Family Service – “Jailhouse Rock”

Sunday 17^th November

35 children (aged 4 – 11)

Welcome& register in groups:

Kids draw something that represents power, eg volcanoes, river etc etc

All together: pray

In the background is the video below, showing powerful things

 

What do you think the most powerful thing on Earth is? Give some examples:

• Powerful Peppers- Naga Jolokia [pronounced; Na-za Holo-ka] peppers are the most powerful food. It can be 10 times stronger than a jalapeno and can burn your skin. Imagine what it would do inside your mouth!
• Powerful Machines - The Wartsila-Sulzer boat engine is used to power huge container ships and makes the fastest car look slow. It is stronger than 213 of the most powerful Ferrari cars.
• Powerful Animals- A rhinoceros beetle can lift up to 850 times its own bodyweight. That’s exactly why they are often called Hercules beetles! They are native to rainforests and eat rotting wood and decaying fruit.

1. Powerful Earth - The most powerful recorded earthquake is thought to be the 1960 Valdivia earthquake which caused damage to Chile, Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. It lifted the ocean floor with a magnitude rating of 9.3 on the Richter scale.

Today we’re learning that praise is powerful. Connecting with the creator of the Earth holds more power than we can imagine.

 

quick song..... Rainbow in the Sky

 

Dvd:Hillsongs Memory verse

Dvd;Watch Hillsongs Big HQ

Praise releases God’s power – tell the story of Paul & Silas

Split Banana OBJECT LESSON: With God all things are possible!

Supplies Needed: A banana, a long thin metal pin. (like a sewing needle or dress making pin)

Before the lesson stick the pin into the banana where you want it to be cut. Slide the pin horizontally to slice the banana without making any marks to the peel. Do this to cut the banana in three places.

Show the banana to the children and tell them that you are going to do the impossible. You are going to slice the banana into pieces without touching or breaking the skin.

Ask the children if they think it’s possible or impossible. Next, have some fun and do some ninja karate moves to “slice” the banana without touching it.

Slowly peel the banana to show that it is cut on the inside. After much applause and amazement from the children explain to them that it was just a trick. It was not impossible but with God things that seem impossible are possible. Matthew 19:26

“With God all things are possible.” (NIV)

Explain to them how the trick is done. Maybe they can show their friends and family and teach others that with God all things are possible.

1. Powerful Praise Our voices are used for so many different things. The most powerful thing you can do with your voice is to praise God.

 The power of praise is that we take the focus off of ourselves and we focus on God. God is all powerful and He can do anything. We can praise God and see His power work in our lives.

2. All things are possible. To your average, everyday person a lot of things seem impossible. What you dream of being when you grow up might, at this moment, seem pretty impossible. Seeing someone who is sick or hurt healed might seem impossible. We know that with God all things are possible! We don’t need to give up! Think about Jesus. After 3 days in a tomb he came alive again. That seemed impossible but it wasn’t for God! We can see miracle after miracle in the Bible, in our lives and in the lives of others.

 

another song.... great big God o

 

Back to Groups:

first pray for one another!

Kids split in to groups, and complete a worksheet

Then write prayer of praise on bunting to decorate the room

 

 

 

Dec 1^st Advent, Be Prepared

Game : Captains Daughter                          

List of instructions :

1. Port (run to left-hand wall)

2. Starboard (run to right-hand wall)

3. Fore (run to front)

4. Aft (run to back)

5. Climb the rigging (on the spot rope climbing actions)

6. Swab the decks (Mopping actions)

7. Cannon-ball coming (Lie flat on the floor)

8. Admiral's aboard (Stop dead, stand straight and salute at attention)

9. Captains Daughter (everybody stops and wolf whistles )

Explain that the children are all sailors on a ship, and the captain is expecting a visit from the admiral – so lots of preparations have to be made. Read out the instructions before the game begins and make sure that everyone understands what to do when each one is called.

One player is chosen as the captain and is given the list of instructions from which s/he can call at random. Once the captain calls "Admiral's aboard" the last person to obey the command is eliminated.

Play until one person is left and that person then becomes the captain & reads the list, in random order...

Question: What is Advent  

We showed the video below, then had a quick fire quiz

 

 

 

 

Questions:

1. Advent is a period lasting for how long… four Sundays
2. Advent the season of .. preparation
3. Advent the season of …. looking forward
4. Advent the season of… change
5. In the video that we saw, how many Candles did we see .. 20
6. Most common word displayed .. wait
7. Preparing for the celebration of… Jesus birth
8. In the video that we saw, how many SNOWFLAKEs did we see.. 25
9. Title of the song “I will wait for you”
10. We saw 2 people waiting and looking at a light shining down, what were they sitting on.. stairs
11. What am I waiting for?  Waiting for Jesus
12. What does advent means?  the coming of …. Something

CHRISTMAS TREE                   

Divide the children into small groups and ask them to read the Christmas story as recorded in Luke 2: 1-20.

