Author: The Rev. Rachel Pedersen

Last Sunday was an incredible reminder of how many people come together to make Children’s Ministry possible at BMPC. As I watched our students filter out of the sanctuary to head to their summer Sunday school classroom, I knew that they were being met by a loving team of volunteers who were ready to squeeze lemons, answer important questions, and help our students engage in mission in a new way. I also recognized many of you who have been praying for those same students throughout the year, watching as they passed by on their way to their classroom. Out on the front lawn, I watched as you engaged with our students as they asked you for money, taking their request seriously, and honoring their hard work. I also knew that a few years ago, when one of our families was facing a new cancer diagnosis, you were there with meals and offers of support. I saw you greet children by name, having met them during Vacation Bible Camp or when you jumped in as an emergency volunteer one Sunday morning.

Children’s Ministry is a team sport, and we have an incredible team at BMPC! It is not defined by a particular skill set, but by a common calling to encourage and nurture our children as they grow in faith.

As you consider the year ahead, I wonder if you might be interested in joining? Sometimes this ministry area is a little sticky and a little noisy, but it is filled with joy, grace, and hope. There are many different ways you can support children at BMPC—that might be as a regular volunteer or stepping in with an occasional project. You might have time on Sunday morning or be able to give time throughout the week. If you’re interested, look at the options below, fill out our interest form, or simply ask. We can’t wait to welcome you!

Children’s Ministry Volunteer Interest Form:
Supporting Children’s Ministry at BMPC! – Fill out form

Here’s a Description of Different Volunteer Opportunities: 

Sunday Morning Opportunities

• Sunday Morning Greeting (Sundays 9:45-10:15 a.m. or 10:45-11:15 a.m.)
  Help welcome families to church and assist with Family Fellowship (i.e., you help serve ALL the cookies). Greeters ideally volunteer once a month.
• Sunday Morning Classroom Volunteer (Sundays 9:50-11:00 a.m.)
  Volunteer with a particular classroom as either a lead teacher—presenting the lesson—or as a helper assisting in a classroom. Lead teachers typically volunteer 2-3 times a month and classroom helpers 1-2 times a month.
• Emergency Volunteers (Sundays)
  Occasional colds, unexpected tournaments, or a last-minute flat tire can stop a volunteer. We have a list of emergency volunteers whom we contact in case of an emergency to help fill in when a regular teacher is unavailable.

Special Events and Programs

• Choristers and Junior Choristers (Wednesdays 4:50-6:00 p.m.)
  Sign up to assist with Jr. Choristers (PreK-1st grade) or with choristers (2nd-5th grade) on Wednesday afternoons. Volunteers typically volunteer 2 times a month during the program year.
• 4th-7th Grade Wednesday Fellowship (Wednesdays 6:45-8:00 p.m.)
  Join our 4th-7th graders as they build community, explore faith, and have a blast during a Wednesday night fellowship program. This is a new program; we hope volunteers can join 1-2 times a month.
• Mission Projects (Occasional Throughout the year)
  Often Sunday after church or on Saturdays, we try to provide opportunities
• Special Events Advent Workshop and Live Nativity (Dec. 6th)
  Help families step into the mystery of Advent through special projects, characters, and a few visiting animals!
• Special Events Vacation Bible Camp (June 21-26, 2027)
• Special Events Fellowship Events (throughout the year)
  Help with movie nights, caroling, Quizzo, and more.

Nurturing and Encouraging

• Prayer Partners (throughout the year)
  Pray for a small group of students throughout the year. We are currently looking for an additional 8 prayer partners to ensure that all 527 children on our rolls have someone praying for them throughout the year. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/PrayerPartner2026
• New Life Casseroles and Deliveries (occasionally)
  Help make casseroles and deliver to families welcoming a new child or a family facing an unexpected emergency. We make casseroles quarterly and deliver as needed.

Setting Children and Volunteers Up for Success

• Powell Memorial Library Volunteer
  Help log new books and reshelve our collection of children’s books. You can schedule the best time that works for you.
• Classroom or Event Preparation
  Do you love cutting through lamination? Organizing crayons? Dividing Legos? A team of dedicated volunteers gives their time setting up, prepping, and setting everything in motion for our students to thrive!

