Tag Archives: Children’s sermon

Children’s Sermon for October 23, 2016 – Luke 18:9-14, Lectionary 30

October 13, 2016 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Get a long piece of paper – comically long! – to use as a scroll. This could be a long strip from an art roll, or several pages taped together.

For the worship station you will need posters, images or objects that reflect concerns in your community or in the world, containers and beads (or something similar).

As the children gather tell them that you are going to show them the best way to pray. Have your scroll ready and start a prayer with the most grand address to God that you can think of. Something like, “Gracious and merciful God, ruler of all creation, Lord of the storms and sea, Spirit if Truth and understanding,” and so on. Then finish with, “let me tell you all the ways that I am humble!” At this point drop one end of the paper so that it unrolls across the floor. (Make a big deal of it! You are going for a laugh!)

So, what did you think of my way to start a prayer? Pretty fancy huh? I totally think that Jesus would think this was great. I bet God can hardly wait to hear the cool stuff I do! Let’s take a look at the Gospel lesson today and see what Jesus says. I hear it’s about praying . . .

(take a minute to review the lesson, or maybe read it if they haven’t heard it yet.)

Or, maybe not! Did you guys even hear the Gospel story today? This is exactly the wrong! Jesus was kind of upset with the guy who was bragging, and he really seemed concerned for the guy who asked for mercy.”

Jesus is calling us to action rather than words. We are called to go do stuff, not to talk about what we have done. We are called to be gracious and merciful, and to be good and just and kind. If we spend out time focused on how our actions make us feel we kind of miss the point. How do your actions, how do your words make others feel? How are you God’s hands and feet in the world? That is what Jesus is hoping for us.

Gracious Lord, sometimes we forget that our actions tell more about us than our worlds. Lead us to be compassionate, caring, and merciful as we live out our lives. Amen.

+ God is merciful to you +

For the worship station, set up a prayer station with items, images, etc, that call attention to injustice or problems in and around your community. Invite people to offer prayers by dropping beads into baskets or jars in front the the things that concern them the most.

This does NOT need to be a quiet time, you may invite people to talk about what they see and feel!

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon, October 16, 2016 – Luke 18:1-8; Lectionary 29

October 13, 2016 bw Leave a comment

As the children come forward, begin asking each one of them for a pencil (or any item will do! Maybe something you need for worship that day!). Keep asking them over and over and over. Ask them if they are annoyed by your questions yet…Hopefully, one of them will be, will find a pencil or pen in the pews/chairs and give it to you! Ask them how it felt when you were asking them over and over for the pencil. Accept all answers. Say, “Sometimes people do annoy us when they keep asking us for things or to do something. But when someone asks you for something, especially when you know that they really need it or it will really help them, you also want to do that thing for them or get the item that they need. As people, we really do like to help others when we can and are able!”

In today’s story from Luke, Jesus tells a story of a woman who is all alone, no family and she needs help. A judge in Jesus time was more than a person who worried about laws, but also could help people in all kinds of different ways. So the woman went to the judge for help. The judge thought that it would be easier to not help her, but she kept asking him! Just like I kept asking you for a pencil! Finally, he does help her! Jesus tells the people listening to this story that if people can listen to each other and help one another, then think about how much God listens to you! God wants us to talk to God all the time, about everything. Even if we think that it’s not important, or something your ashamed you did, or who your mad at, or the beautiful flower you saw. God wants us to know that it we’re not annoying when we talk to God. God says, “Tell me everything! Tell me about your bad day! Tell me about the new toy you saw! Tell me when you mess up! Tell me when you help someone! Tell me you love me! Tell me you are mad at me!” God can handle anything we say. Even if like the woman, we say it over and over and over.

What do you want to tell God today? (Write it down quickly and use it for the closing prayer. Depending on the ages, offer to have each child offer a prayer.) Yes! We can tell God anything!

Invite the children to pray what they named earlier. End with the Lord’s Prayer if that is appropriate for your context and congregation. Jesus told his disciples that this prayer encompasses everything we need.

For prayers of the people (or prayers of intercession) have a quarter sheet of paper in each bulletin or in a basket accessible for all with pens or pencils. Invite people to write what they would like to say to God today. Depending on the size of your congregation, read them all out loud, or have a large wooden cross where people can hang their prayers to God. You can also offer a time for people to pray the prayers on the cross.

Another option is to have a list of needs from the congregation and community: meals, help with house/yard work, donations, prayer, companionship, etc. Have a place where people can write a need and someone else can offer to fill it.

