Tag Archives: Children’s sermon

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

November 10, 2014 gb Leave a comment

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.

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

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.

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

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).

What gifts do you have?
What do you risk if you invest in your gifts and use them?
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.

God loves everything about you.

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.

Children's Sermons

Children’s sermon Matthew 25: 1-13, Ten Bridesmaids, Year A, Pentecost 32, Nov. 9, 2014

October 31, 2014 lb 1 Comment

Preparation: an oil candle and lighter

Gather the children with you. Show the children your oil candle that is unlit. Ask, “does anyone know what this is?” Take answers. “And how does it keep the light burning?” Take answers. “yes the oil we have here keeps the flame going, as long as there is oil in the lamp the flame will go. “ Light the candle.

“In our gospel today Jesus tells us a parable—which remember is a story that tries to tell us something about God or about how we are called live as God’s children. This parable is about bridesmaids and back when Jesus was alive and there was a wedding the bridesmaids didn’t stay with the bride like they do today, instead they stayed with groom and carried oil lamps so that everyone could see how well he was dressed and how he would make a good husband who could take care of the bride. Well, these bridesmaids did not keep oil in there lamp so they could not keep the light shining on what they were supposed to. Jesus tells this story to help us see that how we live and shine God’s light matters for showing others about Jesus’ love.” “What are ways that we can help each other have enough oil in our lamp to shine a light for Christ?” Take answers but come around to the idea that when we pray for each other, read the scripture, sing songs, and remember that we are children of God then we can show that to others.

For our prayer today we are going to do something different. We are going to sing a song and let it help us remember how we are lights and let it remind the rest of the people worshipping that they are lights as well.

Sing This Little Light of Mine or Give me Oil in my lamp or another light song

+May your light shine bright in the day and night and may you know God’s love in you+

Anointed with Oil: set out small bowls with oil and make small cards that have either the blessing above (+May your light shine bright in the day and night and may you know God’s love in you+) or a baptismal blessing–+You are sealed by the Holy Sprit and marked with the cross of Christ forever+

Create a sign that says: Take a card and dip your finger in oil. Make a sign of the cross with the oil on the card as a reminder to take home. Then go and give the blessing to another person.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 22:34-46, October 26, 2014

October 18, 2014 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You are going to play a word game, so you will need several cards with either a noun or a verb on them and one more that says “LOVE.” The number of cards you use depends on how much time you have, but you probably need at least 3 of each plus the “LOVE” card. They should be simple and obvious, like RUN, or DOG.

Worship Station: The worship station can be done without added stuff, but if might be helpful to have paper for everyone to write on, or even better small note cards.

NOTE – I am using this with my congregation as part of our stewardship/giving commitment Sunday, so I will also include that idea, but you can leave out the giving commitment part if it does not line up with what your congregation is doing.

Ask the children if they know what a noun is and what a verb is. You might have to explain it, and if they are too young you can also just use “thing” or “action.”

Alright! Good, now we are going to play a word game! I will hold up a card and you tell me if it is a noun or a verb.

Start with the easy ones, and offer lots of encouragement! Then hold up the LOVE card last.

What do you think of this one? Is love a noun? You can feel love, right? We know when we love someone or when someone loves us, so maybe it is a noun. But, maybe it is a verb, too. Love is something that you do, too! Think about that for a minute. When you love somebody you want to do good things for them. You want to make them feel good, and you want to take care of them. So love is not just a noun, love is something that we do.

In this Bible story that we read today we hear Jesus talking about love because someone asked him a very difficult question. They want to know what the greatest commandment is. I think that they were thinking of the 10 commandments – you know, “have no other gods,” “Honor you parents,” “Don’t kill.” But Jesus, like he so often does, answers the question in a completely different way. Instead of picking one of the 10, he kind of picks them all. He says the most important thing you can do is to love. Love God, love yourself and all the people around you. Remember, love is not just a noun, it is a verb! To love all these people we have to do something! We have to care for them, we should do good things for them, we should work to make them feel good, joyful and safe. That is a difficult thing to do, and I think that Jesus knew that when he said it. Let’s pray for a little help learning how to be more loving.