Seek answers to the questions:

When was Jesus born (v 2)?

Why did Joseph travel to Bethlehem?(v4)

Where did Mary lay her baby? (v7)

What did the angels say to the shepherds? (v 10)

What was special about Jesus? (v 11)

Why were people amazed at what he shepherd's said ?(v 18)

What do you think Mary treasured? (v 19)

Why were the shepherds glorifying and praising God (v 19).

Ask the children to write on a blue bauble something that they have learned about Jesus' birth, that they want to remember this Christmas. If they wish they can copy a verse onto the bauble, or write something on their own. They can then go and hang their bauble on the tree.

Examples of baubles completed are below:

 

 

MEMORY VERSE  - Pass the Parcel

PASS THE PARCEL

Prep: A present with a word from the memory verse in every layer of paper & a sweet

Memory Verse: “They will call him Immanuel which means God with us" Matthew chapter 1 verse 23.”

We ran out of time for the following:

Reflection – Christmas Worship & Calendar drawing               

we were going to how the video below, the kids were then going to think  about how much God Loves them, not just at Christmas but all year. They drew a picture on some coloured card with a 2014 calendar on it.  

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Prayer with M&Ms

This was created by my youngest son at his 11-14 year old group; still useful for future Sunday School Creative Prayer ideas....

 

1 Timothy 2v1-5
I urge you first of all to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; Intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by Godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our saviour who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. (NLT)

 

Questions to Discuss

·         How can we act on that reading?

·         Why should you pray for people you don’t like?

·         Should we pray for people that don’t pray for us?

·         Why do we pray for people that don’t believe in God?

 

M&M Prayer

Orange:  Pray for a national leader (Barack Obama, David Cameron, and The Royal Family, the UN etc.)

Red:  Pray for a teacher

Yellow: Pray for a church leader (Youth worker, minister etc.) 

Green: Pray for a family member

Blue: Pray for a friend

Brown: Pray for someone in the room

 

When you pray for them…

·         Give thanks for them

·         Ask god to help them

·         Pray God will be with them and bless them

Nature of God: Mighty God (3 Nov 2013)

1         Icebreaker Game – I Went to the North Pole

kids (and leaders) in a circle

The first child begins by saying, "I went to the North Pole and I took a (sleeping bag)."

The second child says, "I went to the North Pole and I took a (sleeping bag) and a (can of tuna)." The next child continues, "I went to the north Pole and I took a (sleeping bag), a (can of tuna) and a(teddy)." etc

We did this twice, raised many laughs, the kids remembered everything very well. For the record, things starts good, eg taking “pen, pencil, paper”… then towards the end changed to “toilet, hairy man”

Lots of fun.

 

2         Strongest Product Comparison

We talked about what we would be doing today, looking at Gods power, then suggesting we could test various products to see which is more powerful….

Kids split to 2 teams

Each team had a sheet of plastic to use, each time they had something to clean up, with a suitable (or not ) implement.

Task1: dry up a puddle of water, team 1 had toilet roll, team 2 had kitchen roll

Task2: scrub some felt tip that was on the plastic sheet, team 1 had J Cloth, team 2 had Scrubby Pad (which resulted in the plastic ripping!)

Task 3: lump of Jam to clean up. Team 1 had a hand brush; team 2 had a kitchen broom (note, had to was the brushes under water to clean out the jam!)

We spoke about what power was, and how we measured it.

 

3         Video – Aladdin Genii

 

Showed the video here, we spoke about how the Genii was like God, typical questions were

 

· How powerful is the genii?

· What does Aladdin have to do to "earn" his three wishes?

· Why does the genii so badly want to use/share his power?

· Do you think the genii is like God in any way?

· In what ways is God's power like that of the genii?

· If God is all-powerful, why doesn't He always use his power to change circumstances for us?

 

One of the kids ended up by saying “Aladdin’s Genii is like the Holy Spirit, just that you can see him” <nugget>

 

4         Power Discussion

 

The kids were tasked with drawing pictures of something powerful, examples given were

¨       River

¨       Sea

¨       Wind

¨       Power Stations

¨       Fire

These were drawn, together with God, Superman, Stars…

 

5          Power in the Bible

We discussed how God uses power

From the passage:  Psalm 89:5-14

We tried to answer the questions:

How does God demonstrate His power in this passage?

Who is He more powerful than?

As well as God's physical power, this passage talks about God's character. What does it say about God?

How does God's character affect the way He uses His power?

How does God treat His people?

 

6         Gods has Power to Drive our Lives

I spoke about the song below, and what I meant to me. (this was the song that my puppet team performed to yesterday, always useful re use things!)

