Honoring members in this way is a good idea. But how could you step the value up from merely good to great, maximizing the assimilation value and encouraging true Christian fellowship?

 Here are four ideas:

1.  Get a group of friendly and established members to introduce people to one another. 
2. Provide name tags. Just because you know everyone doesn’t mean long-term members know newcomers or vice versa.  
3. Put sheets of ice breaker questions at each table. Include silly or serious questions. Ask people to name their favorite _______ (fill in the blank). Have everyone describe their best Easter/graduation/Mother’s Day of all time. Open ended questions like these can get everyone sharing in a way that feels safe and fun.  
4. Provide pencils and note cards and encourage everyone sitting at each table to exchange  prayer requests for the upcoming week. If they share phone numbers or E-mail addresses so they can stay in touch. Encourage them to contact each other at least once before next Sunday.

 Do you want to help worshipers break the every Sunday “hit and run” habit? Proactively leverage spring events to deepen relationships!

Short. To the point. Powerful in its simplicity. First John 4:19 is all that and more. I call attention to this verse as I work with my kindergarten students and as I talk with my own children each year whenever we focus on Valentine’s Day. 

Looking around at the flowers, hearts, cupids and candy that overflow from store shelves this time of year, I know I can feel overcome by the commercialism of it all. That’s when it helps me to focus attention God’s love for us. And that’s the message I work to communicate to all the children in my care every day.

This year, Ash Wednesday comes just three days after Valentine’s Day. As Christians observe both, our Savior reminds us of his love for us, despite our sins. In the weeks of Lent ahead, as we prepare our hearts for Easter, we will think often about the mercy and compassion of our Lord Jesus who died on the cross because He loved us so much.

God himself is the source of all love. He is the essence and definition of the word love. In response to all he has done and all he will do for us, both now and throughout eternity, we actively look for ways to demonstrate his love by serving others.

Check out the CTA website for some great ideas about keeping children (and adults, too) connected to their Savior throughout the Lenten/Easter season. You will find many products and projects there that will make the all-important truth of God’s love a fun and easy one for your children to learn. Now that’s something to celebrate!

Recently, a popular cable television channel began airing a series based on what happens to animals in utero. Week by week we watch as baby dolphins, baby elephants, and baby puppies develop, computer graphics and 4-D ultrasound imagery taking us inside the womb to watch the growth process day by day. Fascinating stuff!

It makes me wonder what it might be like to use the same state-of-the-art graphics to explore the process human babies undergo as they develop in their mother’s womb. Awe-inspiring, no doubt! I’m confident the experience would movingly illustrate the words of Psalm 139:13.

For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Thinking about all this, I must admit that too often I take God’s gifts for granted. You, too? This verse points that out as it describes the intimate care our Creator used as he brought each one of us to life. The slope of your nose. The shape of my ear lobes. The blood vessels of our heart, our lungs. The cells that make up our spleen and kidneys—and all those other organs we so seldom think about.

All of these drew God’s close, personal attention. My chin is not an accident. Your hair color isn’t either. Our lips and eyes, our mouths and foreheads, our biceps and big toes all brought a smile of approval to our Father God’s face—even before we fought our way through the birth canal and took our first big breath.

You and I were uniquely formed, “knitted together” as the psalmist puts it, in our mother’s womb.

That implies a lot! For example, when we fret about being too tall or too short, we insult the divine Artist who made us just so. When we neglect the bodies God has given, failing to get enough rest, eating too much of the wrong foods, neglecting the exercise that would keep us strong and vibrant—these are sins. When we fail to care for the hungry, to honor the elderly, to protect the innocent (yes, even the innocent in the womb), or to respect individuals who are different from us, we offend the one who made us all.

When we consider all this, we can draw only one conclusion. We’re all guilty before God. It’s bad news. Worse, we deserve eternal death because of it.

The good news, though, is that our Creator willingly became our Redeemer. Our Judge is also our Brother. Jesus heals and forgives. He really does! Calvary’s cross proves it. That cross is the ultimate irony—an instrument designed to bring the cruelest death imaginable has brought life, eternal life. It’s the life Christians celebrate most of all. It’s the life we will celebrate forever. All because of what Jesus did for us.

