Creative Ideas for Children's Worship - Year C: Based on the Sunday Gospels, with CD ROM
352
Creative Ideas for Children's Worship - Year C: Based on the Sunday Gospels, with CD ROM
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Overview
Ready-to-use material for children’s Sunday worship based on the Revised Common Lectionary.
Versatile and practical, with options for small, large, and mixed-age groups alike. Simple liturgies provide a complete resource for children’s Liturgy of the Word for Episcopal and Catholic churches. Joins Year A and B editions completing the series. Ask almost any clergy or educator what one of their biggest challenges in worship is likely to be “coming up with ideas for including children in worship.”
This book provides a whole year’s worth of activities and ideas complete with artwork and visual aids. These sixty-four outlines have been developed and used in an Anglican parish (Church of England) over the last eight years by a professional educator, artist, and experienced children’s minister. The worship outlines include simple children’s liturgies and a complete lesson or story plan that harmonizes with the lectionary. Through fun ideas, children encounter a real aspect of the Christian faith focused on a theme from each Sunday’s Gospel. Each outline includes a variety of options, which make them appropriate for small and large groups of children as well as mixed age groups. Illustrated throughout, the text and full-color artwork are included on a CD ROM for downloading, printing, and copying.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781606741610 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Church Publishing |
| Publication date: | 07/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Creative Ideas for Children's Worship
Based on the Sunday Gospels, Year C
By Sarah Lenton
Church Publishing Incorporated
Copyright © 2012 Sarah LentonAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60674-161-0
CHAPTER 1
Script 1 Stay Awake!
Advent 1
Luke 21:25-36
THEME
The Christian year begins with Jesus' description of the end of the world. The alarming imagery—stars falling from the sky and so on—never appears to bother children, especially once they realize it's not necessarily going to happen tomorrow. Christmas, however, is another matter. That feast is imminent and this session concentrates on Jesus' first coming, rather than His second, with a story about the clueless King Basil.
SET UP
• The liturgical color is Purple.
• Highlight the change of color in church by wearing some purple—tie, scarf, socks, anything.
• Write out the shopping list on page 3 and put in your pocket.
• Three paper crowns.
• A small Bible, a fourth crown (too small to wear) and a gravestone—see template on CD-Rom crammed into Basil's pockets.
• Insert the text of today's Gospel into Basil's Bible.
• Leader 2 plays King Basil, all other parts can be played by the children.
• A couple of pairs of binoculars, telescopes (toy ones are fine), opera glasses, anything a star gazer might look through.
• Star puppet, made from the CD-Rom template.
• Optional Advent Wreath.
An Advent Wreath helps define the Sundays in Advent. Traditionally there are three Purple candles (for Sundays 1, 2 and 4), a Pink candle for the cheerful Sunday (number 3) and a White candle in the middle for Christmas Day. There is no Gospel Procession in Advent.
WELCOMEthe children and lead them inThe Sign of the Cross (p. xxxvi).
Leader This week the color has changed in church. Did anyone notice what color the priest was in today? (Purple.)
Pick up on any purple you can see around you.
What color is my scarf? (Purple.) Yup, the church has gone purple. When things go purple in church it means we're getting ready for something. Does anyone know what that might be?
If they don't, pull out your "shopping list."
I've got a shopping list here. Hmm ... I've got to get a turkey And some wrapping paper And a tree ... What am I getting ready for? (Christmas!) Exactly, the Church is getting ready to welcome Jesus when He comes as a tiny child on Christmas Day. One way to do that is to ask God to forgive us for the things we've done wrong, we'll do that now.
THE KYRIE
Lord Jesus, you came to Earth to tell us how much God loves us, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you came to Earth to help us say sorry Christ have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Lord Jesus, you came to Earth so our sins could be forgiven Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Ask the children to repeatThe Prayer for Forgivenessafter you(p. xxxvi).
OPENING PRAYER
God our Father Thank you for bringing us together. Help us to be very wide awake this morning And ready for anything. Amen.
OPTIONAL ADVENT WREATH
Introduce the Advent Wreath if you've got one. Run through the candle colors and help a child light a Purple candle for the first Sunday of Advent.