God is so powerful he can take control of our lives, if we let him.

 One child asked for the song title/singer so she could take it home and listen to it later! <nugget#2>

Nature of God: Grace

11 children

1.   Icebreaker Game – Piggy in the middle!
kids in a circle, just have to throw a ball over somebody in the middle….

2         Competitive Game – The Winner!

racing game or similar, but the LOOSER is awarded the prize (medal)

At the end of the race the medal wen to the looser! We discussed how fair that feeled, and tried to map this to Gods grace, wrt we are given it even though  we don’t deserve it

3         Video - I DON'T WANT YOU!

 

Toy Story 1: from 24:49 – 30:05

Woody has been Andy's favourite toy but Andy has just been given Buzz Lightyear and he is the new favourite! Woody can't come to terms with not being number one and he succeeds in getting Buzz  knocked out of the window. Buzz follows Andy's car to the petrol station and Buzz and Woody have a  fight which results in both of them being left behind.

We discussed the clip and answered the following questions:

· Do you think Woody really means to push Buzz out of the window?

· Why is Woody so upset with Buzz?

· In this clip, what are the consequences of Woody refusing to accept Buzz?

· What would have happened if Woody had been nicer to Buzz?

· How else could Woody have dealt with the situation?

Most of the kids picked up on the fact both characters were wrong, and should have given grace to the other, being angry  usually results in us making bad decisions

4         Bible Study – He Does this…

The kids were split in to Pairs, each have a bible verse (below), and are tasked in finding the bible verse, and thinking up an action that shows it.

·         Ephesians 2:3 (Once we had made God angry and were to be punished.)

·         Ephesians 1:7 (Jesus sacrificed his blood for us)

·         Ephesians 2:4 (God made us alive with Christ)

·         Ephesians 1:5 (God chose us to be adopted sons)

·         Ephesians 1:3 (We are blessed with every spiritual blessing)

·         Ephesians 2:10 (God planned things for us to do for him)

When everybody was ready, each pair read their verse and showed their action/skit.

5         Hangman

Open up the bible, and chose one of the words in the page as the word.. kids have to guess. Usual hangman rules….  (small link, there was a picture of Hangman in the Toy Story video clip!)

Kids liked this!

6         Bible Study with Video : A loving Father

Showed the video :

 

 

 

Ask the children why they think the father was so forgiving.

We explained that the father is like God. He loves us more than we can imagine, far more than we deserve and He treats us with grace all the time.  The father could have forgiven his son and let him be a servant - that would have been enough. What else did the father do to his son?

That is like God. He doesn't just forgive us; He gives us a whole new start and provides us with all sorts of gifts as we start again with him - even though we don't deserve it. That's grace!

7         Final prayer and end

8th July 2013 - Friends

Best Friends  8th July 2013

1. Game – Here I Sit

(see description of this here)

2. Activity-Best Friends

Ask the children to get into pairs. Each pair should think of a surprising friendship, either from the Bible or from television or movies - like Shrek and donkey or Danny and Sandy - people that you wouldn't expect to be friends.

Each pair should pretend to be the friends that they have chosen and introduce themselves to the rest of the group, eg “Hi, we are (Shrek and Donkey). We have been friends for (a while) now. People are surprised that we are friends because (he's a donkey and I'm an ogre. Also he never stops talking and I am a grumpy watsit who likes peace and quiet.) “

The ones chosen in this session were

• Princess and Frog
• Him and Himself (?)
• Oberon, Puck and Titania (never know an 11 year old boy knew that much about Shakespeare”)

Other suggestions:

• Adam and Eve
• Bill and Ben
• Jack and Jill
• Kermit and Miss Piggy
• Lady and the Tramp….

When each pair has been introduced write their (fictional) names on a flip chart.

Ask the children to think about which of the pairs were the most surprising friends. Each child should take a slip of paper and vote for one of the pairs.

Count the votes and see who has been voted as the most unlikely friendship.

Finished off the activity by talking briefly about what might make very different people want to be friends with each other. What makes a good friendship?

3. Activity /Drama FRIENDS IN NEED

We talked together about the difficulties we go through at different times and the things that might make us feel very sad or very happy. The reactions of our friends can either help us or make things worse for us.

Kids then took turns at:

• Pretending to need help (eg being bullied, feeling ill, and failed an exam…)
• Somebody else – saying negative things to them
• Somebody else- saying good things

The kids loved this, but we used it as an example of how we could build people up or not...

 Song – Dave Godfreys Holy Washing Machine

With actions (of course)

 

 

 Bible Study

Kids split in to groups, and went thru the following verses and tried to answer questions…

John 15:12-14

• What commandment has Jesus given his disciples?
• What is the greatest thing you can do for a friend?
• Can you think of any commandments God has given about how we are supposed to treat other people?
• What can you learn about friendship from this passage?