*Stewardship Emphasis* If you intend to collect pledges you can have baskets out or whatever your custom is. If you are not colleting pledges you can just have people do the prayer work and write down their love commitment.

Ask the people to think for a moment about the person or situation that most upset, angered, frustrated, or otherwise made them unhappy in the past week. Then ask them to turn to the person next to them and just share the one word that they felt in that situation. Nothing more! Not what was happening, not who was involved, just one word about how they felt.

Next have them think about how they could have been more loving in the situation and write that on the paper (if you are using paper). That is their commitment to be more loving this week.

If you are collecting pledges, do that now, and tell them that they are making a double pledge. One to support the church financially in the coming year and the other to be more loving, even in the most difficult times of their daily lives.

Loving God, we often fail to be the loving people you created us to be. Help us to see past our own hurts and anger and to live out your love in our lives. Amen.

God loves everything about you.

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.

Children's Sermons

Children’s sermon Matthew 22: 15-22, Paying Taxes, Year A, Pentecost 29, Oct. 19, 2014

October 10, 2014 lb Leave a comment

Preparation: Pictures or objects that show ways in which money given to the congregation goes to support or serve others, children’s offering basket or whatever you use, coins

Gather the children with you. Bring an offering plate or if you have a children’s offering basket or bucket, have that with you as well. Show them the offering plate/basket/bucket and ask, “Do you know what this is for?” Take answers. “yes we collect money in it and that is called collecting an offering. We have an offering time in every worship that we do together. Does anyone know what offering means?” Take answers. “Offering is a way we give something in the name of our faith and our worship knowing that what we have comes from God.”

“In our reading today from Matthew we hear Jesus get asked about money. He says to give to Cesar or give to the government what belongs to them and give to God what belongs to God. What do you think belongs to God?” Take answers. “We could say that everything belongs to God and that what we have God gives us to use to care for ourselves and others. So when you give coins or dollars to this offering basket it goes to help take care of others. Does anyone know where the money we give goes?” Take answers but move into showing pictures of ways that the money goes through your church and out your doors or to ministries inside your walls. You may want to show pictures of kids learning or coffee to welcome new people. Also service projects or global missions, whatever you are focusing in on at this time in your congregation. Or if your children’s offering goes to specific places focus in on that and where it is going right now.

Jesus, you give us words from God. And we are thankful for the gifts we have and the reminder that all we have comes from God. Help us to share what we have to make a difference in the lives of others. Open our hearts to your generous life. Amen

+May you know your gifts are from God and you are a gift to the world+

Have bowls of change—do all quarters if you can. You may want to have someone monitor the station or be clear about taking one (or however many you decide) coin. Prepare a sign that says: “Give to God what is God’s” First pick up a coin and hold it in your hand. Feel the weight of the coin. How does it make you feel…happy, sad, anxious, indifferent? In what ways does money have power in your life? In what ways can you have the power to align your values with how you use money? Reflect on this this week. Take a coin with you and use this coin to make a difference for someone or something else. Be creative in either how you give it or multiply it or put it to use. Take a notecard with you as well and write down how you used this coin. Bring it back and post it on our board for sharing our stories.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 21:33-46, October 5, 2014

September 28, 2014 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: This might require a little planning! You need something that you can put together quickly, and that you can substitute a “wrong” piece for an important part. For example it could be a little Lego model that has an obvious color scheme, but bring one piece that is really the wrong color, but is absolutely needed to finish the model.

I will use a different example below, and you are welcome to use that idea, too, it just takes a little more time to set up. For the example below, you need to make a small wooden cross that should be held together with a small piece of dowel rod. The one that I have is three pieces, a base, and upright and a cross piece, with a hole in the upright and cross piece. Instead of a dowel rod bring a piece of string and tangle it around the three pieces that you have. (You will see how the Lego version works)

Here are couple pictures of what I put together:

For the Worship Station you will need enough small, unpolished, unremarkable stones for everyone in your congregation. They should be small enough to fit easily in a child’s hand or in a pants pocket. You will also need crayons or markers and a big sheet of white paper (maybe more depending on the size of your congregation).

As the children gather, tell them that you are going to build something today, and that you hope you have all the right pieces. Ask them if they like to build things.