BEFORE THE GOSPEL
Four Kings
Place four chairs down the front. Leader 1 stands to one side of them, with the props (see below) to hand. Leader 2 shambles off to the back, ready to play King Basil.
Leader 1 Right, well this Sunday we're going to hear about a bunch of kings who were also getting ready for Christmas. They were ...
As you say each name, choose a child to be a king, give them a crown, and ask them to stand at the front.
King Caspar King Melchior King Balthazar, and King ...
Look around Where is he? Basil!
Basil Hullo?
Leader 1 We want you down here ...
Basil OK. (Leader 2 [aka Basil] joins the others)
Leader 1 Here he is, King Basil. King Basil is a great guy, but kinda forgetful. Where's your crown, Basil?
Basil Ah, I left it too long in the washing machine ... (Pulls very small crown from his pocket.) It shrank.
Leader 1 What else have you got in your pocket?
Basil Well, I've got a gravestone for one of my favorite knights, he died
CD1.1 last week ... (hold it up) May he rust in peace ... And, of course (hold it up) my Bible.
Leader 1 Basil never went anywhere without his Bible. He didn't read it very often, but he was always meaning to ...
Basil opens the Bible, nearly reads it, decides against it and puts it back in his pocket.
Leader 1 Well, he and the other kings were great friends.
Basil joins the others—slaps their backs or something friendly. The three other kings do what Basil does in the following section.
They inspected the troops together.
All four kings stand very straight and look keenly at the audience.
They waved to the public together.
They all do a royal hand wave.
And they went to the movies together. (They sit down.) What's your favorite film, Basil?
Basil "King Kong."
Leader 1 But sometimes they would go outside, climb up as high as they could, and watch the stars together ...
The kings stand on their chairs. Pass them up the binoculars.
Basil loved watching the stars—but he was completely useless. He could never remember which end of the telescope to look through and, because you can only watch stars at night, he was always falling asleep.
Basil sits down on his chair and falls asleep. One night the other three kings were very excited, they saw a
CD1.2 wonderful new star ...
CD1.3Enter kid holding up the star puppet. moving across the sky.
The three kings watch the progress of the star across the room.
And they jumped down. (They do.) And woke Basil ... (The star goes behind them.) "We've seen an amazing new star!" they said. "Look!" And they pointed up into the sky. "Where?" said Basil, and he got up. "It's behind you!" they said.
Run the "look behind you" pantomime joke. Basil appeals to the kids.
Basil "Can you see the star?" (YES! It's behind you!)
But he never turns around fast enough.
Leader 1 Well, all the kings decided to follow the star. Caspar ran off to get a backpack. (Exit Caspar.) Melchior ran off to get the passports. (Exit Melchior.) Balthazar ran off to get some camels. (Exit Balthazar.) And Basil agreed to meet them at the camel parking place. Where's that, Basil?
Basil It's in my royal city—Camelot ...
Leader 1 I should have guessed. Well, Basil looked at his watch, and decided he just had time to have a little nap before the others returned. (Basil settles down again.) And he slept, and he slept and he slept. The sun came up—and Basil woke up and looked around. There was nobody there ... He rushed over to Camelot.
Basil runs to the other end of the room.
Nobody there either. The others had gone. "Rats!" said Basil, "Why do these things always happen to me?" He was so fed up that he hunched his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets and discovered—his Bible. (Basil does this.) "Useless book!" he said to himself. "Oh well, I may as well read it. There's nothing else to do." And he opened the Bible and began to read ...
Basil walks slowly down the room, reading. He stops suddenly.
Basil Oh no!
Leader 1 What's up?
Basil Look at this—why didn't I read this before?
Hands the book over to Leader 1.
Leader 1 Basil had found the Gospel for today. Let's see what it says ...
Emphasize the "Stay awake!" as you read it.
There is no Gospel Procession in Advent, ask someone to bring up the Gospel book.
THE GOSPEL Luke 21:25-36
Jesus said to His disciples, "There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, people will be frightened and the Heavens will be shaken. When this happens, stay awake, and pray for strength, so that you may be ready for my coming on the clouds of Heaven."
Leader 1 So what does Jesus want us to do? (Stay awake.) Yup, He wants Christians to be the sort of people who are on the ball, ready for anything. King Basil had better buck up ... (If you've got the time ...)
