Paper Airplanes at Church

This past weekend, I went into our elementary worship service. It was near the end of the service...you know...the in between time when the service is done and parents come for pick-up.

Suddenly, something went flying by me. It was a paper airplane.

There were dozens of paper airplanes flying across the room. 

Dodging one of the paper airplanes that was flying across the room,  I reached down and picked up one of the planes that had just landed. 

Where did the kids get the paper to make the airplanes?  Did we give them paper for this?  Was it part of the programming that day?  

As I looked at the paper the plane was made from, it was quickly obvious where the "building material" had come from.  

The airplane had been made from a take home paper. Yep... our "take home paper" had been turned into paper airplanes that were launching toward the sky.

This coming weekend we are making a small tweak that will make a big difference. Here it is.

We are going to stop giving the take home paper to the kids and instead give it to the parents when they come to pick their child up. 

As we hand the parents the take home paper, we will say, "Here are some things we learned about and talked about today.  This paper has some follow-up questions and activities from the lesson that you can do with your child at home this week.",,,, one small tweak will eliminate the paper airplanes and get the take home papers into people's homes where they can be used by parents to disciple their children.

Your turn. Do you send take home papers?  Do you use something different to equip parents?  What have you found works best?  

Share your thoughts and insights in the comment section below.