Chat and Catch

I was introduced to Chat and Catch in a Kidzmatter Magazine article a few years back. The first time I did this with my group of 2nd thru 4th graders, the results were emotionally moving! It was exciting to see the kids hear from God, and for them to know that they did. I try to do this every few months and plan on doing it in my upcoming kid's conference I am hosting for 8-12 year old.

Chat and Catch is a great way to end a series on prayer, hearing from God, or worship. Here is how I do Chat and Catch...

Items needed: crayons and paper for everyone.

I like to enter into it after a couple of worship songs, after worship (keep the lights low and continue to play worship music in the background) I instruct the kids to grab 2 crayons and piece of paper.  Then to find somewhere in the room, not by anybody else and make yourself comfortable. You need to be able to hear my voice and not get distracted, put the crayon and paper aside I will tell you when to use those.

Chat is the first part, this is where we talk with God. I spend about 10 minutes at this part. I will give you a few samples but the most part is to get them to talk with God and to help them realize that God is interested in all parts of our lives. I instruct them to talk out loud but quietly, so not to disturb others.

Here are the samples, allow time for the kids to talk to God.
Tell God your favorite joke
Tell Him your favorite part about school
Tell God what you are doing after church
Share with God your favorite movie
Tell God something that makes you sad
Tell Him something that makes you happy
Let God know about a problem you need help with

After a few minutes of chat it is time to go into catch. This is the part where they need to listen to God. I instruct the students to no longer talk but listen to what God says to them. This is also the time for them to use their paper and crayons. They can draw or write what they hear God say to them. I spend about 10 minutes here, during this time, I pray over each of the kids and that God will give them a life changing word. I also tell them that when they are done, they need to just sit quietly while everyone finishes up.

After everyone is finished I have the kids put away their crayons and let them know they can share with me their pictures if they want or they can hang on to them. After the kids share their pictures with me. I go into a short discussion about knowing that the voice you heard is from God.

#1 It always lines up with the Word.
           God is the Word and the Word is God. God can't say anything that isn't found in His word.
           This is why we need to know the Bible, so that we can't be fooled into believing something that isn't
           the Word.
(John 1:1)

#2 God's Word is always positive.
           God always has good thoughts to share with us and positive things to help us move forward.
(Jer. 29:11)

#3 This isn't the only way to pray but, this is a way to pray
           We need to make sure we have these two elements when we pray.
           We talk to God about all areas of our life. We listen to what God has to say to us.

The best part of this thing is to see and hear what the kids learned. It is awesome to know that God has spoken to these kids.

Mark Harper has a great blog post called Does God Speak to Kids? if you want to read more about kid's and prayer.

I love this experience the kids get to have with God!

If you do Chat and Catch with your kids please let me know the experience you have with it!!