Let’s build something! OK, I brought the pieces with me in this bag. I thought it would be fun to make a new cross for our Sunday School room. Wait – what’s this string doing in here? Oh man, it’s wrapped around everything! I’m going to have to untangle this from everything before we can go on, wait a second. . . OK, now let’s just get rid of this string (toss it behind you or somewhere away from you), there, now we can build! This is the base that it will stand on, and this piece goes into the base like this. Then there is a hole in the upright and this cross piece, and I just need a little wood rod to go through it . . . it’s here somewhere . . . hmmm . . . I don’t see it. I really wanted to show you how the cross looks, but I don’t have anything to hold it together. Wait! I could tie it together! Where did that piece of string go? There! Almost right. I sure am glad we had that string, even if I thought it was annoying at first.

This reminds me of our Bible story. Well, Jesus did it again. Someone asked a question and he told a story! As usual, the story isn’t really about what we think it’s about. The story is really about rejection. Do you know what that means? (Wait and see) Right, kind of like what I did with the string. I got rid of the string because I thought that it was useless, and more in the way than anything. As it turns out, the string was just the thing that I needed to make everything work. Jesus is talking to the leaders of the community that he is in and tells them that the people they reject are very people that God looks to for leadership. He tells them that the people who think they are in charge of everything are not always the people that God will give authority to.

Have a basket or bowl filled with little stones. By the basket, have them sign that invites them to reflect on a time when they rejected someone, how did it make them feel? Take a stone to remind you to give people a second chance or a third chance.

Have another station with the paper and crayons, and invite people to write a word or two about how they feel when they are accepted and loved.

They should keep the stone with them this week. Hang the paper in the a prominent place in the church for a week or two.

Gracious God, we need your love and acceptance in our lives. Help us to rest in your love, and to be loving and accepting to the people around us. Amen.

Know that God loves and accepts you.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Matthew 21:23-32, 16th Sunday after Pentecost, September 28th, 2014

September 22, 2014 lb 1 Comment

Preparation: posterboards or white boards, post it notes, markers, examples
optional–random acts of kindness video

Gather the children together with you. Tell the second part of the gospel story or retell it. One idea would be to have some men/boys act it out if you can arrange for that. But retell saying, “Jesus is telling us that what we say and what we do are important but that in the end how we show God’s love and treat others is how we live a life in God. “

So I was thinking about this, about what I say about my faith and what I do about my faith. One thing I say about my faith in God is that I know God is with us all the time. Now how could I show that to people? (take ideas) This week one thing I did to show that is I listened to a friend of mine that I work with who told me how worried she was about her mom who lives far away. I listened to her stories about her mom and I gave her a hug and I encouraged her that she was showing love and care for her mom even while she was far away.

Here on one of my poster boards it says SAY, so I am going to take this sticky note that says I say God is with us all the time and put it here. Now this other board says DO, so I am going to take this sticky note and put Listen on it and put it up here. (If you have time, brainstorm some other ideas with the kids and do a couple more)

OPTION: Here is where you could show the random acts of kindness video or you could have it playing at a worship station.

I have lots of sticky notes and I am going to put this posters in back for our worship station today. I would like you to think of something you say about your faith or about God and something you do and put them up on the boards. You may need to help your parents or people sitting near you do this as well. (distribute sticky notes how is best for you–hand out, have in pews, have at a worship station)

Let’s pray. Jesus, your love is with us all the time. Help us to say what we know about you to others and help us to act in ways that show your love. Amen

+ May your lips speak of Jesus and may your actions show God’s love for the world. +

Put up the poster boards with SAY and DO and have sticky notes available for people to write what they Say about their faith and what they Do about their faith.

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 18:21-35, Sept 14, 2014

September 8, 2014 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You really don’t need any items for this, but you do need people! You are going to need about 6 people minimum to make this work. If you are in a place where that might be difficult to do with just children, make sure that you recruit a few helpers!

Ask the children if they know what forgiveness is and take a few answers.

