Tag Archives: Time after Pentecost

Children’s Sermon/Worship Station – 6th Sunday After Pentecost, Mark 6:1-13 – July 5, 2015

Prepare: You don’t need to prepare anything specific, but be ready to lead the children’s sermon from a new place, or at a different time, or  . . .

The idea is to do something different so people cannot just be on “autopilot” during the children’s sermon and worship station.

20130822-223520.jpg Invite the children to join you in you new location or time, etc. Ask them how they feel about it. Is it good to be doing something new? Does it make them feel uncomfortable?

20130822-223633.jpg Jesus is changing things around in the story today, too. He goes into his hometown and tries to change how they understand the Bible. He tries to show the people who have known him his whole life a new way to understand the healing power of God. He tries to show them something new and they just don’t like it!

This happens to us, too. Maybe we show up at work or at school and our schedule is not what we thought it was going to be. Or maybe you get served your favorite food but it has a spice or flavor that you are not used to and you don’t like it. It can be really hard to try something different, especially when we like it just fine the old way, and sometimes even more if the NEW way is somehow better!

We like things the way they are often because it is comfortable and safe. We don’t like to take risks and change things. Jesus calls on us to look at the world a different way. Jesus wants us to see the good news and share God’s hope and healing, even when it is difficult to do, and even when people might reject the news we have.  Jesus has advice for that, too! He tells his disciples to spread the good news and offer healing wherever the go. If the people there don’t want to hear what they have to say, then they should just shake it off and move on.

FaithCross_Worship A little church camp mixer! Encourage people (demand?) to get up and move around the sanctuary and find someone that they don’t know very well. Sit down with them and find out something new about them.

Then have those groups of two people join into a group of four people and introduce their new friends to each other.

The last piece is to create a small prayer group from those four people. Invite them to share a prayer request with the group of four and ask them to commit to praying for each other throughout the week.

Ideally, you have these groups of four check in the next week!

20130822-223908.jpg God goes with you!

20130822-223749.jpg God of healing and hope, give us the wisdom to welcome your presence. Give us the patience to listen to your good news. Give us glad and grateful heats for your abundance in our lives. Amen.

 

Children’s Sermon/Worship Station – June 14, 2015, Mark 4:26-34; 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Prepare: You will need a large piece of banner paper (probably white) and a bunch of crayons of markers.

20130822-223520.jpg Ask the children, “Have you every planted anything? Flowers, or vegetables, or a tree? What did you do to help if grow?” Wait for a few answers.

20130822-223633.jpg I think one of the amazing things about planting seeds is that all of the information that the seed needs to become a plant is inside that little seed! If you plant a pumpkin seed in a good place and give it water it grows more pumpkins with a whole bunch more seeds, it’s amazing!

In the story from Mark today, Jesus is working hard to explain what God’s Kingdom is like, and he chooses seeds and plants to help him explain. Jesus knows how amazing seeds are. It almost sounds like Jesus is just as fascinated as we are! He talks about how just a few seeds can grow into a bounty of food, or how a tiny little seed can become a huge tree (Jesus uses a mustard seed, but maybe we could think of an apple seed growing into a big apple tree!)

Jesus seems to be saying that God’s Kingdom holds more wonders than we can imagine, and more bounty than we can dream of. If a tiny little apple seed can grow into a big tree that can produce maybe hundreds of apples every year, imagine what the kingdom of God could be like!

FaithCross_Worship For the worship station, invite people to gather around the banner paper and create a prayer garden. Invite them to draw a flower or tree, or to write a short prayer on the paper. Find a place around your church where you can keep the banner up for a while with a sign that encourages people to add flowers, trees or prayers throughout the summer season. If you really keep it up, you could make the “harvest of prayer” part of you Sunday School kick off in the fall!

20130822-223908.jpg My God’s kingdom grow in you!

20130822-223749.jpg Bountiful God, We thank you for the wonders of seeds and plants. Help us to grow in faith just as the plants around us grown through the warm growing seasons. Amen.

 

Children’s Sermon Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 25:14-30, November 16, 2014

Prepare: You will need a trash can and a couple crumpled up sheets of paper. I would put the trash can somewhere away from the children, you will be throwing the crumpled paper into the (or at) the trash can, and it could be chaos if the trash is too close by.

20130822-223454.jpg  Ask the children if they play any sports. You are aiming for basketball, so maybe steer them in that direction.

FaithCross_ConversationALT Basketball is really fun! Let’s think about basketball for a minute. The basic idea is that you need to throw the ball through the hoop, right? Well I can’t really bring a basketball and a hoop into the church (Or maybe you can?!? Depends on where you worship!) but I did bring a trash can and a couple balls of paper. OK, here’s the thing about this – If I really want this paper to go into the trashcan, or a basketball to go through the hoop, I need to make sure that I throw it hard enough to get there, right? If I just barely throw it, like this, I know exactly where it’s going to go, but it’s nowhere near the trashcan. But, I’m afraid that if I really toss it far enough that I will miss! Then I will have to get up and go get it, which is a pain, so to be safe, I’m just not going to throw it. Sound good? (I hope that you get some encouragement to throw it here, but you may have to get them worked up a little) OK, but what if I miss? Should I worry about it? No? Ok, here goes!

(doesn’t matter if you make it)

Wow, that was much more fun than just dropping the paper!

This is kind of like the story we hear in the Gospel today. Three people were given some money. Two of them risked it, they spent the money on something that they hoped would make them even more money and it worked – kind of like me really tossing the paper. The third person was nervous and kept the money hidden so it would be safe. Well, the man who gave them the money was really happy with the two that invested or spent the money, because they did something wonderful with a gift he had given them, but he was really mad at the third guy because he hid the gift and didn’t do anything!

Now, we all know that when Jesus tells a story there is ALWAYS more going on than what it first seems. Jesus isn’t really talking about money, or about rich people and servants, Jesus is talking about us! Jesus is talking about gifts from God that make us all good at different things. Some of us are really good at figuring out problems, some are good at art or music, or running or caring for people – all kind of different things! Jesus is telling us to use our gifts to make the world better – we should invest our gifts and we will get good things back.

FaithCross_PrayALT   Generous God, thank you for the gifts that you give! Give us all the courage to invest in our gifts and use them to help others. Amen

FaithCross_Worship Prayer partners! Ask people to join together in groups of 2 or 3. These can be household groups or random groups. Somehow distribute these three questions (on a screen or in a worship bulletin or whatever works in you context).

  1. What gifts do you have?
  2. What do you risk if you invest in your gifts and use them?
  3. What do you risk if you hide your gifts?

Prayer partners should ask these questions our loud, but the answers can be silent (better if both people talk, but the important thing is hear the questions so that everyone thinks about them).

After all three questions have been asked (and answered) then invite the partners to pray with each other.

20130822-223908.jpg God loves everything about you.

~GB

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