+God hears you and loves you always+

Children's Sermons

Take hold of life that is real life! Children’s sermon/worship station on 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and Luke 16: 19-31

September 22, 2016 bw 4 Comments

Gather the children to the front of the worship space. Ask them what they can see from there. Ask them who they see. Then move them to the back of the sanctuary. Ask them the same questions. If time, move them to either side of the sanctuary and ask the same questions. Hopefully they will see different items and people. Coach them a bit in this if necessary.

Say, “Our Bible story today is kind of hard! Jesus tells a story of a man Lazarus who is left all alone: no one really saw him or they ignored him because they had much more fun things to look at, such as yummy food, pretty clothes, exciting toys. There was a man who had lots of food, clothes and money and he should have seen Lazarus and helped him but didn’t. Jesus tells this story to remind us that sometimes we need to move around and not be in the usual places in our lives to see new people and maybe see what they might have to teach or give us or for us to teach and give them. Jesus wants us to see everyone, even people who look, act or think differently from us. Jesus always sits with all of us together! And Jesus invites us all to be together. Everyone is invited to be with Jesus!”

I want us to go back to those different places in the sanctuary and tell the people there that we see them, God loves them and so do we! (Go to the back of the sanctuary and say, “We see you, God loves you and so do we!” Repeat on the sides of the sanctuary and the front.)

Dear Jesus, open our eyes to see people around us who need us to show your love. Move us to new places, so that all people are fed, clothed, and loved. Amen.

On a table that is accessible for all, place quarter sheets of plain paper in a basket, along with paper crosses (cut out) pens, and glue sticks. Invite people to write on the quarter sheet a material item or an activity that they “cannot live without.” Have on the instruction sheet this message: “We have many items or activities in our lives that we hold closely and are an integral part of our lives. We might even go as far as to say that we “could not live without them.” Is that true? Are those items/activities pointing you to life with God or life with those items/activities? What might replace them if you gave them up? More time for prayer? For service? For your neighbor? Those items/activities are not “bad” in and of themselves, but might be distracting you from life with God. Jesus tells us that life with God is focused on God and other people, not ourselves. Glue a cross over the item/activity that you wrote as a reminder that Christ comes first in our lives.”

+Take hold of life that is real life!+

*You could also print this blessing on the crosses.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon – Luke 12:49-56 – August 14, 2016

August 8, 2016 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Bring something with you that is a reminder or how you relieve stress for yourself (ideally a healthy stress relief!). For example, I like to run or walk when I am stresses out, so I might bring my running shoes.

As you gather the children ask them if they have every felt like they cannot do or say anything right. Like everything they do or say makes someone else upset or gets them in trouble.

In the Gospel reading today we hear what seems like a pretty upset Jesus. He even says that he is under stress! There are some clues in the story about what is causing Jesus to be upset, but we really can’t be sure exactly what it was because we weren’t there and, more important, it wasn’t happening to us. And even being there or being the person who is upset doesn’t always make it easier to understand.

I don’t know about you, but there have been plenty of times in my like when I have been stressed out and upset and said some pretty strange or mean things, and I really had no idea what was making me so upset. Have you ever felt like that? And sometimes its not just one thing that is upsetting me, it’s a bunch of things. I think that might be what’s going on with Jesus, too. He know that he is on his way to Jerusalem to be arrested and die, he can hear people around him arguing about who he is and what his stories mean, he has even told them what is going on and they still don’t get it!

Just to be clear, being upset is OK. Being stressed out sometimes is normal, too. Jesus seems to be able to blow off a little steam and still work to guide people with a good story, but what do we do? I brought my running shoes with me, because that is what I like to do when I feel stressed out, or upset, or just overwhelmed with what is going on. I put on my shoes and head out of a run. I know that whatever is going on, no matter how bad it seems, Jesus is with me, and Jesus understands what it’s like to feel like everything is going wrong.

Jesus loves you and understands you.

Loving and understanding God, thank you for all the relationships that we have. Help us to love the people around us and to understand that when things go wrong it’s OK, and that you are still there with us. Amen.

Make a wall of healthy stress relief! Use this as a chance to create some good social groups in your congregation, or as a way to figure out some interests. Maybe you have a church full of runners and don’t know it. Maybe you have the makings of a chess club! Engage people in a conversation about stress relief and interests that might help to build community. If could be written thing, or a discussion, or make a big banner. Whatever you think will engage the congregation in fun community activities.