GAME
Keeping Basil Awake ...
Leader 2 sits with his back to the children and a crown—any crown, quite a stiff one—behind him. Basil apparently goes to sleep and a child, cued in by Leader 1, tries to sneak up to steal the crown. If Basil hears the kid he points in the direction the child is coming from, and the child has to retreat. Play this game with a view to variety. Let some kids get very close before "hearing" them, and allow some very small children to win.
Practice the message you are going to take back to the grown-ups—"WAKE UP!"
Leader To finish we are going to say our Advent Prayer. It's a very old prayer—and it's very short: Come, Lord Jesus, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus,Amen.
BACK IN CHURCH
The children line up down the front.
Leader Today the children have come back with a special message for the whole church. (Turn to the children.) What is it kids?
Children WAKE UP!
If for some reason the children don't shout this at full power, look around at the congregation, shake your head and say to the kids.
Leader You know, I don't think they quite got that. I think we'll have to tell them again ...
Children WAKE UP!
CHAPTER 2Script 2 John Gets a Name
Advent 2
Luke 3:1-3
THEME
John the Baptist makes his traditional appearance on the second Sunday of Advent. Year C is the year in which Luke's Gospel is used at Mass so, for this session, we turn back to Chapter 1 and discover a story only found in Luke—how John got his name.
SET UP
• The liturgical color is Purple.
• Pictures from the CD-Rom.
• A black marker.
• Optional Advent Wreath (see p. 1): the first Purple candle should be lit before the session begins.
• Some large soft balls (look at the game below to gauge how many you will need). Older children can probably catch any ball thrown at them; little ones will need something large and soft.
WELCOMEthe children and lead them inThe Sign of the Cross (p. xxxvi).
Ask the children if they noticed the color in church—highlight anything in the hall that's purple. Bring forward any kids who are wearing purple (however minimally).
Leader We're in Purple time. It's called Advent. Purple is a dark serious color. Christians think it's a good idea to be serious sometimes, especially when they think about the things they've done wrong. Fortunately we know that we only have to say sorry for God to forgive us. Let's say sorry now.
THE KYRIE Lord Jesus, we're sorry for the times we've forgotten you, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Lord Jesus, we're sorry for the times we've been unkind, Christ have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for never forgetting us, Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.
Ask the children to repeatThe Prayer for Forgivenessafter you(p. xxxvi).
OPTIONAL ADYENT WREATH
Help a child to light the second candle on the Advent Wreath—another purple one.
OPENING PRAYER
Lord God We thank you for Advent (And for our Advent Wreath) Open our hearts So that we will be ready to greet your Son When He comes as a tiny child on Christmas Day. Amen.
BEFORE THE GOSPEL
VIPS
Leader OK, today I want to talk about VIPs. (Write it up) Does anyone know what VIP means? (Very Important Person) What sort of person is Very Important? Anyone know?
See what the children come up with—allow a few local celebrities, but try to steer them to really important people like the President of the USA.
How about their names—what is the President's name? (Fill in the blank)
Write up a couple of others: keep it snappy.
OK, well the Gospel this morning starts off with a list of Very Important people indeed. We'll write them up as we hear them ...
Leader 2 should have a marker pen and be ready to do so. There is no Gospel Procession in Advent, ask someone to bring up the Gospel book.
THE GOSPEL Luke 31-3
Read the Gospel using the following text. Leader 2 writes up the names as you say them.
Leader This story starts in the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius.
Leader 2 writes up Tiberius.
When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea ...
Leader 2 writes up Pontius Pilate.
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee.
Up goes Herod—look up and tell the children that a tetrarch is a mini king
Herod's brother Philip was another tetrarch ...
Write up Philip.
and Lysanias was another one.
Write up Lysanias.
And, while all these people were ruling Palestine, the Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness.
Leader 2(Leader 2 looks up) Do I write those names as well?
Leader 1 Yeah, why not? (Leader 2 writes John and Zechariah) So John preached by the River Jordan, urging people to be baptized and repent of their sins.
AFTER THE GOSPEL
Leader 1 OK, let's look at these names ... This lot (the first five) were all VIPs once. Anyone heard of Lysanias? (A rhetorical question.) Nope?
