Until recently our Christian Science branch church had a bunch of wonderful kids who preferred to play in childcare on Wednesday nights rather than attend the Wednesday evening testimony meetings. The “regulars” were four girls—Amelia, Danika, Ellen, and Michaela. Certainly it was normal for the children to enjoy playing together, particularly since they didn’t see each other except on Sundays and Wednesdays. By the time they were seven–eleven years old, the childcare committee was trying to help them transition to attending the testimony meetings—without much success. The members knew the children would be blessed by what they heard at the meetings, and everyone would be blessed by having them there. Members were really praying about this, and no one wanted there to be a clash of wills.
The Gratitude Club turned out to be the bridge that helped this group transition from childcare to attending the testimony meetings.
Here’s their story, plus a bit of advice about how to include kids in testimony meetings.
Laurie: How did you feel when you were told it was time to go to the testimony meetings and not play in childcare on Wednesday nights anymore?
Ellen: We were so sad because we had so much fun together on Wednesdays.
Danika: I felt like they were kicking me out.
Michaela: They [the Wednesday testimony meetings] were boring.
Amelia: With me, because I was younger, I went up just during the testimonies, not for the readings. Since my friends were up there, it was OK. Half the time in the nursery and half the time in the testimony meeting was OK.
Laurie: How did the Gratitude Club start? What did the Gratitude Club do?
Danika: We knew the testimony meetings are for giving gratitude for healings, so we decided to make the club about talking about gratitude.
Ellen: For an hour before church we sat on the front steps and had supper and played, then we went into the meetings.
Amelia: We played games like throwing frisbees, kickball, and badminton on the church’s front lawn. And we went through the alphabet and talked about what we were grateful for that started with A, B, C, etc.
Danika: After church we played some more. We organized events like a picnic, too, and twice we gave out popsicles to everyone after church.
Amelia: One time we gave out cookies with fortunes [slips of paper with messages about gratitude to God that the children had written].
Laurie: You’ve been attending the meetings for a while now. How’s it going?
Ellen: I don’t think about being in the nursery anymore.
Amelia: It would be awkward to be down there now.
Laurie: How did the Gratitude Club help you transition from childcare to the testimony meetings?
Amelia: We had binders and worksheets [about the readings, hymns, and testimonies] for the kids in the back of the church. They were a little noisy, but those things helped the transition.
Ellen: I got to know more adults and got more comfortable, and we practiced our testimonies. That helped.
Danika: At the Gratitude Club, it was kind of a practice run. You could tell your testimony to your friends, and get feedback before you gave it in front of everyone.
Amelia: I never realized the Gratitude Club was supposed to help us transition to actual church, until my dad told someone about it. I just thought it was a fun, random thing.
Laurie: Do you think it’s OK for churches to ask kids to leave the children’s room and go to the testimony meetings at a certain age, say at eight or ten years old?
Amelia: When I was ten years old, I would have said at age twenty. Now I’m eleven, and I don’t know what I’d do in the children’s room.
Ellen: Yes. Now I’m pretty happy.
Amelia: There should be less focus on what age, and more focus on how the transition takes place.
Laurie: I’ve heard you give really great testimonies. How did you learn how to give a testimony?
Michaela: When my grandmother started being the First Reader at church, I felt really comfortable looking at her. That’s when I started giving testimonies.
Danika: Eventually I just kind of forced myself to stand. It helped that I knew everyone, and I knew everyone was supporting me.
Laurie: What makes a good testimony?
Ellen: When it’s concise. It can’t be drawn out.
Amelia: It’s better if you’re not completely serious. And you shouldn’t be like a stand-up comedian, but crack at least one joke.
Danika: I like dramatic testimonies, but not scary ones. It’s good when people give testimonies about small things, but take it to the level of the spiritual.
Ellen: I like the nice explanation that holds it all together.
Michaela: Mary Baker Eddy says don’t go into detail about the sin and disease stuff.
Danika: I like questions in testimonies, like the questions you’re asking yourself. Share the thought process.
Michaela: If God doesn’t tell you to give that testimony, then don’t give it. Be God-led.
