Exciting FX – Family Experience – awaits local children and their parents as church launches new outreach for community

  • by Jennifer Kneuss
  • January 3, 2011
  • 256
                        
Sunday afternoons – at least once each month – will not be boring anymore, if children’s pastor Kevin West and his crew of eighty or so volunteers have anything to say about it. West, who ministers at NewPointe Community Church in Dover, is promising over the top fun, along with sidekick characters Thaddeus, Chenault the Third, Uncle Louie, and of course, the one and only Bubba Joe, as the church launches its new FX – Family Experience program. Kids from kindergarten through fifth grade and their families are invited to join the whole zany crew on the second Sunday afternoon of each month, from 3 to 6 pm. “This is where fun brings the family together,” explained West. “We want to utilize this wonderful facility that we have, and share it with the community. It is a shared experience for parents and kids, where we talk about virtues in a fun and interactive way. The virtues are going to be things the parents can also talk about at home. The really cool thing, is that we are going to give families some tools. ‘KidStuf Carryout’– is something that parents can take home, and use it to have a set aside family night, allowing them to take what they learned that Sunday a little bit further. For instance, the first virtue is determination, with the tagline, ‘seeing what needs to be done, and doing it’,” continued West. “There will be different Bible characters involved each time. We are going to look at how that applies at home, and how that applies at school.” “We wanted to provide the community with a resource,” continued the children’s pastor. “It is all wrapped in fun. We want people to laugh out loud. There are families who have forgotten how to be have fun. They are busy, out chasing material things in life, taking it too seriously. Among churchgoing people, we know that 90 percent of people say they wish they knew how to lead their kids better spiritually, but only 20 percent know how. We want to be a partner in that. Let’s be generous, and have fun, and help families build and invest in relationships with their kids now.” The KidStuf program, which the church had formerly provided each Sunday morning, has been enhanced with the new FX Family Experience. KidStuf, in the KidStuf theater, offers comical, yet meaningful sketches and songs that help children and their parents learn how to do life well together. Combined with Biblical principles of character virtues, the format has proven to be very effective. “With FX, we will be open from 3 to 6, with KidStuf performances at 4:10 and 5:10. When families walk into the building, each month there will be something different going on in the gymnasium. This month it will be packed with inflatables of all types, and there will be a comic DJ with a mix of family friendly, safe music. There will really be some fun stuff in there, and lots of surprises.” The Café will be open, with Park Street Pizza bringing in strombolis and breadsticks, plus choices like coffees, smoothies, and other treats. “The Fun Police guys will be there, making sure that smiles are big, and laughs are loud. Our FX-perts staff will be there help out, answer questions, monitoring the inflatables – they are going to be all over the place.” “The Café items will be for sale, but the rest of the activities are totally free. Playland will be open, too, ” emphasized the organizer. “This is not a drop off event. It is a family event, with everyone together, on every second Sunday, from September through May.” West and his staff are hoping for great things with the new FX program being offered to the community. “This will be an opportunity for families to come and have fun. It’s very simple. Come to FX on January 8, go to KidStuf, plan a family night, and have fun! We wanted to keep it very simple and energizing,” said West. “We want to inspire families.” NewPointe Community Church is located at 3950 State Route 39 NW, Dover, and can be reached at 330-602-5600 or at www.newpointe.org.


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