CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Experiments. Activities. Encouragement.
Michael Brueseke is Senior Pastor of Community Church, with locations in Chesapeake and Suffolk. The church is keeping kids up to fifth grade busy at home with interactive online experiences every weekday.
“When [the coronavirus outbreak] happened, we just sort of went into, 'How are we gonna care for our families? How are we gonna engage our families?'" said Brueseke. “And so, we were like, 'We have the capacity. Let's start making videos and lessons for kids, experiences for them that they could watch at home.'”
At 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on their Facebook and YouTube pages, Pastor Brueseke said they post ‘Community Kids’ sessions, available to anyone, to create constructive habits for children as they adjust to a new routine.
“We wanted to be intentional, to put something positive in their life a couple times a day that would speak to them,” said Brueseke. “It speaks to them in their own way. Makes them laugh, makes them have fun, has a positive message.”
The sessions are also helping parents searching for creative outlets for their kids.
“If parents say, 'Hey kids, I want you to watch this,' and the kids think it's fun also, then it's a win for families where parents aren’t making their kids do something they don’t want to do, which, we all know... is an important thing,” said Brueseke.
As families get used to their new normal for now, Pastor Brueseke said the church wants to do its part to help as they practice putting faith over fear.
“When kids are able to experience something fun that builds their faith, then when everybody else kind of in the world right now is breathing fear – which is a lot of what we get 'cause there's uncertainty, there’s all this unknown – that that joy that kids then have, it allows them to have a little bit more faith simply that things are going to be okay,” said Brueseke.
To learn more about Community Church, visit https://community.church/