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 In Issue 9 of the e-news, we shareed that Common Ground would host the African Children’s Choir December 7-14. There were opportunities to provide housing and meals, and we had a great response! A total of eight Common Ground families hosted the 22 children (12 girls and 10 boys) and five adults during the week.
A typical day for the children began with sleeping in as late as possible and having breakfast with their host family. The hosts then dropped the children off at Common Ground for rehearsal and school, with nap time in the afternoon. In the evenings, the children would either go home with their host family for dinner and activities or participate in a choir performance as part of the Yuletide Celebration. The children also made a visit to The Children’s Museum and sang at a Colt’s game.
By staying with families and using the church building for rehearsal and school, they were able to save thousands of dollars to send back to Uganda for the school they will attend when they return. According to Carter Shepherd, “The choir was incredibly blown away by the sincerity and generosity of the people at Common Ground. They enjoyed their dinners and time with the church.”
On December 23, the choir will leave Indianapolis and return to Raleigh, NC. A church purchased the choir a home in Raleigh, and that is where the children will celebrate Christmas and hold rehearsals through January. At the end of January, they will start their cross country theater tour for "Journey of Hope," which is a musical based on the story of the first choir.
To learn more about the African Children’s Choir, visit their website.
 
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Our children's ministry is intended to support the children and their parents by providing a nurturing environment that allows children to discover truths from God's Word that are fundamental to their spiritual development and establish a foundation for a relationship with Jesus Christ. One way that we work to fulfill this purpose is by providing Sunday school for children age 0 – 12. Our primary emphasis during this time is Bible teaching through a developmentally appropriate biblical curriculum.
The creation and delivery of this curriculum takes into consideration not only the age of the children, but also their experiences. Currently, we group school age children by their biological age only. The coordinators, teachers and volunteers from within the children’s ministry believe that our children would benefit from the consideration of not only their biological age, but also their experiences. Unfortunately, we are currently not able to evaluate each child’s experiences on an individual basis. However, parents and educators alike agree that children in the same grade level often have similar experiences. Therefore, we will begin to group children by grade level, rather than age, in order to more effectively help them come to understand foundational biblical truths.
This change will take effect at both Midtown and CGCC-West upon the move of the Midtown location into their new building at 46th and Illinois. The new classes will be as follows:
- Nursery
- Toddler
- Pre-Kindergarten
- Kindergarten– 1st Grade
- 2nd Grade – 4th Grade
- 5th Grade – 6th Grade
You may be asking yourself, “Ok, now that I know about this change…what do I need to do?” The main thing to do is to talk about this change with your children to help them understand that they may be in children’s ministry with different children. For families at Midtown, you can also talk about the idea that we’ll be in a new building. Open houses are being planned for after the beginning of the new year, and we urge you to attend one and help your child(ren) locate and become acquainted with their new classroom.
If you have any questions about this change, please contact Martina Gaughan, director of children’s ministry, at martina@cground.org.
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Any tithes or offerings you would like included on your 2007 giving statement must be postmarked or received by the church by December 31. Contributions postmarked after December 31 will be considered a 2008 donation. The church office has moved to 4550 N. Illinois St., 46208.
Contribution letters will be mailed after the new year. If you have recently moved and need to update your mailing address, please contact Shawn at shawn@cground.org.
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 If you’re a coffee drinker and attend a morning service at our Midtown location, you’re probably more than just a little familiar with our food and beverage team. These great volunteers serve coffee on Sunday mornings from Labor Day until Memorial Day, and they do a lot to help us all perk up!
Team members arrive at 8 am to begin brewing and finish cleaning up around 11:30 am. One perk of this team is that you don’t have to miss worship service – you can attend at 9 am in between serving. Coffee service is on a set rotation, so volunteers serve every sixth Sunday, or less depending on the number of volunteers.
Interested in learning more or joining the simple, yet fun team? Please email foodandbev@cground.org or call Kim at 858.0243.
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Preteens are a moving target. Kids in grades 5 – 6 are too old for children’s Bible lessons, but too young for youth Bible lessons. They need a unique preteen Bible curriculum that answers real-life preteen questions and tackles the issues preteens care about most.
We think we’ve got it! Our new curriculum delivers Bible truth the way your preteens want to hear it. Each week we’ll present an attention-grabbing preteen Bible lesson that will prompt your preteen to dig into the Bible. Plus, they’ll get their very own safe and secure online community to connect with their peers and teachers.
Here’s a peek at a few of the topics that we’ll be diving into as we start the new year:
- Why do some people have more friends?
- Am I only supposed to be friends with Christians?
- How do I know if the Bible is true?
- How come I’m not perfect?
- What does God want from me?
We can’t wait to implement this new curriculum with our preteens! Would you like to join the fun? If you are interested in volunteering in the preteen class, please contact our director of children’s ministry at martina@cground.org.
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Christmas Services
 We will hold regularly scheduled services on Sunday, December 23 at both our Midtown and West locations. In addition, we will hold Christmas Eve Services at our Midtown location (6151 N. Central Avenue) at 5:30 pm and 7 pm on Monday, December 24. While children’s ministry will not be provided, children of all ages are encouraged to participate in this shortened service. We hope you’ll make plans to join us on Christmas Eve.
Redistribution
Interested in exploring some tangible opportunities to use your God given resources to impact others around the world for His glory? The Redistribution brochure is still available online, in the Welcome Center at Midtown and at the Information Table at West.
Holiday Office Hours
Our church office has moved to our new Midtown building at 4550 N. Illinois Street. The office will close for the Christmas holiday on Friday, December 21 and will reopen on Tuesday, January 2.
New Service Time at CGCC-West
Beginning Sunday, January 6, worship services will be at 10 am at CGCC-West. Questions? Please contact Nate at nate@cground.org
GRACE at Midtown
GRACE (God's Real Acceptance Compassion and
Encouragement) is a post abortion Bible study for women who have experienced the pain of abortion and are in need of learning God's way of love, healing and forgiveness. This confidential group will meet at Midtown on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 pm for 8 weeks beginning in January. For information, please contact Jennifer by January 11 at
258-0636 or jennifer_thompson0913@yahoo.com.
Quarterly Training and Equipping - Save the Date!
The next Quarterly Training and Equipping is Friday, February 16 and Saturday, February 17. Please save the date and plan to join us. Additional details coming soon.
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