Faith Formation Journeys

Walking Together in Grace

Tag: pentecost season

  • Children’s Sermon–Distractions and Prayer Luke 10:38-42 July 17th 2016

    Children’s Sermon–Distractions and Prayer Luke 10:38-42 July 17th 2016

    Preparation: get an assistant to either flash a light or make a small noise to distract you as you begin. Tell them to start out subtle before becoming more obvious to everyone.

    20130822-223520.jpgGather the children to you. Welcome them and start to tell them about the gospel story today. Prompt your assistance to start the light or noise distraction. As you start talking, fade off,lose your place, etc as you are distracted by the noise or light.

    20130822-223633.jpgSay, “Wow I really want to focus on this Bible story but it’s hard, I keep getting distracted. Anyone else distracted?” Have the kids point out to you the distraction and then invite your assistant to join you. “This is like our bible story today. Jesus’s visiting sisters Mary and Martha. Martha is making dinner and trying to get this ready to be welcoming to her guest. Well she gets distracted by her sister Mary of helping her and she gets upset and tells Jesus to help her get Mary to come help. Jesus knows Martha is distracted by her worry and frustration and tells her that Mary is focusing in on Gods word and has also chosen a good thing. Jesus wants Martha to remember what the main focus is of being welcoming and that is to show care for others in Gods name.”

    “Do you ever get distracted? What kinds of things distract you?” (Take answers, be prepared to prompt… Could mention the movie “Up” where the dog is always distracted by the squirrel or electronics, etc.). “Many things that are good and things that are not so good can distract us from remembering we are to focus on Jesus words and live our life based on his words and promises, even our thoughts and feelings can get in the way. I think I need that reminder to focus on Jesus and that many of us do. What are ways we can do this?” (Take answers, mention prayer and worship and reading scripture. If you use the inserts or other daily devotional in your congregation this is a great time to show it and teach again how to use it.)

    Centering Prayer option: “All of these are good ways. And sometimes it good for us to take a little God time out. It can even be really short. It’s a time when we can just let our mind be open to listen for God. To do this we have to get pretty quiet, do you know how to be quiet? Let’s try. Good. Now I am going to set this time for just 30 seconds and we are going to try together to do a centering prayer. This means all we are going to breath in and think the word “Jesus” and breath out and think the words “Loves Me”. If other thoughts come just take a breath and remember your words. Let’s try together once and then we will set the timer.” Practice this together and see how it goes!

    20130822-223749.jpgJesus, you are our God. Help us focus on you. Thank you for your words of love for us. Amen

     

    20130822-223908.jpgMay your heart, hands, feet, head, words, and actions be surrounded in God’s peace.

     

    FaithCross_WorshipSet up a centering prayer/meditation area. Put out some pillows to sit on or chairs that are set a part from the worship space. Or simply provide the resources in the pews. Provide card with different kinds of centering prayer. You can write some simple ones like the example of “Jesus loves me” or “Come Holy Spirit” and/or print up some other resources from here: Contemplative Outreach 

     

     

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

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

    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!

    20130822-223520.jpgAsk the children if they know what forgiveness is and take a few answers.

    FaithCross 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!

    FaithCross_Worship 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!

    20130822-224425.jpg   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

    20130822-223908.jpg  Be at peace in God’s forgiveness.

    ~GB

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