I Will Give You Rest

Kids’ Worship Service

Year A, Proper 9

July 3, 2011

I.         Welcome!

a.    Gathering – Children find a letter to sit on the gathering carpet. Recognize and welcome any visitors.

b.    Opening Prayer –“Blessed Be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be his kingdom now and forever. Amen”

Children’s Collect for the Day

“Heavenly Father, we are here to worship and praise you. Open our hearts and minds so that we may hear your words spoken to us through the Bible story today. Give us strength that we may serve you through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

II.       Bible Lesson:

Adapted from http://www.sermons4kids.com/when_your_load_is_heavy.htm

Theme:	Jesus will help you carry the load. - Proper 9 (14)
Object:	Several items that are not too heavy - such as a brick or a ten pound dumbbell and an automobile jack.
Scripture:	"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
Lesson: How strong are you? Do you think you are pretty strong? How many of you think you could pick up this brick? How about a dumbbell like this one? Well, you must be pretty strong then. How many of you think you could pick up a car? Oh, you don't think you could pick up a car? Well, I think you could if you had some help. Here is something that would help you. It is an automobile jack. If you put this jack underneath the car and pump the handle, you can easily lift a car that weighs over 3,000 pounds! Yes, with the help of a jack, you can lift a car, but you couldn't do it alone, could you? Who knows what a burden is. Yes, a burden is something that is difficult for us to do or something we may be worried about. It’s hard to carry burdens, but, guess what? You don't have to carry them all by yourself! Let’s listen to what Jesus says in the Bible in the Gospel of Matthew: Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." There is no reason for you to struggle with burdens that are too heavy for you. God's Word is full of promises to help us in times of trouble. Here are just a few: "Don't be afraid, I am with you." (Gen.26:24) "I'll give you strength." (Psalm 28:7) "I'm with you in times of trouble." (Psalm 34:6) These words of encouragement are just what we need to face the hard times that may come our way. Does that mean that if we will ask him, God will take all of our troubles away? No, but he will help us. In fact, some of our struggles may help us to grow and become stronger. They may also help us to learn to trust in Jesus. But when the load is too heavy, he will help us to carry it -- and there is no burden that is too heavy for Jesus. Dear Father, we are thankful that when we struggle under the load of life's burdens, you are there to help us carry the load. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

III.       Response Activity:

Who can tell me what this is? Yes, it is a rock! Tell me some things about a rock. They are hard, sometimes indestructible, and strong. We sometimes hear of Jesus being “our rock.” What does that mean? Yes, it means Jesus is strong and that we can always rely on him. Today we are going to paint a rock. This rock will be your special reminder that Jesus is your rock and that we can always turn to him to help us carry our heavy burdens.

IV.         Closing Prayer and Benediction

a.    “Our Father” Say the Our Father aloud and ask children to join in if they know the prayer.

b.    Benediction: “Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord. (all together) Thanks be to God.”

V.            Return to Church services: Children line up behind the acolyte and follow silently to return to church.

Welcoming Others in Jesus' Name

Kids’ Worship Service

Year A, Proper 8

June 26, 2011

I.        Welcome!

a.    Gathering – Children find a letter to sit on the gathering carpet. Recognize and welcome any visitors.

b.    Opening Prayer –“Blessed Be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be his kingdom now and forever. Amen”

Children’s Collect for the Day

“Heavenly Father, we are here to worship and praise you. Open our hearts and minds so that we may hear your words spoken to us through the Bible story today. Give us strength that we may serve you through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

II.      Bible Lesson:( Adapted From: http://www.grassroots.com.au/Kidschurch/Bwelcome.htm)

• Have you ever seen one of these? (Show a welcome mat) • Where have you seen something like this? Usually we'd see a mat like this outside the door to our home, wouldn't we? • A mat such as this usually has two purposes. Do you know what those two purposes are? (Discuss) • Well, for one thing, it is a friendly reminder for people to wipe their shoes off so that they won't track dirt or mud into your home. • And second, it is placed outside your door as a sign to let people know that they are welcome in your home. • Welcome -- what does the word "welcome" mean? It means to receive someone in a warm and friendly way. How do you welcome people in your home? How do we welcome people in church? Let’s listen to today’s Gospel from Matthew 10:40-42 40 "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. 41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." • Jesus said, "He who receives you receives me." • So when we welcome others, we are welcoming Jesus too! Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

III.       Response Activity:

How many of you have ever seen visitors in our church receiving a welcome bag? Why do you think we give out those welcome bags? What do you think may be in them. Show an actual welcome bag and it’s contents. Wouldn’t it be neat if we also made something to put in these welcome bags? Today we are going to make a special prayer card that will go in our welcome bags. You are going to color these prayer cards and then we will give them to the visitors of our church in the welcome bag. In this way, you will be welcoming our visitors too. (Collect all prayer cards before dismissal).

