Engaging Young People in Online Worship

First Covenant Presbyterian in Minneapolis has a great way to engage young people in online worship: Carma Gjerning and her puppet bear discuss an aspect of the day’s focal reading, with leading questions that a young person might ask and answers that encourage further wondering and curiosity.

Puppet time is followed by an illustrated retelling of the story which highlights themes that will appear again in the sermon (usually) by including characters, perspectives and voices not present in the biblical account. This creative retelling further encourages wondering, question-asking, critique and appreciation for a variety of understandings of any text.

You can see Carma’s puppetry and an illustrated retelling of the Gospel story every Sunday during the Journey to Freedom series created by Rev. Jia Starr Brown, pastor at First Covenant.