditorium space from the Kids space? Will they hear us or we hear the worship? The auditorium space is very noise proof so they won’t hear us and we won’t hear them.
• GK Unlimited will not be able to happen at the High School.

Overview: serving in GK at 11 State Street

• Breakdown of classrooms, this is NEW for 11 State!

  • 0-24 months (Nursery)
  • 2’s and 3’s
  • 4’s and 5’s
  • K and 1st Grade
  • 2nd and 3rd Grade
  • 4th and 5th Grade
  • GK Unlimited
  • GK Worship Center

  The age/grade groupings will be smaller This makes it possible to have smaller groups and make lessons more developmentally appropriate. These are also the NAMES of the classrooms. We do have a flex space so that if there are particular grade levels with large groups, they can be further broken out.

• Bin system for supplies for the month will be available and each classroom will have cabinets with resources available to you. (i.e. bins of glue sticks, markers, pencils, etc…) Additional resources will be available in the flex space. We want to keep the classrooms free of clutter so it’s clear what is general supplies and what is specific to the lesson.

• Pick up and drop off: There is one entrance to GK, through the welcome desk area. Families and team will always enter that way. There is a second stairwell in the back for exit with a coordinator at the top and Nehemiah member at the bottom so it is one way. Exceptions will be made for special needs, strollers, etc.. that might require the elevator.

• Similar to Woburn High, there will be 2 coordinators per service, one toward the front and one toward the back of GK.

• Huddles will happen in the worship center so they can start even while dismissal is occurring from the previous service.

• Team members are welcome to be present for family tours that will be offered for 11 State so kids and families can be familiar with teachers that will be in their classrooms.

• If you notice that a kid’s tag is incorrect (i.e it says 3rd grade but they are actually in 2nd grade), encourage the parent to go to the Welcome Desk to fix it. You can also highlight that information to Welcome Desk. We can only fix it if we know! It is important for kids to be in the right place because the lessons are designed for each specific age.

• 4th & 5th Kids will not be worshipping in the service, so teachers will need to be at the Huddles and ready to go. They may have their worship in the Student Center.

Serving in Teams

• Sit one/Serve one, We are looking to work in teams so there is consistency of leaders for kids and a strong team mindset.
• Serving as a team (2 weeks on, 2 weeks off), for some, you like to serve every week, and we are grateful, a team approach means that someone else can lead and you can serve as a small group leader, so you are helping someone else strengthen their teaching skills.
• Lead teacher’s can take their “off” week to train up a new lead teacher.
• Arriving on time (if you are serving at 2nd service you need to leave during the closing song and make it upstairs in time for the Huddle which will take place in the Worship Center).
• There will likely be more new kids and families as we start because people will be curious, so being prepared especially for visitors is critical, being generous with your time with all the new folks is a high priority, we serve as Jesus did, in relationship and the connections you make are an opportunity for people to experience the love of Christ.
• As the weeks unfold, things will change, and we are grateful in advance for your flexibility and understanding as we begin.
• Your feedback is necessary for the things we aren’t seeing and the potential concerns you might see coming that we have missed.
• Each classroom will be stocked with essentials, but supplies will be kept in the 5th grade flex classroom.
• We want to keep rooms clean and free of clutter.
• Less stuff is “more” as we get to know the space and the feel of our new home.

Questions and Answers re: 11 State St.

• In the spirit of keeping things clean, how are we thinking about toys? There will still be toys, even some fun new things, but they may be in rotation so there are fewer out at a time.
• What are the exit protocols, emergency protocols? For Woburn High, we will show you evacuation plans when we are in the space. We are using the school’s evacuation plan. For 11 State, that is being finalized and will be shared as soon as it is ready.
• Where do we keep bags/coats/purses/lanyards? Each classroom will have a dedicated volunteer-stuff area. For welcome desk, there will be a designated area in the closet.
• Will serving in pairs/teams apply to Unlimited as well? Consistency for them is so important. Yes!
• Class size – is there a limit for each room? Would we combine with small attendance? Are the rooms big enough to do separate small groups? Classrooms are large and will have space for small groups. Size limits vary since each room and age is different.
• If sibling pairs are close in age, would we split them in separate classrooms? That will be a a case-by-case decision by Jennabeth.
• Since we get to do the drywall and all that, will the classrooms be soundproof from one another? Yes! Walls! And Doors! And Ceilings!
• Are there locks? Yes the doors have the ability to lock (for emergency purposes) but should not be locked on a Sunday morning.

Break-Out Session by age and grade groupings

Serving in GK as a Team member and GENESIS Leadership expectations

Upcoming GK Dates