Meet the Children's Ministry

The children’s ministry at Redeemer relies on many dedicated people. Aside from Gary Lawrence, an elder and the backbone of the children’s ministry, there are many others who volunteer their time. The nursery helpers are Sarah Levine, Nathali, and Victoria. The toddler helpers are Amanda Ansted, Bhawna Paul, and Tanya Wolfram. The elementary teachers are Rachel Bullard, Lori Lawrence, and Paul Liu along with our elementary assistants Darren Farrell and Elizabeth Warsavage. Organizing these various individuals and working in tandem with Gary is the fearless head of the children’s ministry, Rachel Chan. Here is her background and her take on the purpose and function of the children’s ministry at Redeemer Hoboken.

Rachel’s Bio:

My first experience working with a children’s ministry program was back in high school, when I worked with the children at my home church of Hope Lutheran Church in Cranberry Township, PA (a suburb north of Pittsburgh).  I taught the pre-K/kindergarten class there and also worked with the younger kids during our Vacation Bible School summer programs.   

I first started working with the Redeemer children’s ministry in the spring of 1999, about six months after moving to the NY/NJ area, teaching the first- and second-grade class on the Upper West Side during the evening service.  When Redeemer Hoboken and Redeemer Teaneck started their services that fall, I began teaching the kindergarten/first-grade class at Teaneck in the morning and attending church in Hoboken in the evening.  (At this time, most everyone at the Hoboken church was twenty-five and single—like I was—and so there were very few kids in the children’s ministry program, whereas the Teaneck church was packed with young families and needed more help in this area.)  One of my first students there was Tim Hughes—Chris Hughes’s son—who is now in middle school (or maybe high school?).  Boy, does that make me feel old! :)  I didn’t have a car then—and still don’t drive at all in New Jersey (except when I have to, say, drive my husband home from his pinky surgery in Hackensack…which, thankfully, doesn’t happen all that often)—so various people from the Teaneck church would drive down to Hoboken to pick me up and drive me home again afterward.  What a blessing to me!  One time, Pastor Tony Hinchliff gave me a ride home and mentioned the possibility of me working with the children’s ministry in Hoboken.  Who could have known at that time what that has turned into! 

Anyway, after six years of teaching in Teaneck, I started working with the children’s ministry at the Hoboken evening service.  (We had a few more kids there by that point—thanks to the Alexander family, who had adopted three lovely children from Ukraine.  Hurrah!)  When the Redeemer Hoboken morning service began in 2007, I officially became the Director of Children’s Ministry.  I remember praying that there would be enough kids to fill the classes (apart from our steadfast regulars, Luke Miles and Sam Kinder).  Now, I just pray that we’ll have enough volunteers to help out with all the kids.  Right now, we have about thirty regular kids on our roster—and that’s not including the visitors who come from time to time! 
As to why I’ve felt led, I guess you can see here that working with kids has always been a passion of mine.  My mother is a teacher, and I had initially wanted to be a teacher as well before I discovered the wonderful world of children’s publishing, which is where I currently work part-time from home as a literary agent.  I feel fortunate that I have the opportunity to work with children’s books during the week and work with children themselves on Sunday…on top of being a mother to Oliver (and a carrier of his younger sibling-to-be) 24/7.  For me, that sure beats stressing out over making dinner for the meal’s ministry (which I’m happy to do, of course, but it’s definitely not my “spiritual gift”)! 

Info about the children’s ministry…

I feel like it’s crucial that kids have a positive church experience right from the very start—that it’s someplace where they want to come (just as they are, of course) and feel accepted.  They have such a contagious excitement for learning about anything at that age—particularly Jesus and His love for us—and it’s important for parents and teachers to tap into that willing attitude.  (My mom loves to tell the story of the time when I was three-years-old and came running in the door after my Sunday school class, shouting, “Mommy, mommy!  Jesus loves everybody!”)  And I loved the day when, in the toddler class, Victor Mauseth slammed his Jesus Storybook Bible onto the table in front of me and demanded in his very Victor-like way, “Read me a story…ABOUT JESUS!” Sometimes I feel frustrated when people imply that kids aren’t spiritually mature enough to understand fully the gospel message, but I disagree.  I would argue that they get it much more than we do as adults, when we tend to look at the Bible much more intellectually and theologically and, as a result, run the danger of missing the heart of it all.  In fact, I find that I’ve grown an incredible amount in my own faith through working with the children’s ministry.  When you have to pare down Bible stories so that a three-year-old can understand them, you can really get to the essence of what God is trying to teach us.  (After all, that’s why Jesus said, “Let the children come to me”, right?)  And the kids themselves will also point out such clear, obvious truths that have surpassed me.  I remember during one particular lesson, I was teaching a story with cut-out story aids that showed a group of people at one side and Jesus in the other.  When I asked the class where Jesus was, one child replied, “Jesus is in my heart.” It doesn’t get any better than that. 

It’s definitely been rewarding to see individual kids grow in their faith during the year—or to see it in their faces when they finally make a connection in class.  More typically, however, they stare at you with glazed-over eyes and you only hear from their parents later that week that they actually were listening to your every word…or most of it, anyway. 

Now that I’m more in a role of a director as opposed to a teacher, I generally try to encourage the teachers to run the class in the way they best see fit.  But, of course, I try to help out whenever I can!  While the nursery class (“Little Lambs”) is purely a time of play (and snacking), the toddler class (“Noah’s Ark”, for 2- to 3-year-olds) has a loose structure of play, story time (and sometimes singing), crafts, and snack.  The part I really enjoy the most is helping the teachers think of ways to relate the story to kids at their level—whether that means choosing a toy glow worm to play the part of numerous Old Testament babies, or getting a horse-head-on-a-stick for the kids to ride on as they reenact Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the donkey.  (Pre-pregnancy, I used to be that donkey myself and let the kids ride on my back.  But not anymore, I’m afraid!) This way, we can keep the lesson fun and relatable to their world, but while sticking true to the Bible as well.  There’s no sugar-coating it here: Abraham still takes Isaac up to the mountaintop to be sacrificed (although that never happens, of course); Jesus is still crucified.  But the kids always seem to get it and haven’t been too traumatized (so far, at least!).   

In the elementary class (ages 4 through grades 5), we use a set curriculum called Children and Worship, which is an internationally-known program developed by Christian educators Sonja Stewart and Jerome Berryman using the Montessori Method.  In class, the trained teachers tell stories using wooden figures and felt pieces, encouraging students to wonder about the story and discover its meaning on their own, as opposed to simply feeding the meaning to them.  After the story is told, the students have a time of exploration, where they reflect on the story by interacting with the teaching materials, looking at related supplementary reading material, or using craft supplies such as paper, markers, and clay.   
We also try to have occasional special programs for the children throughout the year.  For the past two years, we’ve been honored to have Redeemer New York member Sally Lloyd-Jones (author of the The Jesus Storybook Bible, as well as several other biblical stories for kids) visit our church and read to the nursery and toddler class.  In the elementary class, various artists in the congregation have shared their talents with the kids during the Summer Arts Program, exploring ways to approach the Bible through art, drama and music.  (If you didn’t see the student art show that Steve Warsavage displayed on Palm Sunday—which featured beautiful paintings interpreting select Psalms—or if you haven’t heard the hit song “David Threw a Stone at Goliath” that the kids wrote with the help of Eric Bedillion, Godfrey Chan, Julie Hanson-Battaglia and Nathan Sinclair—then you’re really missing out!)  But don’t worry.  We have some equally-exciting plans for this summer…so stay tuned!