Join Our First Unity Kids for a Fun Spiritual Education Experience and Fellowship for All Ages!
First Unity Church offers a full Youth Education Program for nursery through high-school-aged children during our 10:30 a.m. service. We have four classes, for students from ages two years to 17 years old. On Sunday mornings, we first do a combined assembly of all the classes before breaking into groups; the classes are divided by age and grade.
Our Activities
For the past several weeks, we’ve been busy talking about ways to feel happy and joyful, and how to make others feel that way, too. One Sunday class featured the First Unity kids learning about meditation and prayer. Another Sunday, we prepared foods of the Holy Land, which was a hit with the First Unity kids and the church congregation alike. A summer activity included Playdough and pudding cups. One snowy day, we talked about how God made each of us unique and special, just like a snowflake; we also drew snowflake pictures!
Within the past few years, the Youth Education Program has done several service projects. We collected money from our weekly love offering and from the generous congregants. Most recently, the children are supporting the No Time to Spare Animal Rescue and Sanctuary with their “For Love of Pets” project. Each Christmas, we collect toiletries for area children and families, and each school year, we have provided school supplies to boys and girls in the Court system and immigrant children.
The First Unity kids participated in the Burning Bowl and White Stone ceremonies in the sanctuary. We also celebrated Halloween and Christmas with special activities. On Valentine’s Day, First Unity kids dropped in at the end of the Sunday service to share some treats and to remember that God is love.
In a series of classes, we looked for the Powers within us and discussed each at length, including: Zeal, Order, Love, Strength, Faith, Power, Judgment, Imagination, Release, Will, Life and Understanding.
We’ve gone through a workbook called The God in Me. Children from 6 to 11 can earn a badge or a pin if they are in scouts. Those who aren’t in scouts can earn a Unity emblem. We’ve also done a curriculum called “The Road to Oz” based on the Wizard of Oz.
Visitors are always welcome!
First Unity Youth Education Ministry Staff
Glenda Gebhardt, Claire Gibbs and Cindy Gibbs
Youth Ministry teacher Glenda Gebhardt has been in Girl Scout Leadership for over 35 years. Glenda is a nurse and a tireless volunteer.
Youth Ministry teacher Cindy Gibbs has been part of the First Unity Youth Ministry since her family came to the church in 1999. Cindy has a PhD. in Education and certification in English as a Second Language. She volunteered with Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts and the Concordia Turners. She currently works at Long International Middle School with refugee children.
Youth Ministry teacher Claire Gibbs earned her undergraduate degree in geology and a certificate in geospatial mapping at Missouri State University in Springfield. She’s now working on her master’s degree in geospatial mapping from Northwest Missouri University in Maryville. Claire’s musical background includes playing the flute and piccolo and, while in high school, performing in the Mehlville marching band.
Purpose Statement for First Unity’s Youth Education
We are accepting, inquisitive, and creative. We are here to learn and grow spiritually, support one another, and serve the community.
Unity’s Five Basic Principles for Children
- God is all good and active in everything, everywhere.
- I am naturally good because God’s divinity is in me and in everyone.
- I create my experiences by what I choose to think and what I feel and believe.
- Through affirmative prayer and meditation, I connect with God and bring out the good in my life.
- I do and give my best by living the truth I know. I make a difference.
Call out the Children…
By Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity
Our mission is not to entertain the children, but to call them out. To be always entertained is to be dwarfed and dependent. To be “called out” is to follow the harmonious law of the soul’s unfoldment. Who meddles with the rosebud? What fingers are deft enough to pry open that marvel of folded beauty? We are wise enough to leave it alone to follow the glad law of its own unfolding, but our children! Have we dealt as wisely with these buds of marvelous possibilities? Have we always remembered that they, too, must quicken and unfold through the innate law of their own genius?