So now, today, what are you going to do with the life your Creator-Redeemer has give you?

Need a free PowerPoint slide to use as you present this devotion? CTA has developed one for you! Check out our website for resources you can use year-round in your sanctity of life efforts.

The kits were easy to assemble and the children loved the experience of “creating” their own nativity set, especially since they have read and learned so much about Jesus’ birth this month. 

Traditionally, the Christmas season in liturgical churches starts on Christmas Day and extends into January, culminating with Epiphany on January 6, so it is not too late to use the nativity kits.

Christmas Day will soon come and go, but we will have some winter vacation days at home with our children before they must go back to school.  This craft would be an excellent activity for one of winter’s cold and snowy days at home! 

Enjoy your families and may God grant you all a blessed and Merry Christmas!

Just as we adults can feel bombarded by the materialism of our society at this time of year so, too, can our children. They can so easily be drawn into the glitter and bright lights of the shopping season, deceived by ads designed to help them confuse “What I truly need” with “What I really, really want.”

As Christian adults and children, we believe a relationship with Jesus fills our deepest need. We know that his love for us is the one gift that truly lasts forever. Together, we remind one another of this—in church, in our families, in our circle of friends. For example: 

• During this Advent season, we sing songs focused on God’s gift of a Savior.
• We plan ways to do kind things for those around us.
• Maybe you remember the practice of putting a handful of hay or a single straw in a small ”manger” when you do something helpful for someone else during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Children still love that practice! It works!
• In my class, we always plan a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” party as well.

CTA has been an enormous help to me, both as a mother and a teacher, in helping children keep the main things the main things during the Christmas season. I encourage you to check out CTA’s Christmas crafts and gifts for children.

The Christmas Story Pen is a meaningful gift all your students will find intriguing and fun–and for only 99 cents each when you buy a dozen! You might even buy two for each student and help them learn to use the second one to share the Good News of Jesus’ birth with a friend.

Want to know more? Check  out the video description!

 CTA has helped make this event easier and more meaningful. In fact, that’s what CTA does best!

For example, consider the Christ the Savior is Born downloadable video. The video provides a great foundation for a children’s Christmas program—on Christmas Eve or a Sunday leading up to Christmas.

At our preschool, we show the video and add in an Advent Cheer, the reading of Luke 2:1-20 by the preschool staff, and a song like Away in the Manger. We conclude with a blessing and an invitation for everyone to join us for the cookie reception!

As everyone leaves the service, consider giving  them a keepsake reminder. We’ve done that for several years.  This year you might consider giving each child (and siblings in the audience) a copy of the book on which the video is based. The book comes complete with notes for parents about ways to talk about Christmas in their family. Children will enjoy having parents read the story many times over in coming weeks and years. 

Surprise older children who attend with both a Christ the Savior Is Born book and a pencil from the Value Pack and give adults in attendance a Christ the Savior Is Born magnet  or ornament reminder. All at a price preschools can afford!

• Those volunteers at your church do so much. You want to remember them at Christmas with a meaningful gift. But what!?
• You work with a great group of professionals on your church staff. You want to share your respect and affection for them this Christmas. But how?!
• The teachers and Sunday school teachers, janitors, and teacher aides make an enormous impact on the families and young people of your church, parish school, and community. You want to encourage them all with Jesus’ love. But the budget won’t cooperate. So now what?!

Scenarios just like these led CTA to create and trademark the very first Ornaments of Faith® in 2002. Since then, they’ve become a year by year favorite of CTA customers. Are you among our fans yet?

Here’s what CTA co-founder, Steve Darr, says about these popular products:

The purpose of the Ornament of Faith® products is to provide unique and attractive ornaments to encourage the faith of believers and to plant the seeds of faith in pre-Christians.  We do this by combining traditional Christmas and biblical symbols designed in interesting and engaging ways and packaged attractively with a simple poem and corresponding Scripture. 

