FACE TO FACE
What a Year It Has Been A Connections interview with Cheryce Berg, director of children's ministires
A year ago, Cheryce Berg stepped into her role as director of children’s ministries. She had been on the job for six weeks when COVID hit. We recently talked to Cheryce about her rather unusual first year. Prior to the pandemic, what were some of your goals and dreams for children’s ministries? My first goal was to listen—to volunteers, to parents, to children and to the children’s ministry team. I wanted to connect with children outside of College Church and to help children within our church to make the transfer from the wealth of head knowledge to heart knowledge. I wanted to dream up new space configurations that would allow for both large group teaching and small groups at all the age levels. I also wanted to support family discipleship. Then came the pandemic and the strict stay-home orders in the spring. How did CM and Kids' Harbor adapt to all this? We went to our volunteers and asked them to record Bible school lessons for us to post online for the children. We created yard signs with Psalm 56:3—When I am afraid, I put my trust in you—to help give hope to people. We printed postcards and wrote one to each child in our ministry. Our volunteers sent postcards and birthday notes to children in their ministries. We checked in with our volunteers and invited them to co-host online classes for children and their parents. My team and I also read recorded Bible stories. And we prayed, a lot. One of the most helpful gifts for me has been a weekly Zoom call with five or six local children’s ministry directors, where we share ideas and pray for each other. I have loved collaborating with these directors, especially as we’ve exchanged ideas about reopening plans. We are stronger when we share ideas. The children’s directors are from Wheaton Bible Church, Christ Community in St. Charles, Chapelstreet in Geneva, Village Bible, Harvest Bible as well as First Presbyterian Church in Wheaton. What were the biggest challenges at the early stage of the pandemic, and how have things changed from then to now? At the start of the pandemic, the biggest challenge was how to stay connected to the children and families in our ministry when we didn’t see them every week. It was especially hard for me since I had only a little over a month to start meeting parents and to get to know their children. I didn’t have time to build a foundation for these relationships.
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Things have improved since we began to regather in September, but we still only have a small portion of children attending Kids’ Harbor, and there are still so many families I don’t know. The next biggest challenge was the months spent planning when we would regather and at the same time implementing a new curriculum. The children’s ministries team worked hard all summer to get the classrooms and hallways ready for a safe return as well as get our volunteers ready to use a completely different curriculum and new technology. With the school year now in place, what are plans for the summer and the Summer Institute of Children’s Ministries (aka SICM)? Those are in the works. I have tweaked the program and am working on hiring a small team of college students to learn and serve. Stay tuned. The word “joy” isn’t associated with COVID-19, but what joys or surprises did you discover along the way? Incredibly gifted and flexible teachers, the strength of the children’s ministry team I work with, each with different gifts. The desire of parents to help “do it themselves,” which I love because it strengthens the family. The pandemic gave me the
