Reaching Children Online

Thanks to Messiah UMC, Plymouth, MN for this Great Idea! And to Christa Meland, MN Annual Conference UMC’s communications director, for sharing it via MNConnect.

The worship and children’s ministry teams of Messiah UMC of Plymouth teamed up to meet the needs of their at-home children early on in pandemic quarantine and created an engaging video series – called Kid Street – that’s got kids, parents, grandparents and others tuning in every two weeks for a new episode.

They keep the message simple: “God loves them, knows them, and wants to be in relationship with them” as Messiah’s director of worship, Anna Harmon, says. They regularly include children in leadership roles in the videos and include youth and adults from the congregation, developing a sense of community. They encourage parents and grandparents (the most significant influencers of children’s faith) to engage children in at-home faith conversations by including questions for kids to share with their parents. They are beginning to include “wiggle time” to encourage movement and recurring characters to create relationships with viewers.

Your congregation could launch your own series, or, Messiah’s leaders would love for other congregations to use their videos. You can preview episodes one and two; and/or contact Joy Ann Harmon to obtain the whole series.