This book intrigues me-- it's been a theme that I've invested in, researched, taught, created handouts for families, shared with elementary-age children, and created a "little church" for our children out of the nursery but not yet ready to sit for a 75-90 minute Big Church service. While I do not attend a 'liturgical' church, I appreciate rhythms, routines, and practices. Many spiritual practices are rooted in clarity and are simple, easily understood techniques to help all people, but they are repeated so they really benefit those still learning- our children.
Jared Kennedy is a favorite author of mine has created the Beginner's Gospel Storybook Bible with 52 biblical events developed for our youngest learners. He gets kids. He really gets little kids, his books have questions built-in, and he expects the child/ren to answer out loud, making it so easy to build these versions of the Bible events into preschool/pre-K Sunday school.
I do not yet own this physical book, Before I review this book, I think it's helpful to read the note from the author on the first page of the book for parents or caregivers, it explains the intent.
Dear Parent or Caregiver,
I wrote this book to give you a way to introduce your children to public worship. When you think of explaining a worship service, you might say something like this: “First, we sing. Then, we listen to the sermon.” But most worship gatherings involve more than music and preaching. When the church gathers, we follow a rhythm—or liturgy—of call and response. It’s like a big game of follow the leader. We hear God speak and then we move in response to him.
Maybe you’ve noticed this rhythmic back and forth in your own church’s gatherings. First, you hear God’s Word call to you—perhaps in what we describe literally as the “call to worship”—but then also in words of blessing or assurance and finally in the sermon’s words of instruction. Then, after you hear from God’s Word, you respond by lifting your voice in song, greeting others, giving, or by shouting, “Amen!”
We repeat this back and forth every week when we come to church, just as Christians have for hundreds of years. During the Reformation, John Calvin saw a need to help the church rehearse gospel rhythms when it gathered for worship.1
His liturgy followed three movements:
• Adoration—Drawn from Isaiah 6, this rhythm reveals God as holy and calls upon sinners to respond with a cry for mercy.
• Renewal—Rooted in the burning bush story of Exodus 3, this rhythm begins with reading and teaching God’s Word then calls for a response of reverence and humility.
• Commitment—This rhythm, based in Luke 24, involves seeing Christ’s glory and participating in it as we gather around the table for communion.
God Made Me for Worship walks kids through each of these rhythms. My goal is that they’ll see and learn how all the parts of worship work together to tell the gospel story. The words we use to describe the parts of worship and the particular orders of worship we follow differ from church to church. But a wide variety of traditions view gathered worship as a weekly rehearsal of the good news. And that’s my prayer, that the children who read this book will learn to love and enjoy their church’s regular gatherings, because in worship they hear Christ speak and then by faith respond.
With joy in Christ, Jared Kennedy
I watched this video and then contacted the publisher and was offered a pdf copy to review. After sharing the link with friends and church leadership as I think this book could benefit the children in my home church.
What I liked about this book:
- Gospel emphasis. Worship works together to tell (or review) the gospel story.
- The author's purpose is achieved- I love this book because it's clearly reminding the audience that we are to love and enjoy this precious time together!
- Biblical Connections: Ephesians 5, Isaiah 6, and Luke 22 tying together Biblical foundations of worship. These passages are either in the book or the references given and the concepts explained- with a statement to look it up in your own Bible- this is a biblical literacy skill!
- Too often we speak and teach of worship, as the New Testament shares and teaches, but it all started with the Prophet Isaiah, and this connection is so well done, I think many adults will make connections they haven't understood.
- This book is reality-based, the premise is Alice asks the Pastor a question about the meeting of the church. It's confusing to her. Her words, his answers, and the other dialogue bring the book completely to life, and it's a realistic scenario.
- I shared the author's intro letter above, and didn't know until I read the pdf that he also has a two page on how to teach children about worship at the end of the book with more scripture to integrate and other conversations to share with your family.
- Questions integrated into the book- and answers expected! Engaging!
- Illustrations and print, clear, readable, uncluttered, yet warm, colorful, and engaging.
- The main child's name is Alice- and my twin sister is named Alice which is not a common name, so when it's in a book, I love it.
- People in the book are represented as different skin tones, ethnicities. Not only are their faces realistic but while I own other books this illustrator has drawn- I've never noted the expressions, the paster winks, the kids have many appropriate facial expressions and emotions.
What I wonder about this book:
- If the book is listed as an ages 5-8, why does the book include 4th-grade kids whotypically are 9 and 10 years old? I think this book could easily be used with children ages 5-11, and one of my friends watched it for me, and said her almost 3 years old sat through the author's reading and answered most questions out loud!
- How many adults will learn something from this book?
- Will littles be confused by this book, if the worship service they attend is different than the liturgical elements the book lists?
- Call to Worship
- Praise & Adoration
- Confession & Lament
- Words of Assurance
- Welcome
- Ministry of the Word
- Communion
- Obedience
- Tithes
- Benediction
- Our church does not have this order, these titles, or the formality that this liturgical process implies (to me). But we do have a Call to Worship and during our Worship, we praise and adore, and during our Lord's supper, our Ministry of the Word, Prayers, and sharing we often have mention of confession, lament, obedience, and a benediction prayer but these are not named elements of the service, and we don't have a welcome and greet one another regularly, and certainly not in a pandemic (but we do welcome and greet one another a lot before and after our meeting.)
- Our leadership has streamlined our service so much that we do not have an offering passed during the meeting, but rather a place to give an offering as you come and go from our meeting. We also have the option to give through our website and set up a reoccurring offering electronically.
- But I also wonder, if a parent or leader can't just explain to the child who is listening, this is a traditional formal church service plan, and every local gathering of believers plans their meeting to meet the needs of those in attendance and to worship God corporately. So our meeting looks a little different, our meeting locations have been very different, but all of the elements in the examples are part of a rhythm that are aspects of biblical worship and corporate meetings.
- Having seen the pdf version, many of the 'headings' that traditional churches may use are separate titles on the page, and could easily be ignored, explained, or included. Let your children ask, wonder and intrigue is the foundation of learning!
- Because I wondered about how this book would be appreciated in my circle of local church friends, I shared the video with a few teacher friends, a few parents, others in children's ministry, etc. Not one of them has said anything but positive things about this book, and they all see value in it. Several commented that this would be good for adults as well, one watched it with her almost 3 year old who actively answered the questions and stuck with most of the reading of it, and I read it to my almost 11 year old daughter, who maturely said- "It's good, and it would be useful."
- In the book, in the letter shared above from the start of the book, and in the two pages at the end, there are verses and passages to look up, suggestions like talk about lifting hands in worship, and several other elements that would be great and are really needed for children to grasp what is happening in your local church, perhaps a relatives local church that has a different order, structure, is more or less formal.
- I wished before visiting different denominations of family and as a college student, I'd had a book like this that had exposed me to more information, and made it more normal, so perhaps I would have discussed it more with family or others at churches I attended in college.
- Discussiosns of the church being the people- the body of Christ from I Corinthians could also occur, as well as an opportunity to help children understand that there are different denominations, different types of churches, but that many are like our church, centered on the good news- the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- Social-Emotional learning- the facial expressions of characters would be great to ask children- what does it mean when her face looks like that? Could he look like that and could it mean more than one thing? Do we express our thoughts, feelings, and emotions in our eyes? mouth? whole face? ...
And if you like this book, until November 3, 2020 it's 40% off if you buy 1 copy, or 50% off if you buy 5 copies, and they also have 50% off 5 books in the God Made Me series (by different authors) as well. WTSbooks as always showcased new promising books and has amazing sales!
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