All these elements work together to share the truth about Christmas and the good news of Christ’s coming.  Ornaments of Faith® products include children’s ornaments, unique ornament Christmas cards, as well as a line of quality pewter –finished ornaments manufactured in the U.S.A.    

 It seems so natural now that a company like CTA would offer Christian Christmas ornaments, but seven years ago, it was unheard of—especially at a price under $4.00 per ornament. What set off the spark  that brought this idea into reality?     

Steve says:

We started very modestly with the Ornaments of Faith® line by producing a couple of unique designs in various types of materials.  We found that customers really seemed to appreciate the pewter-finish ornaments the most, and thus we have responded to that feedback by providing even more unique and purposeful designs that that could use to encourage the faith. 

Many customer have started collecting these ornaments and purchase them annually to give each Christmas. Our customers really seem to appreciate the value and the purposeful designs of the Ornaments of Faith® that our product development team creates each year.

Looking for a unique and meaningful gift for all those colleagues who mean so much to you and add so much to your ministry? Take a look at this year’s Ornaments of Faith® collection. You won’t be disappointed!

View a video about this year’s Ornaments of Faith®.

View a video about how one pastor has built a tradition around Ornaments of Faith®.

I find this to be a very special time of year, yet another beautiful season God sends us to enjoy. With these changes, we also begin to see pumpkins and scarecrows. Whether we live in a farming community or not, we begin to hear talk about the fall harvest.

In my classroom this time of year, we talk about the differences between fall and summer. Although many of my kindergarteners prefer summer, talking about all the positive aspects of fall helps them discover God’s glory in every season. As they name their own fall favorites, cooler days, raking leaves, bonfires, and going apple-picking almost always find their way onto our class list. We talk about the harvest, and about how God has blessed us with food for the winter months ahead.

Children love pumpkins, especially carving them and decorating them. I teach that just as a pumpkin with a candle inside shines with light from one end of the neighborhood to the other, we can shine with the light and love of Jesus. He lives in us and that means his love radiates from us into the lives of all the people we see every day.

CTA has some wonderful resources to help reinforce this theme. Check them out on CTA’s Fall Festival pages or look for G.L.O.W. or S.H.I.N.E. products.

Happy autumn!

Before I mislead you too much, let me explain. Last Sunday, after attending church, I went to Busch Stadium where I work as an usher for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. That particular day, I worked The Giveaway. The first 25,000 fans received an Adam Wainwright (Cardinal pitcher) bobble head. A give-away at the stadium draws extra people. Fans come early to make sure they’re part of the first 25,000 (or whatever the number is that day). They’re excited about getting a free gift that reminds them of their team, a player, or the special memory of attending a major league baseball game. And yes, some collect them simply to sell for a profit.

The bottom line is that most people love giveaways – at the ballpark and at church. When I served as a pastor I loved to give worshipers take-home gifts. They were sometimes remembrances of the message or series and Jesus Christ, the focus of the message. The gift often provided ideas for prayer, outreach, Bible Study, or personal growth. Most times it served as a faith encourager.

Over the years I’ve gone into people’s homes to find some of those give-ways still there. Sometimes they’ve been there for years and years, serving as an encouragement or faith aid.

Most CTA – Christian Tools of Affirmation – products and gifts are used in churches, schools, and personal ministries as giveaways. Ushers might hand them out at the door as people come out of church. Teachers give CTA products to students. Leaders give them to . Children’s ministry and youth leaders give them out. Pastors and other leaders use them in children’s messages. People give CTA gifts to neighbors and even people they have never met. Leaders have giveaways for their staff and volunteers to encourage them in their faith and service. Retreat leaders use CTA products as remembrance giveaways. The list could go on and on.

People love giveaways. People love receiving a gift that encourages them in their faith. People love giveaways that point them to the love of their Savior, Jesus Christ. And ministry leaders and others love CTA gifts of faith, gifts of encouragement for God’s people.

Gifts you see in CTA’s catalog, online/website, or maybe in stores can impact lives and faith for days, years, or for eternity!