Today Jesus is talking about forgiveness, but not just how often to forgive, but whom to forgive. The whole conversation starts with Peter asking how many times you should forgive, but Jesus takes it one step further . . . or maybe many, many steps further. Jesus tells a story about a king who forgives a servant, which is great for the servant! But that same servant won’t forgive a fellow servant in the same way. The king gets mad and punishes the servant. There are all kinds of things to talk about in this story, but the one that really catches my attention is that the servant stops the forgiveness. The king starts something good, he forgives the servant, but the servant doesn’t pass it on.

Let’s try to demonstrate this. First I need a helper. Now, all of you are going to raise your hands. When my helper touches your shoulder you can lower your hands, but if I touch your should you have to put them back up. Ready? Go!

Let this go on for a minute or so to demonstrate how the helper will never really get anywhere if you are working against her/him.

Ok, this is getting us nowhere! Just like in the story, the servant worked against the king’s forgiveness and everyone suffered. Let’s change the game so that when you get to put your hands down you then touch your neighbor’s shoulder so they can put their hands down. Ready? Go.

Wow, that when much faster! Now think about how nice it would be to live in a world where we all forgave each other and just let things go!

For the worship station, the idea above gets taken to the whole congregation. If you have time, have the congregation “forgive” each other one at a time just like the children did, then do the next step. If you don’t have much time just do the next step.

Next, have each person “forgive” two other people. Start with one person touching one person’s shoulder so they can lower their hands, then the person who just lowered their hands touches two shoulders. Then each of those people touch two shoulders and so on. See how much faster it is when we forgive many others, not just one other!

Forgiving God, through the grace of Jesus you forgive us no matter what we do! Help us to be forgiving people, even when it is difficult to do. Amen

Be at peace in God’s forgiveness.

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.

Children's Sermons, Communications

Children’s Sermon Matthew 18: 15-20, September 7, Year A Pentecost13

September 5, 2014 lb Leave a comment

Preparation: Have different colors of paper or stickers or a simple way to put kids in groups of three. Make sure real little ones are with older ones.

Gather children with you and ask, ‘what does it mean to gather?’ Take answers. Explain that gathering is to bring things or people together. “For example, I have these papers (stickers, whatever you are using) all gathered together and spread out. Now I am going to hand each of you one and I want you to gather with the other kids that have the same thing as you. Sit knee to knee with them once you find them”

(Hint–to make this go faster, have older kids prepped ahead of time OR give kids near each other the same object/color. You may also want older kids or teens prepared to be with a group or sit between them to help them along)

We heard from Jesus today that when two or three are gathered in Jesus name, then he is there. Now we know that Jesus is with us all the time, even when we are alone. So what do you think happens when more people are gathered? Take answers. Talk about how Jesus is in the midst of that and helps us to reach others, show each other Jesus is there, and live out Jesus’ love.

“Now I would like you in your group to think of one way you could gather in Jesus name. Let’s start with an easy one. One way we gather with two or more is right here in worship! And when we gather here in worship we connect with each other and with God. Now you think of other places or ways you gather either here, or at home, or at school, or somewhere you volunteer.” Give them a minute. Then ask, “Ok, where are they places you gather?” Take their answers. Help them if needed. Then add to each one how that is gathering in Jesus name. For example–at home they gather for a meal and pray, or prayer before bed. At school they gather on the playground and gather in Jesus name when they are kind to a new kid or invite a lonely one in to their game. At a park they gather and Jesus is there in the way they treat each other. Maybe they are in boy scouts or girl scouts and they gather for an activity in helping someone else. Give them ways they can connect what they do each day with Jesus’ presence.

Jesus, you promise to be with us when we are together and when we serve you. Help us to remember you are with us in all the ways we gather. Help us to remember to pray and connect with you. Thank you for your love. Amen

Make the sign of the cross while saying:

God in my head
God in my heart
God on my left
God on my right

Children's Sermons

Children’s Sermon, Matthew 16: 21-28, August 31st, 2014, Year A, Pentecost 12

August 26, 2014 bw 1 Comment

Have a musical instrument that you don’t know how to play or a hand held game of some sort. As you invite the children forward be attempting to play the instrument or game. Talk about how hard it is to learn and maybe you should just give up. Maybe it’s not worth it or important if it’s hard. It would be easier to put a song on and just pretend to play or to only do what you know. What would be the easy way out?

