Workshop: October 7, 2010
Rev. Kevin Holley
Pastor
Hope Presbyterian Church
What a great adventure life can be..rest assured, God has a plan! Workshop Leader Rev. Kevin Holley, the head pastor at Hope Presbyterian Church, gave our children a very forthright description of his journey to becoming a follower of Jesus and then a pastor. He was candid about life's challenges and after reflecting back during his workshop was able to highlight for our children the many ways in his life that he has recognized God's plan as perfect but not always easy. One special story he shared will ensure that our kids will never look at a rainbow in quite the same way.
After presenting a roadmap of his life, Pastor Holley gave the children a glimpse into a pastor's role in planning a Sunday worship service. He explained that in the Reformed tradition of Christian worship, the service typically has a characteristic shape with various elements. He offered the opportunity for our children to create these elements for a service on their own. First, he explained that the Call to Worship is typically a responsive reading that is based on one of the Psalms. He provided the kids several examples and then asked them to try their hand at taking an assigned Psalm and developing a responsive reading which was about 4-6 lines long. The kids did well with this and enjoyed reading aloud. Next Pastor Holley challenged the students to create a Children's Moment. He asked our children to use a parable and develop a skit that could be used in a worship service to tell the story to the children. Our kids really had fun with this! They were given costumes and props and thoroughly enjoyed getting involved in acting out the story. Finally, Pastor Holley provided our children the opportunity to compose a Benediction, which is the blessing at the end of the worship service. He asked them to use a small toy piano as their instrument and to assign a tone to each word so the benediction might be sung. All of kids, regardless of past musical experience, did well with this and enjoyed the challenge. They actually created their own unique musical blessing!
It was interesting for our children to learn about a few of the different elements of the Reformed tradition of Christian worship and to be involved in their creation. These hands-on activities gave the students a unique chance to learn what it is like to be a pastor. Thank you, Pastor Holley for getting involved and sharing your life experience with our kids. They are better for it and we are very grateful!
