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Children's Sermons

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

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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 Sermons

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

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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 Sermons

Children’s Sermon Day of Pentecost – Acts 2:1-21 – May 24, 2015

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Preparation: You don’t really need to do anything, but the main part of the Children’s Sermon/Worship Station will be a parade, so it would be fun to have a Pentecost banner or streamers that the parade leader could carry.

20130822-223520.jpg As you gather children together, ask if any of them have ever been to a parade or in a parade. What was the parade for? Was it fun to be there?

20130822-223633.jpg  Parades are often to celebrate something, like people returning home from a journey, or a county or state fair, or a holiday.

We are going to have a parade today! We are going to have a Pentecost parade! Today is the day that we remember the story of the disciples with tongues of fire on their heads, speaking to a crowd and telling them all about Jesus.

In the tradition of the Easter Orthodox church they have parades every year on Pentecost. They have a parade all the way around the outside of their church building to remember that they are sent out into the world to tell about Jesus, and that they come back into the church to gather back together as a community. 

(you can decide if the parade will be around your worship space, or longer! This is also the point where you need to decide if this is going to be an activity for the whole congregation or just for the children.)

So, let’s gather up our banner and go for a Pentecost Parade!

20130822-223749.jpg Holy Spirit, enter into our lives and our hearts. Put the Good News of Christ on our lips and in our hearts for us to share with the whole world. Amen

20130822-223908.jpg God’s Spirit fills you up!

FaithCross_Worship The worship station is really just the parade this week, but you can add to that if you want. Part of our identity as Easter people and Pentecost people is to spread God’s love and mercy throughout the world. You can have people spread out to different corners of your church grounds and pray for all the parts of your church. Then have them gather back together to pray for the whole world.