By Cass Rains, Staff Writer
For more than two years Enid’s First Assembly of God’s Kidz Church Live has introduced kids to traditional church lessons in the ways kids are used to being approached.
Pastor Terry Cuthbertson — who has been with the church for about six years, four as a full-time as children’s pastor — said the program’s aim is to get kids excited about church.
“Kidz Church Live has been going on two and a half years now,” Cuthbertson said. “I think what we
realized early on was that we want to build an environment where kids would beg their parents to come hang out at church.
“We wanted to build an environment kids would really want to be a part of.”
Hands-on activities, multi-media presentations and audience participation are included in the Kidz Church Live sermons but presented to a much more media savvy generation.
“They’re getting online younger and younger and are being marketed to younger and younger,” Cuthbertson said of today’s kids. “We’ve got very media-based kids. We wanted to come up with a way we could reach kids on their level.”
Kidz Church Live, for first- through sixth-graders, is operated by children with adult supervision. Kids are in charge of running lights, sounds and video, as well as producing skits and outreaches.
“We really aim to teach kids you’re never too young to become a part and become an active leader,” the pastor said. “I think if we teach kids active leaders are successful leaders they will become very successful leaders in life.
He said sermons try to reach kids in as many ways as possible while keeping the action going and kids’ attention captured.
“Our sermons are broken down into smaller pieces, so we try to use all the senses,” he said. “So part of the service is hands-on, something else will be all about visual or what you hear.
“We do everything from bringing in Christian rappers and doing actual concerts for them. We just wanted church to be a place instilled in their mind as a good and exciting place to be a part of.”
Kidz Church Live is held Saturday nights and Sunday mornings at the same time as the church’s adult services. Cuthbertson said the lessons taught in Kidz Church Live are the same being taught during adult services. He said this allows for parents and children to connect and discuss what was learned.
“Literally, Mom and Dad can go home with kids and say, ‘What did you learn today?’ and it matches up with what they learned in the main service,” he said. “So Mom and Dad can take it home and talk about what they learned together. We do things for families where Mom and Dad can hang out with kids and just give them those opportunities.”
Cuthbertson said the Saturday night service usually has 20 to 50 kids and the Sunday services typically will have 50 more kids.
“It’s open to all kids, and we love all kids who come and hang out with us,” the pastor said. “We have lots of kids who come whose parents don’t come. We have lot of kids whose parents come because their kids do.”
Cuthbertson said the services are “laid back and very casual,” and dress is come as you are. He said with the multitude of possible activities, dress clothes are not the best choice.
“It’s come as you are. In fact, a lot of times it better to come as you are because ... we do everything from getting into slime to the worst thing we ever had, which was a food fight,” he said.
“I grew up watching Nickelodeon, watching “Double Dare,” and I kind of get to live that out,” Cuthbertson said. “I think we’ve built very memorable moments for these kids that they’re always going to look back on with fondness.
“We’ve got the greatest kids in the world,” he said. “My job is easy because the kids are just great.”