Ask the children about something at school, or learning something that is hard. What is it that makes it hard? When was a time that you did something hard but then found out that you learned, or it became important in some way? (Accept all answers). Say, “yes, we all have hard things that we have to do sometimes.”

Today Peter and Jesus are talking about hard things. Jesus says that he is going to die but be raised again. Death is a VERY hard thing isn’t it? If your friend told you that they were going to die, you would say what Peter said, “No that can’t be true!” But Jesus told Peter that this very hard thing that Jesus was going to do is the exact thing that needed to happen for something better-God raising Jesus from the dead would proclaim to the whole world that nothing separates us from God-not even death! Jesus would take this hard and sad thing and point to the promises of God to be with us always and to love us always. The cross is a very hard thing, in Jesus’ time it was about death. We have crosses all around us here in church, we wear necklaces or bracelets with crosses to remind us that Jesus is with us in the very hard things and will never leave us. God’s love is there when things are easy and when things are hard like: (school, fighting with friends or siblings, death, etc.) That is that is the promise from God and so the cross tells us of that promise. Jesus doesn’t want us to keep that promise to ourselves, even when it might be hard or scary to share God’s love. How can we share God’s love in the midst of hard times with our family or friends?

God, you promise to be with us always. When things are hard or easy, you are there. When we feel alone or happy, you are there. Thank you for sending Jesus to show us your love and mercy. Amen.

For a worship station around this fairly difficult text you can have some cross necklaces (kits are at craft stores) for the children (of all ages!) to make. Have some cardstock with cross foam stickers and cross templates for tracing to make cards to hand out to people who need to be reminded that God is with them in hard times. Take them to a rehab facility or a hospital.

+Jesus is with you always+

Children's Sermons, Weekly Devotions

Children’s Sermon Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 16:13-20, August 24, 2014

August 19, 2014 gb Leave a comment

Prepare: You will need a large(ish) flat rock that will be stable and not rock back and forth, like a flagstone; and a box with some marbles in it. The box should be big enough to put the stone in (or the stone should be small enough to fit in the box!)

For the worship station, try to have several more flat rocks available. Flagstone is great for this! Have several colorful permanent markers out, too.

As the children gather, set the stone out on the floor (someplace where it will not scratch the floor because the children will be asked to push on it! Maybe on carpet or bring a blanket if you have wood or tile floor.) Keep the marbles hidden in the box for now. Ask the children if any of them have a nickname, something special that their parents or a good friend calls them.

In the Gospel story that we hear today Jesus gives one of his friends a nickname, and it is such a good nickname that we sometimes forget his real name! Jesus gives his friend Simon the nickname Peter, which means rock. Have a rock right here! What can you tell me about this rock?

(You may need to encourage some answers here. Things like, “Does it move around, or is it steady?” “Do you think that it is breakable?” etc. You want them to see the rock as strong and stable.)

You could probably stand on that rock and feel pretty sure that you won’t fall over. Now, what if I do this? I am going to put this rock in this box that has some marbles in the bottom. What happens now? Is it still stable? Do you still think that it would be ok to stand on?

When Jesus gives Simon the name Peter he does it because he wants to build a church on Peter! Not a building, but a community of people. Jesus wants Peter to be strong and steady for the people who follow Jesus. Jesus knows that this is a good choice because Peter has figured out who Jesus is. Peter knows that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Other people say that Jesus is an ancient prophet who has come back to life, or that Jesus is trying to be John the Baptist – and that is kind of like the marbles under our rock. It makes everything a little less stable. Peter, however, knows who Jesus is, and doesn’t have any marbles under him to throw him off. He is steady as a rock!

Have an area set up with the rocks and markers. Invite people to write the name of a person who is/was a rock in their faith formation. It is not one name per rock, each rock should be covered in names! Start with the all the rocks spread out, as they fill with names stack them together to make a cross, or a fish, or some other symbol of the Christian faith.

Living God, we praise you for the people who have been rocks in our life. You have blessed us with people who build up our faith on a sure foundation. Teach us to be that sure foundation for people in our lives. Amen

Be a rock for God’s church today and always!

~GB

Permission to use for nonprofit. When printing give credit to Faith Formation Journeys. Intellectual property rights apply.

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