If you’ve come by the church over the past week, you have heard children playing, songs being sung, crafts being crafted, and the word “Hope” shouted with enthusiasm. You would see youth leading and an intergenerational team of volunteers creating an incredible experience for our campers. Each year, I marvel at the way people come together to make VBC a powerful and caring experience for our children and our larger church. This week was no different, as over 90 volunteers helped our campers experience the story of Daniel and the promise that God is with us.

On Sunday, you will have the opportunity to experience just a taste of camp. On the Atrium wall, you will see large flowers blooming. Each petal represents a prayer. Some are easily discernible, others require a careful eye, and a few have a random game of tic-tac-toe preserved in a magic marker, but each individual petal is a prayer offered by one of our campers. Later in the day, youth volunteers combined the petals to make different flowers. One commented, “It’s like they trusted us with their prayers and now we’re holding them.”

It’s humbling to think of the chain of connections. On Sunday, you will see the completed flower; a flower formed and completed by a young volunteer, made of petals decorated by a camper, that were first cut out by a volunteer in early May. A prayer that started as a piece of construction paper and ended in a burst of color. A prayer that all of us can take a little responsibility for. But it is a prayer that doesn’t end. As you are walking towards Congregational Hall, I have one favor to ask. You will notice the names of our campers written on the stars. I ask you to pause for just a few seconds, choose a name, and offer a prayer for that child. A prayer asking that they will continue to experience God’s close presence no matter where they go next, a request that God holds them close, like a petal in our hands.

A special thank you to everyone who helped make camp such a special experience: our families who trusted us with their children for the week; our campers who brought energy and joy throughout our campus and into the community; staff and volunteers who worked behind the scenes; volunteers who planned, prepared, and led our activities; youth who gave their summer to serve others; and a loving God who held it all together.

Just in case you missed out this year: VBC 2027 is only 360 days away! 🙂

A few weeks ago, I was enthusiastically sharing information about our upcoming VBC (June 22-26).  I was deep into the daily reflection questions, plans for decorating, and the eternal question about snacks, when my friend interrupted me.

“Wait, did I hear you correctly? You’re taking the students to Babylon? Isn’t Babylon supposed to be bad!?!”

Indeed, from their rise as a neighboring empire to their eventual conquest of the land to their New Testament role as a stand-in for everything bad and ominous, Babylon was often shown as counter to what God wanted.  Babylon was the anti-Jerusalem; it was not a place you wanted to go, and going there was dangerous.  And yet, God’s people spent a generation in Babylon.  It was there that the prophet Jeremiah told them to plant gardens and pray for the peace of the city.  It was there that Isaiah had his visions of a desert and a people restored.  It was in Babylon that young people taken into exile found a place to practice their faith.

This year, we are going to Babylon.  Not because it is easy, or because it will be fun to build some replica Ishtar Gates, but because we want every child to know that God is with them. Through the story of Daniel and his friends, we will help children understand that God is with them when they go to new places (willingly or not). God stands with them when they face dangers like Shadrach, Misrach, and Abednego. God stays through the night when you are alone and surrounded by lions like Daniel.  And God is there when you step up to lead in new ways.

We are ready to welcome 150 children into our church to explore and experience God’s close and loving presence.  If you would like to join us, we are looking for volunteers who can help the week of (June 22-26), but also in the weeks leading up to prepping projects, praying for students, and helping to transform the church into an ancient city.

You can sign up here to volunteer.

P.S. You don’t even need to read cuneiform!

A few years ago, I was working on a resource to help students visualize the gospels in new ways. In a moment of weakness, I started to categorize how many verses each of the Gospel accounts dedicate to different parts of Jesus’ story: 24% on teaching, 10% spent on parables, 11% on healing stories, 3% calling disciples, 4% on resurrection stories, and 5% on “other.” While I was intrigued to learn that more than 1% is dedicated to Jesus foretelling his death, I was struck by the fact that 30% of the Gospel’s witness focus on the events of Holy Week—more than any other section of scripture. Scholars estimate that Jesus spent around 3 years in active ministry, by time alone, Holy Week represents less than 1% of Jesus’ ministry. Or to be more accurate, .64% of his ministry becomes the central narrative of our faith and one of only a few stories we return to each and every year.

