submitted: Glendon
How good are you at adding things up?
2+2=? 1+5=? 4+3=? etc
What about take away?
5-2=? 6-4=? etc
4-1=? (They’ll answer 3)
Argue with them and say 4-1=5.
Keep the banter going.
I can prove it to you.
Hold up sheet of A4 paper and ask them to count the corners.
So now I’m going to take one of the corners away (cut off one corner with scissors) So I’ve proved you are wrong: 4 take away 1 is definitely 5!!!
It’s a trick; glad you argued with me; glad you said what you knew to be true; important to hold onto/argue for things that are right; do what you know is right thing to do etc
Only suitable if your baptismal font has eight sides!
Bible Link: I Peter 3: 18-22
Do you know how many sides the font has? Let’s count them… 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It’s an eight sided font – so it’s an…. OCTAGON. Many fonts have eight sides… and remind us of Bible story about 8 people…
Noah, his wife, Mrs Noah!, and their three boys: Shem, Ham and Japheth – and they had wives… so 8 in all… God saved them from the waters of the flood… and Noah did what God asked…
Harvest Thanksgiving Services in Churches and Schools will not be far away… do you have any good ideas to share here… you can email me at donald@dalgety-church.co.uk or comment here on the blog…
How many words can you make using only the letters in HARVEST? There are loads of them and many lend themselves to Harvest thoughts: Share, Starve, Have, Vest, Rest…
You can add others by commenting…
Submitted: Fr Bruce Willes
A little bit of preparation is needed the day before and possibly someone who is good a drawing. But I have found this talk always captivates the children and certainly brings home the difference between poorer counties and our own.
On pieces of white card draw the entire amount of food that a ‘normal’ person in the west enjoys each day. For example: (Breakfast)A cup of tea, toast in a rack, pot of jam, plate of egg and bacon. (Coffee Break) Cup of coffee, biscuit or cake. (Lunch) Burger and chips, glass of cola, cheesecake or yoghurt. (Teatime) Cup of tea, and a sandwich. (Dinner) Starter, plate with main meal plus pudding etc., (Supper or bedtime snack) Cup of coco. As you can see the list is quite long and each item once drawn needs to be cut out and made to stand up by adding a small triagle of card to the back of the cut out. You will also need an old tin can and a small bowl of rice (I add a few stones and dirt to this). Finally a jug or bottle with dirty water in it.
Begin by asking for 2 volunteers. The first can be shown to a seat set at the side of a table. The second is given the old tin can and told to start walking around the church or hall. Now as the child sets off on his journey the first child can be given his breakfast. Each item shown clearly for all to see. The child holding the can will probably return and expect it to end there but tell him to keep going – and serve the other child with his coffee break. This is repeated until the whole days meal is served. When everything is on the table (don’t remove any of the meals) the child with the can is told that he has walked far enough and arrived at the place he needs to be to get all his food for the day. At this point fill his can with the dirty water and offer him the bowl of dirty rice. Then tell him that he has to walk back home in order to share this with his family.
I leave it to you to expand on what everyone has just witnessed – but I have always found it to be a very powerful and moving sermon.
submitted: Laura Ewers
Preparation: OHP’s or pictures of the story.
Ask the congregation to name a few of their favourite nursery rhymes.
When you get to Humpty Dumpty sing the rhyme through and comment on how
sad the story is. Go on to tell them the real story of Humpty. Humpty
lives in Eggland which is an egg shaped kingdom with a huge wall around
it. Nobody has ever seen the king but he has left signs all over the
place saying ‘Do not climb on the wall! By order of the King.’ Talk
about Humpty being bored and knocking for his friends who can’t come out
to play for various reasons: egg-xams, eggs-hausted, out eggs-ercising
etc. Humpty decides to go out on his own. Begins to wonder why king
doesn’t want them to climb the wall: too egg-citing? the other side
might be better than Eggland? wants to spoil their fun? etc (feel free
to egg-spand other reasons). Humpty gets to wall… it is huge… not
too scary… decides to climb… egg-hausted gets to the top… not nice
over the wall… decides he wants to go back but needs a rest first.
