Opequon Presbyterian Church (Winchester, Virginia) held an online
intergenerational gathering on a Sunday morning recently, based on “A Seed Story” (LIFT Year 1 Fall: Seed to Harvest). Before gathering on Zoom, with supplies provided by the church, four households decorated large pots and then planted flowers in them. Once together online, the flowers were shown, as the people told the story of how they decorated the pot and what they planted. Later, the potted plants were brought to the church to beautify the grounds. Participants were asked to have a food with seeds in it ready to eat and they all shared what those foods were. One person read “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle, followed by discussion. Others read Jesus’ parable of the farmer and the seeds, followed by discussion. A few then shared a fun experiment with seeds that jump. The gathering closed with a blessing. Director of Christian Education Carole Witt shared that it was great to be able to do events this way.
Christ Memorial Presbyterian Church (Columbia, Maryland) gathered folks together virtually on a Sunday evening, using “Belonging to God” (LIFT Year 2 Spring: We Belong to God). People ate before the event—serving foods that “belong together.” They had options of drawing a picture of what God’s family looks like, or of someone in the congregation who shows what they do for others, or by creating Child of God greeting cards to send to someone. When they met on Zoom that evening, they showed what they had created and then four children each read a scripture passage about belonging to God and God’s family. “I really like to read, and I really enjoyed reading the scripture. I hope I can do it again sometime because it’s fun,” said a 10-year-old participant. Zoom breakout groups were used to wonder together about how you can tell that you belong to a family and to God’s family. The evening ended with sharing of “glads” and “sads” and prayer.