Children's Sermons

Teach Us to Pray! Luke 11: 1-13, Tenth Sunday after Pentecost July 24, 2016

July 21, 2016 bw 3 Comments

Here are a couple of ideas: invite the children forward to help lead the Lord’s Prayer wherever it occurs in your worship service. Invite the older children/youth to write one line about what they think each petition means and use that for the prayers of intercession or the prayers of the people.

*For a more “traditional” children’s sermon: Gather the children and ask them what are questions that they might have for God? Have a large piece of paper and a marker to write down their answers (or have a helper with you). Accept all answers (Pray for these things at the end). More than likely, some of these responses will connect somehow to the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer (the traditional version that we say, not necessarily the one in Luke.)Say: We ask God all kinds of things! Do you ever ask your mom, dad, grandma and grandpa etc, for things? Maybe dinner, or lunch, or help finding a toy? Yes! We all ask for help! God wants us to ask for help and for what we need.

God is always happy to hear from us which is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray! You can pray to God yourself, you don’t need an adult or a pastor to pray, you get to talk to God anytime you want about anything you want and God listens. And we can talk to God about all sorts of things Jesus says: food, God’s peace, our fears, forgiveness, help with a friend. We may always not hear an answer right away, but we know that God promises to hear us! Sometimes we hear God’s answer through other people, or reading the Bible or in all kinds of ways. Sometimes, Jesus says, we have to look in lots of places for God’s answer to us.

To help us remember the Lord’s Prayer and all of the different things that we can pray for, I made a colorful bookmark out of different colors of ribbon tied together that I keep in my Bible. At our worship station today, you can make one too!

Jesus, thank you for teaching us that God hears us always. Let us remember that we can talk to God about anything, anytime we want. (Pray for the items written on the large sheet.) We pray together the Lord’s Prayer now: (use whichever version is comfortable in your community.)

Have a table with the instructions available for all with ribbons cut into three inch lengths.

Lord’s Prayer in Color

Blue-“Our Father, who art in heaven’”

White-“Hallowed be thy name,”

Purple-“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,”

Green-“On earth as it is in heaven.”

Brown (yellow beads)-“Give us this day our daily bread”

Red-“And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”

Gold-“For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen.

Tie each color of ribbon together with a knot making a bookmark for your Bible or any book.

Use this to help you to remember to pray unceasingly!

(For the bracelets-string the beads on in order and then tie the bracelet on your wrist.)

+God hears your prayers+

Children's Sermons

God Knows Your Name Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20 Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 3rd, 2016 Year C

June 30, 2016 bw 2 Comments

As you have the children come forward have a large piece of butcher paper and numerous crayons available on the floor. Invite them to write their name on the butcher paper as you begin. (Just first names are fine for time sake.) Say, “When you meet someone for the first time, what’s usually the first thing you tell someone about yourself? Yes, your name! Our names are very important and they help other people talk to us, call us on the phone, email us, send us a card or even a present! Without our names, life could be very confusing, couldn’t it? Our names help people remember what is special about us and us about them. Do we learn and remember names of people who we don’t see very often? No, it’s hard to know the names of people who we don’t go to school with, live in our neighborhood or have never even met! But we learn the names of people who are important to us and we see a lot in our lives. Knowing someone’s name is a way to say “I care about you!”

In our story today, Jesus sends the disciples out to all kinds of different towns and cities where they will meet all kinds of different people. Jesus reminds the disciples and us, that the most important thing to remember as we go along in our life meeting new people, learning new things, and telling people about God is that God knows our name, everything about us and says that we belong to God. When people don’t like you, or don’t want to even meet you, even though that’s hard, it’s ok because God knows you and your name and says “I care about you!” When we baptize babies, children or adults, we say their name because we know that God is saying that we all belong to God, God knows us and promises to always call us by name to God.

Besides learning people’s names, how can we tell people that God cares for them? (Accept all answers.) There are all sorts of ways to show God’s love! A few ways we do that as a church are….(Fill in with ministries of your congregation). And you are never too little, young or old to help in one of those activities! As you go back to your seat, I want you to draw a heart around someone else’s name (not your own) to show that God cares for them.

(Invite the children and the whole congregation to join hands for the prayer. Have everyone hold their hands out with thumbs to the left. Then when you join hands, you are supporting someone’s hand and someone else is supporting you. The true meaning of community!) Dear Jesus, thank you for caring for us. You know our names and everything about us. Help us to share you love and care with our friends, with our families and with people that we meet. May your peace fill us and the whole earth. Amen.

