At the church where I serve, Promotion Sunday, that day when kids move up to the next grade/class in Sunday School and other activities, for years occurred the first Sunday of September. However, by the time I arrived the date had been pushed back to the first Sunday in June. This was done primarily for one reason: by the time the summer had arrived our 5th graders were ready to promote into our middle school ministry (for those that don’t have a middle school ministry, you can probabcly relate to this with your 6th graders as they approach youth ministry).
One problem, however, that I encountered was that many in our preschool division were not quite ready to promote in June. For instance, our Kindergarten teachers had us order 3-4s curriculum because their kids were not quite ready for the K5 material. What to do?
I compromised. I went ahead and promoted my 5th graders into the middle school ministry at the end of May (which made both parties happy – including our 5th grade teachers who enjoyed taking the summer off from teaching) and we pushed promotion back to the first Sunday in August – not September. Because school starts in mid-August, we figured why not have the kids promote a little early before all of the back-to-school hype started off. September just seemed too late.
When does your Children’s Ministry or Sunday School do promotion Sunday?
What about you? When do you promote? What lessons have you learned about promotion?
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we promote everyone in June
We promote in September, the Sunday after labor day. School starts the Wednesday after labor day. So school is in session 3 days before we promote.
We typically give the children a promotion certificate. I was wondering if you knew of a site where there are printable certificates appropriate to Sunday school promotion?
Last year I ditched the certificates and gave EVERY child a gift bag of assorted candy. I talked about Faith and Reward from Hebrews. Those who believe in God must believe two things, that he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.
I highlighted the sad truth that often we get more excited about a bag of candy than God and knowing him. But encouraged all the children to fight to believe that God’s reward is far greater than this bag of candy. Sunday school is a place where we can grow in our knowledge of God which we pray will increase their faith.
The parents loved that exhortation to their children but missed the certificates, as they, unlike myself:), collect them. So this year I will do both!