Well…the joy of September is here. As always, the second Wednesday of the month from September through May is always the busiest for me. Thankfully I did a ton of prep work yesterday so I am ready to go. At 12noon we have our ministerial meeting. I am beginning my second term as president and third term as treasurer and second term as secretary. Basically I am the "king" of the Jackson County ministerial. Scary I know, but no one else will do it…so I am it. The other part of the reason I continue serving the ministerial in this capacity is because the other pastors have told me that the community now knows who the contact person is and it is easier to keep the same person instead of changing every year. As long as they want me to serve in this way I will continue and if someone else steps forward I will gladly turn over the reigns. Until then I wonder if I should have people call me, "Your Majesty" 🙂
Anyway…allow me to continue if you are done laughing at me…at 2pm Release Time begins. On Wednesdays the schools "release" the 3rd through 5th graders (who have registered) to go to their respective churches for an hour of Bible class. This year I have 3 third graders and 2 fourth graders (these two kids are not from Salem). It should be a lot of fun.
Starting in 2 weeks (but not today) I will have confirmation at 3:30pm until 4:30. So I will have a 1/2 hour break between Release Time and confirmation. Today at 6:30 I have an Endowment committee meeting and then at 7pm the Deacons meet with the church council meeting at 7:30pm. I should be ready plop down on my couch at around 9:30pm (if all goes well).
WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER, ERIC!!!
A request
On Sept. 30 Salem is planning on giving our 3rd graders Bibles. This has been a tradition for us for some time now (as it is for many congregations I know). We haven’t done this for three years because we haven’t had any 3rd graders for a while. Also on that day I am planning on introducing the congregation to the new pew Bible we have purchased. This will be a big change for people; moving from a printed insert to a Bible. Ooooh…this may cause some controversy…I will keep you updated on this.
Anyway…my request is this: Do you have a Bible Sunday for your 3rd graders? And if so, what do you do? How to you present the Bibles? What Bibles do you give? Do you have an inscription inside the Bible? etc. I am looking for ideas here to help make this a memorable day for our kids. Also…one thing I am thinking about is after we present the Bibles to the 3rd graders I will ask the 3rd graders in turn to present the pew Bibles to the congregation. I thought this would be a neat experience for everyone. What do you think? Any ideas for me?
Thank you for "listening" and stopping by. May the joy of the Lord kick you in the butt today to be a light to someone who sees only darkness. Take care and God bless.
-edh-
The Heart of a Pastor 
We also do Bible’s for third graders – but not this year (no new 3rd graders). I’m afraid I don’t recall what bibles, as I gave them out last year, but didn’t purchase them. I did, however, personally inscribe them for each student – as I do whenever I give a book, either as a personal gift or as the pastor giving a gift.
We did it during the service, following the hymn of the day. I asked the children to come forward, we prayed over the books, and I presented them to them.
I think having the kids present the pew bibles is a cool idea. Do you have just enough for the pews, or are there extra? When we dedicated our copies of ELW, we were able to have a table full of the extras (about 100 more than fit in the pews), which sat up front during the whole service. As we dedicated them all for worship, I asked the congregation to hold up their copies in pews, and we blessed the ones in the pews and the ones on the table.
We give out Bibles to third graders in January. I, too, want to make it a memorable event. If I find any ideas, I’ll pass them your way. Here’s a question for you – what translation do you give to them? I know we give out NRSV’s, but I feel kind of foolish, knowing it is at a 12th grade reading level. I wonder how many of them actually read much of it in the next few years. Would it be too heretical in the ELCA to give them a good Children’s Bible translation, or even a good Bible storybook (like Wangerin’s), and encourage families to read a story each evening? My eldest son is now in third grade, and he’s pretty sharp, if I say so myself ;), but I don’t know how much of the NRSV he could or would tackle this year. Thank you for getting us thinking about this topic!
Thank you for your comments. The Bible we give to our 3rd graders we get from Augsburg Fortress. Its the “NIrV Kid’s Study Bible” (New International Reader’s Version). It contains colored pictures and its for readers through age 10 or 11. I even have confirmation students who still have their’s and prefer to use that Bible.
So there you have it…I am bucking the ELCA. I hope the bishop is not reading this 🙂
I’m not sure what version of the Bible we give but on that Sunday, the parents are invited up front with the child, the Bible is given to the parents with a request to encourage their child to read the Bible and to read it with them, then a pray is said and the parents present the Bible to their child. I might have forgotten part of the ceremony but that’s the gist of it. Mom
We give the CEV … not my favorite, but it is easy to read. We also do two classes for parents and children together. The youth and family director and I developed a list of Bible verses (one from every book of the Bible) and we teach them to look up verses, teach them songs and play games as well. It’s my favorite thing. We also have the parents right a special, secret message in the Bible for their child, an d when we give the Bibles on Sunday, we give it to the parents, who present it to their child. We say the class and the gift is part of helping families fulfill the baptismal promises they made.
Thank you again, everyone for the comments and suggestions. They have been very helpful. Anyone else who is stopping by; if you have any suggestions or experiences with giving Bibles to 3rd graders (or children) please share them and help me (and others) think about this.
P.S. I hope my “king of the ministerial” comment didn’t come off wrong. For the record I was joking. I heard a comment from someone…that’s why I am writing this disclaimer. Thanks again.
don’t worry eric, I didn’t think of this way. it’s funny what comes out when you are talking. like, I know the parents “write” not right in the Bibles, maybe I’m secretly dyslexic.
As one who will be graduating seminary and awaiting a first call, I read these comments with great anticiaption. Of course I will learn tyhe traditions of the congregation to which I am called, but I still envision moments such as passing along the scriptures to our children in a most meaningful way.
I do believe that parents should be a key part of any service where the faith is passed on to their children.
How about updating us on how you decide to present these bibles “Your Majesty” 🙂
To my “humble servant” David…Thank you for your comment 🙂 [just so everyone is clear, this is all in jest]
Seriously now…I will indeed update everyone on how we finally presented Bibles to our 3rd graders. I am really looking forward to that Sunday; placing a Bible in hands that do not have one. Also…the Book cart we are going to use to store the pew Bibles came in on Thursday and looks really nice. I will get a picture posted once we have presented them to the congregation.
That’s a wonderful idea. Children should be involved in worship as much as possible. On the last Sunday of each month, we don’t have Sunday School, and we’re trying to make our one worship service family-friendly with the kids reading the lessons, ushering, etc. We also present gift Bibles during those services, have baptisms with a “sacred treasure” chest given to the infant/child, and acknowledge other “stepping stones” of life.
That’s a neat idea…family friendly service on the last Sunday of the month. Thanks for the comment.