Acts 24:23 and 27:3

• What did Paul's friends do for him?

• What sort of things do you think his friends helped Paul with?

• Should friends give things to each other without expecting things back in return?

Proverbs 17:17, 27:6

• When is a friend loyal?

• Can you think of times when it would be difficult to be loyal to a friend?

• What do you thinkthat "wounds from a friend" are?

• Why might a good friend sometimes do something that upsets you - can you think of an example?

• There is a saying "cruel to be kind" - what does this mean? Do you think that this passage is about being "cruel to be kind"?

• Why is it better to be told the truth by a friend than to be flattered by someone who doesn't care?

• What can you learn about friendship from this passage?

The Point: To look at different Bible passages about friendship. John gives us Jesus' commandment to  love one another; Acts shows us briefly that Paul's' friends responded to his needs - which raises questions about how much friends should be prepared to give one another - and Proverbs looks at the  times when friends have to be cruel to be kind!

 

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2nd June 2013 - Parables

all boys aged 8-10 (yes, it was rather loud! :) )

Parables

Introduction

When Jesus taught he typically taught by using parables. Parables are attention grabbing –

Jesus took everyday occurrences and made them into object lessons. Often Jesus' parables are about the land or the sea - fishing, farming. The people listening to Jesus could have followed his gaze and watched, for instance, a distant farmer sowing his seed as Jesus told the parable of the sower. They would have seen fishermen at work as Jesus told them the parable of the dragnet. This immediacy would have caught his audiences' attention and made his teaching relevant to their lives.

Q Why did Jesus use parables? / while keeping the interest of the audience, were not completely easy to understand - only those whom the holy Spirit wanted to understand would understand. Jesus used parables to keep his meaning slightly hidden from those who were not ready to understand him!

Game – Time

 

Stand the children at one side of the hall and ask them to cross in their own time to the other side.

Say that they should aim to take two minutes to get there - and time them!

See who manages to do the journey in the closest time to 1 minute.. repeat with different times. They enjoyed this game!

Object Lesson – use of objects in parables

 Described how parables are like object lessons, let the kids guess an object lesson for each of the items I had, then I told them my version…

Telephone

2 parts to hand piece, we need to listen and talk. Eg phone convo with somebody. Like when we talk to God, when we pray we upload our problems… but it’s good to be quiet and listen too

Coins

different size piles of different values, but all worth the same. God sees us all the same, doesn’t matter if you are tall or fat or different…

Toothpaste

“many ways to squeeze” from the top from the end. Kid sq        ueezes out toothpaste, then another tries to get it back in the tube. This is a bit like our words, easy to come out, but hard to take back. Brief talk about power of the tongue etc…

2 fizzy Cans

 open a can, yum, how do we get the drink out, we need to tip it up… what would happen if we just left the can on a table?  It would taste really blahh.   New Can – have you ever shaken a can first and then opened it.. what happens? Demonstrate..  God wants us to be like that in our praise, he wants us to be bubbling and overflowing, too often we wait for others to be excited… could I have kept the shaken drink in the can If I put my thumb over the hole/? No. and what happens if I just stay on the table, I go all yucky.

Sweet Banana

Eating a banana – tasty, have banana inside, a bit like what we  watch or do… we take it in and it sits in us.

On this occasion the boy who ate the banana has bright yellow crocks on. An obvious link to eating a yellow banana J

  

Summed up the object lessons for them to remember next time they eat a banana, use toothpaste etc

TEACHING STYLES

 

Kids in to small groups, with pen and paper  slips.

Kids write down different teaching methods, and order them in terms of most interesting…

Eg   talking, asking them to copy down writing, reading to themselves, doing experiments, generally chatting and so on.

Re order in terms of the easiest to learn from is at the top

Discussed..

PROCLAIM A MESSAGE

Kids in groups of 2, each pair has a message to proclaim for 1 minute. This was very loud. At end see who heard what.. example of proclaiming a message, discuss what worked. In practice the most successful was the boy who constantly repeated the phrase. Others wrote

·         Watch the news tonight because there is an important event going to take place.

·         The church is bugged and everything we say is heard by all your Parents

·         The world will blow up tomorrow, but we are ok, because Ipswich will be saved!

·         Tomorrow is national PlayStation day, and all children have to play on a PlayStation or other games console all day

 

FISHING!

Large blue sheet out to represent water, with paper fish underneath. Kids asked to race under the sheet and collect a fish and put in the “bad fish” pile or “good fish” pile

Read the Bible passage from Matthew 13:47-50. The children have just acted the parable out!

Kids asked about the parable, and why it wasn’t more direct.

Final games

Ladders