St. Nicholas Westwood Hills Our Community 2 minutes Who We are Where We are located Who were are called to serve Were we serving them well? No

Traditional Sunday School We were doing Sunday School well, but not getting the hoped for results. We had tried great Curriculums, had great teachers, what now? 3 Minutes Sara is an engineer by profession Not your typical approach, but we weren’t looking for a typical solution Her professional work: looks at systems that are broken and finds better ways for them to run She researched modern families and came back to us with a Christian education approach that responded directly to her research Mission: To spread the Gospel to all people Provide Christian Education to support our baptismal covenant as individuals and as a church community 1. Traditional Sunday school wasn't working. Attendance was low, interest to teach it was low, and kids were not interested in that type of learning.  2. We needed to do something completely different to re-engage the youth. 3. I researched modern families and modern Sunday School programs around the world. I concluded that there were alternatives to traditional Sunday school that do work. 4. My original idea was not to "spread the Gospel to all people", but rather to have families learn together in an active way that engages both the young and old. In this way a familial conversation gets started which hopefully goes past the church walls and into daily life. A conversation that ultimately gets kids talking with their friends. 5. The service was imagined to be unlike any "traditional" Anglican service: active learning, modern music, simple language, more discussion, different set-up.

Family Pray Ground 4 Minutes Principles underlying the Family Pray-Ground Service The whole family of St. Nicholas will learn and worship together. Services will be led by both adults and children. Readings will be family friendly. Prayers will be given/written by families. Communion will have child-friendly options. Use a variety of media to engage all ages in spiritual exploration and discussions. Music will be modern and engaging. What Does That Actually Look Like? Don’t worry, we still follow the flow of Anglican Liturgy! We Gather We Hear / See / Act Out the Word. Do you know how many Bible stories are acted out in Lego characters on YouTube? We Respond to the Word through discussion, art, crafts, science, games, meditation, and other activities. By responding actively, we are developing our faith and faith language. Sacraments – we vary rarely include Eucharist in our worship these days, but when we do, we are participants, not just observers/an audience. We’ll show some photos later of an example. Prayers & Offerings: our prayers are not scripted, but are offered up by members of our gathered community based on their current situation. Offerings often include gifts of music by our young people. So far we’ve had a wide variety including piano, voice, guitar, violin and ukelele. Sending out: Taking with us discussions and applications of what we have studied out within our families and into community.

The old shape was working against us, so we changed 2 Minutes It didn’t matter how interactive we were, sitting looking at the back of one another’s heads was not supporting us in our mission to create an interactive community of faith.

Sacraments A Lot Less Talking A Lot More Doing 2minutes We decided that doing sacraments every week wasn’t in the best interest of our mission, so we have them less often, but when we do them, WE DO THEM!

How To Implement Change Step 1 Change is needed Step 2 Mission Step 3 Study Step 4 Imple-ment Step 5 Examine & Adapt 2 minutes Review: The How to for your community Step 1: Acknowledge if what we are doing is not working Step 2: What is your mission. How do you live into that mission Step 3: Research your community, who are they, what do they need and what is modern society’s take Step 4: Implement a new program based on what you have learned about who we are called to serve. Using the long established and loved Anglican patterns that are rich enough to endure change, even drastic change. Step 5: Examine what is working and what was not, and adapted the program based on those experiences