Christmas Eve Links

On Christmas Eve Kid Crossing kids see clips from The Polar Express as they learn that "sometimes seeing is believing and sometimes the most real things in the world we can't see." The greatest gift of Christmas is all about choosing to believe, it's all about faith.
Check out this link for great family activities incorporating lessons from the Polar Express:
http://homeword.com/PolarExpress/
Do you have family Christmas Traditions? Check out this article to find traditions your family may enjoy. It's not too late.
20 Memorable Family Christmas Traditions
Check back regularly for more updates at the Crossroads website.
Have a Great Christmas! The best gift ever is the Gift of Jesus. BELIEVE

Partnering with Families

We have recently changed our vision statement from Winning Kids to Christ and Growing them Spiritually to Partnering with Families to Win Kids to Jesus and Grow them Spiritually. Over the course of this last year the Kid Crossing leadership has begun to understand the necessity of partnering with families. We focused on that at our Main Stage production in June, I wrote about it in my blog, and we've talked about it at leadership meetings.
This partnership will not happen overnight. As much as I want it to happen NOW (those of you know know me well know this) it will be a process. Several events recently have shown me that while we are saying we want to partner with families we are still not looking at every activity we do through "Family" lenses. My goal for the next year will be to train Kid Crossing leaders and volunteers, myself included, to always ask "How will this affect the family," in all we do.
The KC leadership team is currently reading the book Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions by George Barna. This is an amazing book. Chapter 6 has really hit me in regards to Family Ministry. Barna is describing effective churches and says on page 99 " ...the resources used by the church in its ministry to young people are designed to prepare parents for greater effectiveness, to advance existing efforts by the parents, to serve as a catalyst for new developmental ventures attempted by the family and to enhance the quality of approaches and exercises used to mature children's faith."
Let that sink in for a little bit...

Christmas Eve at Kid Crossing

I absolutely can not believe it! Christmas Eve is only 1 1/2 weeks away. This is a very exciting time for Kid Crossing. Not only is Christmas the biggest event of the year for kids, but as a church it's an even BIGGER event. It's a chance to share the real meaning of Christmas with kids and their families. This year Crossroads is having a Christmas Eve Service. Statistics tell us the Christmas Eve is now the most attended service of the year. That means we have the potential to connect a HUGE amount of kids with Christ. And that's what we're all about. Partnering with families to win kids to Jesus and grow them spiritually.
I am really excited about how our Kid Crossing Christmas Eve services are coming together. We've got some awesome cards that will go home with kids as invites to our service (see above) thanks to Pete Bishop, our all things tech guru. Also, thanks to Pete's creativity we are theming our evening for K-5 kids and probably 3 yr. - pre-k kids off of the movie The Polar Express. It's a movie that most kids will connect with instantly, either because they've already seen it or just because it has great kid appeal. It's going to be an incredible night in Kid Crossing!

Blogging again

Yes, I know I've said this before and I'll probably say it again :) I'm going to try my hand at blogging once again. A few weeks ago Brian, my husband, told me it was time for my monthly blog... oh dear... Well, now I've made a place for it in my schedule on Mondays and Wednesdays. Only time will tell :)