There are lots of children in our congregation.  Most Sundays, they have their own worship in their own space in ways that are appropriate for their ages.  The teens have their gathering in the evening, so they don't have to get up so early in the morning, or, so they can get in a day's work before coming to church.  The younger children come with their parents in the morning and have their own church time while the adults are in the sanctuary for worship.  We have a program called "Spirit Play," which is just what it says.  They play with our teaching stories, special stories selected to lead them toward learning important values.

There's a moment of worship as their time together begins, led by one of the two volunteers in each classroom.  Then they hear and see the story.  Each story has its own basket of tools -- a piece of fabric to lay the parts out on, and little figures to remind both the teller and the listeners of the elements of the story.  When the story has been told, and all the parts laid out in front of the children, the leader asks questions about the story.  "I wonder..." she or he begins.  The children join in the wondering, and make meaning from the story themselves.  They go on to a time of doing a craft activity related to the story.  Then they close with "feasting" (a snack), and some closing words together.  

By engaging with the story and developing their own meanings, the children learn something important about learning as well as the important values in the story of the day.  Sometimes during activity time, children will tell each other stories from story baskets.  Sometimes they go back over the story of the day, and sometimes they return to favorite stories of the past.

It's a creative and calm time in our children's week, just as adult worship is a creative calm time in our week.  We all go home smiling, ready to fact our everyday world again.