When I start a Bible story, there is a moment, just a few words in, when a child will squint and give me a wary look asking, “Haven’t you told this story before?” or declares, “I’ve heard this story already.” There’s an implied question, wondering if, indeed, this story is worth a repeat; if it’s worth their time and attention. I was taught long ago, to answer the question, with a shrug “I don’t know, maybe you’ll hear it in a new way.” Some of our students accept this challenge, while others continue skeptical. When I gave this challenge a few weeks ago, a student conspiratorially told their neighbor, “It’s probably another story about God’s love.” Indeed this old story that takes up so much of the Gospels, is the story of God’s love. But can we hear it in a new way? Can it speak to us this year? Can we hold it with the same care that made the Gospel writers spend 1 out of every 3 words trying to capture these seven days?

Maybe you have an answer to those questions. Maybe you’re looking for one. Maybe you know which part of the story will speak to you this year. Or maybe you’re ready to be surprised by the possibilities. Will it be the bright green palm fronds waving, or music giving voice to ancient words, or times of prayer, or the sign of bread breaking, or the solemnity of a cross on Friday at noon, or the cool of an early morning or the blast of brass and the bright white of an easter Lilly? I wonder How will you hear the story this year? I wonder how God will speak in new ways through ancient words? I wonder how you will see the story of God’s love poured out?

As you prepare for Holy Week, the 1st and 2nd graders are excited to share their work. Panels will be hanging in the atrium. Each panel tells one story from Holy Week. The projects are cooperative and process driven—look for the explanations to accompany each image.

• Join families for Fellowship After Worship in the Education Building.
• Come to Quizzo on Wednesday, March 4, at 6:15 p.m. in Congregational Hall
• Pack meals for neighbors on Saturday, March 14
• Walk the Labyrinth in the Children’s Chapel
• Join a Sunday morning class
• Go to a Tuesday Organ Concert
• Enjoy the artwork in the Gallery
• Pause and pray by the fountain

It is a little surreal to sit in the Education Building and count angel wings. Going through the stack (yes, we have a stack of angel wings!), we were testing to see if they’re still in good repair, checking to see if we need to make a few more, and generally fluffing the feathers. Sitting in a box, they look a little silly, but in just a few weeks’ time, they will be transformed. As a pastor who has the privilege of working with children, my December is filled with the Christmas story. Every Sunday and most weekdays, the story is rehashed in incredible detail: Magi gifts are dusted off, Advent candles are lit, nativities of every size and shape are taken apart and put back together, and the stack of Christmas storybooks just seems to grow! A friend asked me if it ever gets boring, if the story ever grows old.

I had to think for a moment about the question. Does it get boring? Is the story growing stale? It didn’t take me long to answer. The story can’t grow old, because each year I have the privilege of seeing it through new eyes and hearing it told in new voices. Practicing in the Sanctuary with our scripture readers, I hear a new cadence or a new emphasis on words that I have memorized, and the scripture is alive again. Sitting with students, new questions are posed, and I have to look at the story in a new way. Watching our angels as they turn and shake their wings, I see the heavenly host descending again, bringing good news to all people.

I hope each of you finds opportunities to see, hear, and experience the story of God’s love poured out in Jesus Christ. It might be at the Live Nativity this Sunday as Mary and Joseph maneuver through the sheep and goats. It might be in the fellowship of singing together at Carols and Cocoa, it could be in the gift of joy at the Youth Reindeer Games, in the beauty of the choir singing at the Christmas Concert, or in the quiet of the Longest Night Service. It may also be found in a simple prayer, the lights shining through the night, or returning to that old story again and listening for God’s new word today.

You may have heard it called a “reverse coloring” or “blob art.” The premise is simple—first someone (or you) make blobs of color. The shape doesn’t matter, the colors don’t matter, just blobs of paint, random brush strokes, even the ring of a coffee cup left behind on a piece of paper can work. From there, you are challenged to transform it into something. A fantastical beast? A comfy chair?  A complex flower? As one art teacher explained to me, “It is an exercise in seeing and imagining rather than the mechanics of drawing.”

I often think of my ministry in similar ways. As we imagine a year ahead, we know some of what we will be facing, but most of it is a mystery. Blobs are beginning to form, but there’s so much we don’t yet know. Is that the right classroom for a child? Is that friendship going to flourish or fail? Will they love or hate being in a play? Will they ever remember their lunch on a busy morning? Some blobs look ominous and others have such incredible potential.

