“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

The Call Committee has had some productive and informative meetings with congregational members in various group settings. And one of the most enjoyable was with the children of Akaloo.

The conversation at this gathering was wonderfully led by Jennifer Johnson and Angela Nickerson and out of the mouths of the young came wisdom. And out of their imagination came a host of drawings depicting their views of St. John’s.

We want to share a sample of their remarks and their pictures with you. Enjoy, as we did. This is the future of St. John’s, and we are pleased to say, it is in good hands.

Favorite things to do at church:
(These answers are from the 3 year olds – 1st graders)

• Cookies
• Music
• Pray
• Make stuff
• Sunday school
• Singing

Favorite things inside our church:
(These answers are from the 3 year olds – 1st graders)

• Stained glass
• The way the organ sounds (it used to scare my brother)

Pick a church…if you were the mommy and daddy, what kind of church would you look for?

• Stained glass
• A good piano player
• A good Akaloo
• A church where you stay all day
• More arts & crafts
• Healthy snacks for kids (from a dad)
• (A church) like our church  The Bible
• Good music 
• Outside play space
• A church with a park 
• A tree house
• If kids got grumpy during church, parents could take them to the park for a while

What do pastors do?
(These answers are from all the kids):

• Tell stories
• Hold candles
• Do communion
• Give out the bread
• Talk about what is going to happen at church
• Try to calm down babies
• Baptize babies
• Get people married
• At a funeral, they talk about the person who passed away

The children drew pictures of our church, specifically the most important thing they could think of to describe St. John’s to someone else (some of the pictures have been highlighted here). Here are the subjects the smaller kids shared with me as they drew:

• a rocket ship
• listening closely at Sunday school
• windows (at least 5 kids)
• people in church
• my mommy & daddy
• a cafeteria

What are some things you have learned/seen/done with other churches that you would like St. John’s to do?

• Good VBS
• Page numbers on the board (for hymnals, I’m assuming)
• No Sunday school
• Cake!
• Bags with activities
• Good Easter egg hunt
• Science camp
• Gyms, sports leagues, etc.
• Standing the whole time (?)

Imagine if you could make St. John’s into anything, what would it be?

• Sell cookies to help the church
• Invite people from all over the world
• More festivals that attract people
• Make church on other days, not just Sundays
• Swimming pool
• Ice skating

Wrap-Up:  All kids returned to one large group, and were asked to name what they thought St. John’s should have, and was there anything we missed:

• One big area, like a break room, where we can all fit, and eat together
• preschool, on Sunday and every day
• cafeteria
• more Girl Scouts
• more fun zones, like an ice skating rink
• more trees
• soccer field
• more neat windows
• more food
• more people
• more silent movies
• playgrounds (more than one said this)
• more camping
• a picnic place
• going to church at night
• more coffee for dad; hot chocolate
• more pastries
• this church is awesome
• a crying room for fussy babies