Mara Chen

Mara writes the lessons and picks the songs, which is why children sing them all week. She works a term ahead, so every leader gets material that has been prayed over and tested rather than pulled together on a Saturday night.

Her curriculum follows the whole story of Scripture rather than a greatest-hits selection, and she writes each lesson three ways — nursery, preschool and elementary — so a family with children in different rooms is hearing the same thing at three different depths. Parents get the same passage in the take-home sheet, which is how a Sunday morning ends up on a Tuesday dinner table.

Mara also leads worship for the children's services. She chooses songs children can actually sing rather than songs that sound good from the stage, and she is unmoved by how many times a five-year-old wants to repeat the chorus.