Story Church for Young Children and Their Grownups
StoryChurch is a half-hour on Zoom for young children and their grownups. Our regular participants range in age from two to seven. We usually have two to three households join – it’s not a big group, but it’s easy to do, and it works well at small scale.
We gather at 7pm on Sundays, & folks know they can come in PJs & ready for bed – we intentionally wind down at the end of the gathering, with the hope that it can flow easily into bedtime! We gather with welcome and introductions if needed, then read a couple of storybooks. (A note on book selection: I only use explicitly God- or Bible-based books about 15% of the time – for example, well-written and nicely-illustrated Christmas and Easter books can help deepen kids’ engagement with those holy days. Mostly, though, I’m just looking for really good kids’ books – the kind that are a delight to read, not a slog. Many of those turn out to have important messages about humanity, community, and the world!)
It takes a little practice to read picture books over Zoom – you’ll want to make your self-view window big enough that you can make sure you’re holding the pictures so people can see them. After we finish the storybooks, we talk briefly about what we liked best in them; then we turn towards our prayers. I lead a simple version of the Lord’s Prayer that uses some ASL gestures for the important words – adding gesture or movement can really help kids engage and participate.
Then we pray together using our “Prayer Garden” – which could be as simple as some green felt, some cut-out paper flowers, some nice round stones, and a few battery-operated candles. The flowers are for things we feel
glad or grateful for; the stones are for things that are heavy, hard, or sad; and the candles are for people we especially want to hold up to God’s light. People share out loud about what flowers, candles, or stones they want to add to the garden, and I add those things to our garden (which I’ve tilted my computer down to show).
We end with some simple nighttime prayers and an invitation to bless one another by marking a cross on the forehead and saying, “God bless you and be the guardian of your body, mind, and spirit!” (If anyone is there on their own, we always make sure that the group blesses them.) Then we close with a simple nighttime song – we usually use the same one for at least a couple of months, so that it becomes familiar and restful. If you would like to visit, or have more questions, feel free to get in touch! Rev. Miranda Hassett .