This Sunday after church, we will pause for a moment of prayer before the start of the school year. Anyone with a backpack, school bag, or just a desire to take a deep breath is invited to attend. It will be an exercise in seeing, rather than in the mechanics of being a good student. We’re going to speak our hopes for the year ahead. We’re going to ask God to help hold some of our worries. We’re going to encourage one another. We are going to pause and remember that while we’re still seeing blobs, God is already at work and invite us to create something beautiful alongside the creator.

As you think about the children, teachers, school administrators, coaches, parents, guardians and grandparents around you, here is a prayer to start the year:

Bless your child for the year ahead.
Bless these eyes that they will look with kindness
and with awe on the world you created.
Bless these ears that they will hear words that help her grow.
Bless this voice as it speaks so that her words build up others.
Bless this mind with curiosity and wisdom.
Bless these shoulders that no burden is too heavy.
Bless these hands to do your work.
Bless these feet to walk in your way.
Bless this heart to grow and grow filled with your love.
Bless each breath and each step as you bless your child today and always. 

Amen.

Fred Rogers was famous for saying, “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that’s mentionable can be more manageable.”  Our children are deeply aware of injustice in the world. They see, hear, and notice that people are treated differently and have access to different resources. Often, we allow children to sit with those observations. As adults, it can be difficult to talk about sad and difficult topics with children, so we remain silent, and children are left wondering what can be done.

Over the past few weeks, we have had the opportunity to talk about the hurt and reality that there are children who do not have all the supplies that they need to start the school year. It is not an easy conversation, but it is an important one. While we name this injustice, we also remind children that they have agency in helping our neighbors near and far.

The Backpack Project is one of the tools we use to help children learn more about service, justice, and our obligation to care for one another. It is powerful to see supplies, packed backpacks, and donations arrive to make the project possible. Our students learn about how these backpacks are used by our partners at Gemma Services to support children at the start of the school year. This year was a little different. Our students made a bold decision. In the past, we have provided crayons and either colored pencils or markers. This year, our students asked that their offering be used to help purchase extra markers and colored pencils so that each backpack would include all three items. When your offering is measured in quarters and dimes, it’s a big decision to commit $100.

Last week, because of your generosity, children were able to start filling up backpacks. The project will continue this Sunday. Next Tuesday, more than 75 backpacks and a cash donation to help cover needed supplies will go to Gemma Services. Those backpacks will join 100s of others that will then be sent out. Each backpack is a testimony that we can work together and fight the injustice we see all while helping our neighbors near and far.

The Wednesday before camp begins marks the start of a precarious countdown. It’s the moment we start moving our carefully laid out supplies and begin setting up shop in the Ministries Center.  This Wednesday, we were facing a bit of a conundrum. Looking at the radar, there was a large swath of green heading for us.  In the education building, there were boxes and baskets packed with supplies, giant tissue paper flowers, and a team of volunteers with the singular question, “Can we beat the rain?”

“Of course we can.” Everyone moved into action: boxes that were larger than the volunteers, carts packed a bit beyond their capacity, carefully prepared props, and a pile of tarps all started to make their way across campus. Even when the sky began to spritz, the team didn’t slow down.

On the one hand, Vacation Bible Camp is a week designed for our youngest members and friends to learn more about God and themselves. But camp is also an expression of the church.  It is a multigenerational affair with an 80-year age span. It is a leadership incubator with our youth stepping up to lead and to guide. Camp is an expression of gifts as adults share their expertise and their willingness to learn.  It is an expression of love shared in 1,000 different ways from the materials you collected that will become art projects, gardens, bird feeders, instruments, and more. Camp is love expressed in the time given to preparing materials, and in those who take a week of vacation to serve. Camp is the trust families extend by bringing their children to our care.

I have one last request!  Please keep VBC in your prayers next week:

• Pray for our 3-year-old campers as they experience camp for the first time.
• Pray for our Prek-3^rd-grade campers as they explore God’s Very Good Creation.
• Pray for our 4^th and 5^th graders (and their leaders!!) as they head out into the community to serve.
• Pray for our youth volunteers as they step into leadership.
• Pray for our grown-ups as they pour themselves into a high-energy week.
• Pray that we stay cool, despite the heat.
• Pray for wonder and awe to shape our time together.
• Pray that every child has a sense of belonging.
• Pray for new friendships to grow.
• Pray that we don’t miss the incredible gift of growing in faith together.