Just got back from the confrence in Atlanta.  We went to Andy Stanley's church and learned about how they are doing a family service.  There was some good information there.  I had my senior pastor and the worship pastor with me.  They now understand what I mean by family service and it was a great chance for them to get a visual of what it looks like.

This weekend we will be making our first attempt at a family service.  Basically what will happen is we will have regular service but then after service is over the pastor will announce that the kids are going to be coming over for this family service. 

1.) While the kids are on their way a timer like this one http://www.sermonspice.com/cart/?p=product&id=382

will show up on the screen. 

2.)After the timer is up a short intro video will come up.  This week we are doing Noah's ark so we have a little comic video that will come up with the theme song from Giligans island.  It has clips of animals doing all sorts of funny things and says "Imagine a Year of this"  I cant do it justice with words but I promise its funny. 

3.)Then we will have someone come on stage and there will be comic tention between what you would call the credible witness and the goof (the goof is usually me).  For example I will be dragging a big toy box up and making a fuss about finding the ark.  A clown (the credible witness haha) will tell me that is not the ark and I will prove it by showing all the big animals I fit in it.  I will pull out stuffed animals as I talk about how big it is so it must be the ark.  The clown tells me she has a book with the story in it and then I turn it over to the clowns. "Fine if you know it so well you tell them".

4.) After this some sort of example teaching will happen.  The purpose of this is to show the parents how we take what they learned and make it come alive for the kids.  We want to equip the parents to be what the bible tells them to do.  For this week the clowns will put on a nice show with lots of noise and funny lines but often times it will be more low key like the telling of a story or a skit.

5.) Wrap it up happens at the end.  The end is a chance for someone to come up and say a few things to pull everything they learned into one last point.  Its a chance to show how these things apply to their lives today.

I am sure this layout will change quite a bit but its a start.  What do you think?