Take the sheet of butcher paper with the children’s names on it from children’s sermon and place it on a table with more crayons, markers, etc. Have people write their own name as well as draw a heart around someone else’s name. Invite the congregation to pray for the person whose name they drew a heart around. And to try and meet them if they don’t already know each other!

+God knows your name and cares for you+

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon – July 10, 2016 – Luke 10:25-37

June 29, 2016 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Make a poster (or a use a flip chart) that says “Who is my neighbor” across the top. If you are doing a worship station, either make the poster two-sided (same on the back) or make two posters. You will need one for the children’s sermon, and a different one for the congregation.

Invite the children to come forward with a request for help. Something like, “I need some of the smartest people in the room to help me answer this question, so please send all the children up here!”

Have your poster ready to go, and read it to the children. In today’s story about Jesus, someone asks him a pretty easy question, and, to be honest, I think that Jesus just over-thinks it. He launches into this long story about a traveler who gets attacked by robbers, and there are priests and leaders and people we don’t like . . . I just think it’s a mess!

So, let’s see if we can make sense of this question and maybe get a clearer answer than Jesus gave us. Who is your neighbor?

(write their ideas on the poster as they say them – you can, and should, repeat them for all the people to hear. Go with the flow here, but once things start to calm down, or it seems like a good time to add some complexity go on to the next part. You’re going to have to ad-lib a little depending on what they have said, what they say, etc.)

OK, so a neighbor is someone who lives next to you? What about across the street? OK, so what about the neighbor of my neighbor, is that my neighbor, too? I have a friend who lives about two blocks away . . . is she my neighbor? What about her neighbors, are they mine, too?

Here’s a tough question – what if all of these people look different from me? What if they have curly hair? Or different colored skin than me? Or what if they are really short, or really tall? What if they like tuna and I think it’s gross?

Boy, the deeper we get into this neighbor question the more difficult it is to answer! Maybe Jesus was right to tell a story rather than trying to give a simple answer. See, the story that Jesus tells about neighbors taking care of each other doesn’t put neighbors in a specific place – not next to you, or down the street. Jesus’ story doesn’t make sure that neighbors look like us, or think like us. Jesus’ story even says that sometimes the person we think should be a good neighbor isn’t a very good neighbor at all!

Maybe what Jesus is trying to say is that our neighbors aren’t just the people who live near us, or look like us, but instead they are anyone and everyone who needs our love and care.

Loving God, thank you for being our neighbor and for giving us people who love us a care for us. Help us to be loving and caring neighbors to all the people we meet. Amen.

God’s love binds up your heart.

For the worship station, set up a prayer station around you “neighbor” poster and encourage people to think about the people who they don’t want to be neighbors with.

Children's Sermons

Following Starts with Love Children’s Sermon Luke 9:51-62 June 26, 2016

June 23, 2016 lb Leave a comment

Gather children to you. Who has ever played follow the leader? Yeah, it is a good game where one person leads others around and they follow the actions of the lead person. Which is easier for you, to be the leader or the follower?

I have a different kind of following game to try. Who will try this with me? (get a volunteer) We are going to sit (or stand) facing each other with our palms in the air. Now I am going to do some simple actions with my hands and _____ (name) is going to try to follow me.

How about you try–turn to someone sitting next to you have try out being the other person’s mirror (if you do not have time for this, encourage them to try this out during an open worship time, communion or after worship or at home) Which was easier to do? How did it feel to lead? How did it feel to follow?

We just read about Jesus telling his disciples, his friends, to follow him. They are worried because some people do not like them, a whole village in fact has sent all of them away. And they are worried because Jesus wants them to leave their family and homes and friends behind and follow him. Just like following the leader can be difficult in our little game, following Jesus may not always be easy. Sometimes people don’t like us, sometimes people are afraid of us, sometimes we are not sure what exactly we should do as followers of Jesus. When it’s difficult or we are unsure, we can remember that following Jesus starts with love. When the followers got messed up I noticed some giggling and then the leaders tried again. This happened in the game because we knew we were playing and we care about the people around us. Following Jesus begins with knowing that we can care about others and that we are first and foremost loved by God and then sent to share that love.

