Forming Disciples of Christ: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
How far we have come
Forming children as disciples of Jesus has been a major priority for this church plant since we were only a few families back in 2020. We wanted to build a cohesive program for children ages 3-9 that would help them learn about their loving Creator through the Scriptures and the ways we pray. As we prayed about how to do that, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) stood out as the most helpful program to build that kind of culture with children’s ministry (you can read more about it in our first CGS blog entry here).
Here some of the major pieces it took to put together Catechesis of the Good Shepherd: 1) enough families to have children in the right age range, 2) 1.5 years to have 4 trained catechists (thank you to Maggie, KC, Ashley, and Jody…and soon Haley!), 3) Thousands of dollars — each person trained costs the church about $750 in registration and books, not to mention the cost of the materials for the atrium!, 4) worship space that offered us a room to lead the atrium (a huge thank you to our friends at Springfield United Methodist Church) and 4) a church that prays, is willing to build a culture of discipleship around the Scriptures and the liturgy, and believes that the discipleship of children matters to God.
I’m so grateful for Corpus Christi Anglican Church and the ways it has stepped up to this challenge of building a CGS program. It is a heavy lift to get it started and your hard work and prayers will bless children (and the rest of the church) for years to come! Maggie will lead our first week and then Ashley will be taking up a lot of the leadership of CGS in the first few months as Maggie rolls off in March and until Haley is trained in CGS. For this season we will offer CGS on the first and third Sundays of each month with the hopes that by the Fall as more people are trained we can offer CGS more Sundays each month. Please keep our catechists and children in your prayers.
We are ready to begin
This Sunday, February 06, marks our first atrium experience for children ages 3-9. Here is what parents need to know:
Check in your children, both nursery and CGS-age children, before the service begins (please try to check in your children at 8:50). Checking the older children in allows the catechists to have your cell # on the child’s name tag if they need to get a hold of you.
For nursery (ages 0-2) children may be in the nursery from before the service until you pick them up during the passing of the peace.
For CGS-age children (3-9) children will be checked in with a sticker and join the parents in the sanctuary until the Scripture readings.
Before the Scriptures are read, the children will be invited to follow the catechists to the atrium. The catechists will be waiting at the doors of the chapel for the children.
The catechists will bring the children back to the chapel to sit with their parents by the time we get to the passing of the peace.
If you have any questions about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd or children’s ministry in general, or if you are interested in working with children or how to become a catechist, please contact us.