Ask the congregation what happens next ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall’… Ask if anyone knows why Humpty fell
off the wall? Take suggestions: the reason being that eggs don’t have
bottoms so can’t sit down! Humpty falls, his shell is badly cracked and
shattered and his white is seeping out. Explain that if Humpty’s yolk
starts to come out he will begin to cook in the sun or animals will eat
him. Either way if he doesn’t get help he will die. King’s horses with
all their finery and grooming can’t fix him; King’s men with all their
fitness and training can’t fix him. Humpty’s shell is so damaged that
he realises that he is dying when he sees something sparkling white
coming over the hill. This egg’s shell is spotless and pure white,
Humpty is amazed. Then he is horrified to realise it is the king
coming, who is bound to tell Humpty off for disobeying him. Instead the
King is compassionate to him and greatly concerned. Humpty apologises
for climbing the wall. The King loves Humpty so much but knows his
shell is beyond fixing. So the King gives Humpty his own shell and dies
instead… Humpty is now fit and well and goes around telling people of
the king and how wonderful he was and loving.
Draw the parallels with the story of Jesus. We all do stuff that’s
wrong which is called sin. But the Bible tells us that God is so good
that he can’t let sin go unpunished, which meant that we couldn’t go to
heaven. But God loved us so much he came down to earth as Jesus and He
died to take our place and our deserved punishment for sin.
submitted: Rev Jane Denniston
Ask the kids if they know that hands can talk? They will usually say yes and refer to sign language. But do they know that their hands talk too?
How do they talk?
What sort of things do they say?
Don’t be naughty! (wag finger)
Look! (point)
Well done, I like that (clap)
I’m angry (shake fist)
Sh! (finger on mouth)
Goodbye! (wave)
I like you! (hold hands)
Jesus’ hands talked too! "Little children were being brought to Jesus so that he could lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them (wagging fingers). But Jesus said, Let the children come to me, and don’t stop them."
Blessed the children…. His hands said…..I love you… I want you to be here near me….You are welcome.
This is a good one for Armistice Sunday if the end is changed and a different point is made.
What does it mean when we shake hands? It used to mean “I come in peace”, now it often means “let’s be friends”.
I Corinthians 12
just one broken spoke and an umbrella is rendered useless. If one part suffers – all suffer with it.
submitted: David Fleming, Kent, UK
Materials: a roll of wallpaper with the word CAMELEPHANTELOPELICANARY written on it. (Optional) An acetate of a camel onto which can be overlaid big ears, thin legs, a bill and a beak
Story: Once there was a camel called Brian. (unroll wallpaper to read CAMEL). He was perfectly made for the desert where he lived. he had wide feet so that he didn’t sink in the sand. He could close his nostrils in sand storms, he could store water for days in his hump. But he was not happy. You see he was bothered by flies all the time. they flew in his eyes and ears and really got on his nerves. He said "If only I had big ears like the elephant. Then I could flick the flies away." So he began to exercise his ears. He would wiggle them, and tread on them to stretch them, until at last his ears grew and grew (SHOW ACETATE WITH BIG EARS). The other cameps thought he looked ridiculous, but he did not care. He had no more flies buzzing round. His friends said "We can’t call you a camel any more. We will call you a (UNROLL WALLPAPER) CAMELEPHANT…..
((You can see the way the story is going. He wishes he could run fast…. catch fish …. sing prettily …. until he realises that he keeps tripping over his ears, stumbling on his thin legs, dragging his bill etc, and realises he was much happier as a camel))
Application: Don’t spend your life wishing you were something else. God gives us all unique gifts and abilities. Use them.
Suggested Song: If I were a butterfly.
required: crisp new $20/ £20 note.
submitted: David Fleming, Frindsbury Baptist, Kent, UK
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill.
In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands
started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this."
He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still
wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the
ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.
He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.
"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless.
But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless.