IV.         Closing Prayer and Benediction

a.    “Our Father” Say the Our Father aloud and ask children to join in if they know the prayer.

b.    Benediction: “Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord. (all together) Thanks be to God.”

V.            Return to Church services: Children line up behind the acolyte and follow silently to return to church.

Trinity Sunday

This is the first post for this new blog site. I hope that you will find it very helpful in reviewing what we do each Sunday in church during the litugical year with children whether they are your own children or those with whom you are interacting with in some way in our church. These posts are meant as a tool to help enhance the spiritual formation of the children in our parish through giving you an avenue in which to discuss topics such as "Trinity Sunday" be it in the Kid's Worship Room, Sunday school classroom, or at home. These posts will also link to other sites which may be helpful for continued discussion.

Trinty Sunday: Kid's Worship Lesson Plan (From: http://www.christianitycove.com/object-lessons-for-sunday-school-understanding-the-trinity-0603/908/)

We have trouble understanding the Trinity, but these object lessons for Sunday
school, using salt, flour and water as the ingredients should make it clear.
RELATED SCRIPTURES:
Matthew 5:13, John 3:5
OBJECTS NEEDED:
½ cup of salt, ½ cup of water, 1 cup of
flour (you can double or triple this recipe. It will make play dough, and you’ll
want enough that your students can each make something with it.) Bowl,
mixer.
PREPARATION:
Practice this recipe once at home if you’re
not familiar with it. Figure out how you’ll need to multiply the recipe to give
a portion of play dough to each of your students.
LESSON:
How many of you know what The Trinity is? Get
a show of hands and some answers.

The Trinity is a very important concept in our Christian faith. Trinity
starts with “tri,” which means “three.” There are three members of the Trinity.
Who are they? Father, Son and Holy Spirit, (if it hasn’t been said
already).

However, a lot of people are confused by this. Christians believe in only one
God. And yet, there are three beings: God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit. How does this work? Take some answers if any student wants to
take a try at it.

Three-yet-one sounds contradictory. We don’t really know how the Trinity
works, and that’s okay. There are obviously things in the universe so complex
that man can’t understand them. People who think they can understand everything
are in danger of missing something big!

Today we’re using this cup of common flour and this common table salt to
understand the Trinity.

Hold up the cup of flour. Let’s pretend this is God the Father.
White is a symbol of purity, and we know that God is purest of the pure.
Turn the flour over into your bowl.

Hold up the half cup of salt. Let’s pretend this salt is Jesus.
Jesus told us, “You are the salt of the earth” in Matthew 5:13, meaning we
Christians “flavor” the earth by sharing God’s word. And Jesus would certainly
know about that; he was the original salt. Turn the salt over into your
bowl.

Hold up your half cup of water. Let’s pretend this is the Holy
Spirit. Water is often associated with “spirit” in the Bible. In John 3:5, Jesus
says “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the
spirit.”

Mix all ingredients with your mixer.

We’re mixing all three ingredients together. Is the salt still in here? Yes.
Is the flour still in here? Yes.

Is the water still in here? Yes.

All three are still here. Stop mixing. Yet now we have one
substance. Can anyone guess what it is?  Hold up some dough and squish it
around in your hand.

It’s one thing now—it’s homemade play dough. And yet, all three ingredients
are still there.

That’s one of the ways we can understand the Trinity—three in one. Definitely
three; definitely one.  Let’s make something!

Make enough play dough for all kids; Place on wax paper and write each child's name on the paper; they can make a cross or a triple
cross to symbolize the Trinity; collect each child's creation and take home to bake in a low heated oven in order for the salt dough to harden. After each child's cross is baked and hardened, write their names on the back with a sharpie marker. Return the crosses the following Sunday and use as a review.