Making Room for Everyone
The subtitle for the book Making Room for Everyone is “More Stories for Building a Children’s Chapel.” It follows author Bill Gordh’s book, Building a Children’s Chapel: One Story at a Time, and both books include information on creating a children’s chapel, storytelling tips, and song suggestions which support the story themes. Whereas the first book used Bible stories, Making Room for Everyone includes folktales from around the world, as well as stories from different faith traditions. The stories in both books can be used in a myriad of ways, children’s chapel being just one of them. Some other uses might be a special worship service or an intergenerational program based on one of the themes in the book.
The first chapter of the book is “Setting Up Chapel” and will be helpful to those just starting a children’s chapel in their school or church or those wishing to add to or revamp their program. Some of the considerations mentioned are length of the service, age of attendees, preparation of the physical space, creating a songbook for non- and early readers, involving parents, and using children’s art. Gordh also offers storytelling tips and there are story “skeletons” at the end of each story which list cues/phrases to help in telling the stories.
The stories themselves are next and the largest part of the book. They are separated into themes: Stories of Self; Stories of Family and Friends; Stories of Faith, New Life, and Celebration; Stories of the Value of All Living Things; and Stories of Giving and Forgiving. For each story, there is a detailed story script, storytelling tips specific to that story, art needs, the story skeleton, and an accompanying song.
The last section of the book focuses on The Songbook. There is a list of the songs included in the songbook the author uses in the chapel services he leads, as well as Bible Story Songs and Holiday Songs. There is also a section with outlines for family services lasting about one hour; the outlines include suggested readings (from the Bible and elsewhere), songs, and prayers.
The book is available from Church Publishing, Inc. and provides plenty of material for those leading a weekly or monthly children’s chapel, those looking for Sunday school or VBS activities, as well as those planning intergenerational programs or worship services.
A review copy of the book was supplied by the publisher.