Jesus, help us to follow you. Help us to know how to begin with love and end with love. Help us remember your love for us goes anywhere. Amen

God in my head

God in my heart

God on my left

God on my right
Set up a space where people can try out the mirror game. Have a large mirror available with markers and let people write down prayers about following God.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon – June 19, 2016, Galatians 3:23-29

June 15, 2016 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You will need some arbitrary way to divide people up. Something simple, like a jar with two different colored beads in it so that you can divide the group into “red” beads and “blue” beads (or whatever colors, items, etc you have). For the worship station you need a baptismal font that everyone can get to, and a sign that says, “Child of you God, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever.”

Have you jar of beads (or whatever, but I will use beads in this write-up!) ready for the children as they gather. Have each child take just one bead. It doesn’t matter what color.

Hi! How is everyone doing today? It is sooooooo good to see all of you and I am so happy that you are here. (Pick one child and start talking mostly to them.) How are you? Are you having a good weekend? (generally just making small talk – then . . . ) Hey, can I ask you what color bead you got? (It doesn’t matter what color they have, you have to immediately distrust that child!) Whoa! a red bead! Uh . . . could you move over there? Yeah, just not by me. In fact, do any of the rest of you have red beads? Really? Yeah, I need you to move over there, too. People with blue beads are fine, but NOT red beads.

Alright, now that we have the sorted let’s take a look the Bible story today. This story is part of a really long letter that we call Galatians. I just need to review it a little . . . let me see . . . the law was our discipline . . . justified by faith . . . uh huh . . . uh oh.

So, I was reading this and it says that we are all children of God. Doesn’t matter what we look like or where we are from. God loves us for who we are and we should do our best to do the same.

Part of what this means is that it doesn’t matter what labels we put on people – cool, nerd, silly, too serious – God sees us all the same, as beloved children.

I guess that means I can’t really be mean to those people over there just because they happen to have a red bead. Come back over here and let’s all pray together!

Loving God, you care for us and love no matter what we look like, where we are from, or what we like or dislike. Thank you for your unconditional love! Teach us to love and care for each other with that same unconditional love. Amen.

You are a beloved child of God

Invite people to come up to the font to remember that they are God’s child, too! They are welcome to make the sign of the cross on their own forehead, but even better if you can encourage them to make the sign of the cross on each other’s heads! Invite them to use the baptismal blessing that you put on the sign.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon – May 29, 2016 – Luke 7:1-10, Lec 9C

May 24, 2016 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: Make two big signs, one that says “faith,” another that says, “trust.” These can be used for both the children’s sermon and for the worship station.

Even better! Make single really big sign/poster with a Venn diagram of faith and trust!

You may also want a dictionary – or you can use these from dictionary.com

Trust

Faith

As the children gather around ask them if they know the difference between “faith” and “trust. Let them wrestle with that a little bit. Once they have had a few minutes to work on it, tell that in the dictionary (or at least at dictionary.com) the definition of faith includes trust, but the definition of trust does not include faith!

Well isn’t that strange? If you have faith in something that means you also trust it, but if you trust something you might not have faith in it. Maybe one way to think about is that we trust the things that we can see and feel, and we have faith in things that are hard to see and feel.

Well, in the Bible story we hear today, there is a centurion (a Roman soldier) who shows both trust AND faith in who Jesus is and what God can do. He has a servant who is dying and has faith that Jesus can heal the servant, but he also trusts that Jesus is powerful enough that the servant will be healed without Jesus even coming to his house! This amazes even Jesus!

Let’s play a little game with trust and faith. I have these two signs, (or one, whichever you did!) and we are going to come up with some things that we trust, some things that we have faith in, and some things that fit into both! I’ll start – I trust that the building we are in is not going to fall down. I have faith that Jesus is present with us now, and I have trust and faith in God’s everlasting love. Now you try!

(Give them a little space to come up with some ideas)

That was great! Think about trust and faith this week as you meet people and play with friends.

Loving and healing God, thank you for giving us things to put our trust in, like (add some things from the poster!). Thank you for giving us things to have faith in, like (______________). Thank you for being someone we can trust and have faith in! Amen.

May the Holy Spirit burn in your heart today and everyday!

Simply invite the congregation to participate in the faith/trust/faith and trust exercise with the children! You can make a big poster that people can come up and write on, or you can have more of an interactive discussion about it with the whole assembly.

Let us walk with you on the journey of faith. Whether your feet are big or small, fresh or worn, running or crawling, God's love goes with you and you stand on holy ground.