Put a cross by him.
Or Herod's brother Philip? Nope?
Another cross.
How about Herod?
Go with the flow—the older children may remember the Three Kings visited him and he ordered the Massacre of the Innocents. Put a cross or check according to the mood of the room.
Pontius Pilate?
Throw it open—whatever the kids say Pilate gets a check because he's in the Creed.
How about Tiberius?
Probably a cross, unless they've seen a re-run of the television program I Claudius.
OK, what about John? We know him as John the Baptist—hands up anyone who has heard of him.
Make sure that all the grown-ups present put their hands up, John has to have a check.
None of these guys—(indicate the Famous Five)—would have guessed that John was a VIP, but he's the man who baptized Jesus and became one of the most famous saints in the world.
Circle John's name.
How about Zechariah? (A rhetorical question) Well Zechariah was John's father, and there's a story about him in the Bible. Let's see if he's a VIP ...
The Birth of John the Baptist
Settle the children for a story. One Leader tells the story, another puts up the pictures with some help from the kids.
Leader 1 A long time ago there lived an aged couple,
CD2.1 Zechariah
CD2.2 and his wife, Elizabeth.
They were so old that Zechariah needed a walking stick when he went out. (Ask a child to draw one in.) Zechariah and Elizabeth had been married for ages—but they'd never had any children. Well, one day, Zechariah was in the Temple. He was a priest and it was his job to offer incense to God. So he went up to the altar to offer incense ...
CD2.3Attach thurible picture to Zechariah and draw in the outline of a cloud of smoke, big enough to contain the next picture.
When suddenly, standing in the smoke, he saw ...
CD2.4(Picture of Angel)—ask the children what it is. Quite right, an Angel. And the Angel said to Zechariah, "Zechariah, God has listened to your prayers and is going to send your wife Elizabeth a son. He is going to be one of the great prophets and, listen to this bit, you are to call his name ...
CD2.5(Put up speech balloon.) JOHN." "Hmm," said Zechariah. "Well, I don't see how that's going to happen—my wife's far too old." There was a silence. The Angel couldn't believe his ears. "Hey!" he said. "You just listen to me! My name is Gabriel and I've come from Heaven to talk to you. It doesn't make any difference whether you believe me or not because it'll happen anyway. BUT, as you haven't believed me, you won't be able to say a word until all these things come true!" And from that moment Zechariah was dumb.
CD2.6Add padlock to Zechariah's mouth. And the Angel left.
Take off Angel, and speech bubble.
And Elizabeth did have a son.
Ask a child to stick the baby picture (CD2.7) to Elizabeth.
Everybody was delighted—especially Zechariah, though he couldn't say anything of course. Well, all Elizabeth's friends and relations said the baby should be called Zechariah like his father. "No," said Elizabeth. "His name is John." "But nobody's called John in your family!" At which point Zechariah made signs that he wanted to write—so they handed him a tablet.
CD2.8Stick up the tablet picture. And he wrote down the baby's name. What do you suppose he wrote? (John!) Exactly—
Ask a child to write the name on the tablet.
And, as soon as he'd done this—Zechariah's speech came back!
Take the padlock off the mouth.
And Zechariah and Elizabeth and baby John lived together very happily. And when John grew up, he became the last great prophet of Israel, John the Baptist.
CD2.9Last picture of John the Baptist.
Sum up Leader
So do we think Zechariah is a VIP? (This can go either way.) Well, it doesn't matter. God knew all about him and wanted him to be the father of one of His greatest saints. Everyone is a VIP as far as God is concerned.
GAME
Name Game
Gather the children into circles of six. Ask the children to toss the ball to each other, saying their names as they catch it. A grown-up makes a note of the order in which the ball was thrown and asks the kids to remember the name of the person who threw it to them. After the ball has been caught by everyone, ask them to throw it in reverse order. If they get very good at this, combine two circles and run it again.
Optional Twist
Start the ball going in the original order, and then throw in another ball going in reverse order. The game normally collapses when one person gets both balls thrown at them.
REHEARSAL
Practice your presentation for when you go back into church (see below).
Leader We're going to finish by asking John for his prayers. The response is "Pray for us."
FINAL PRAYER
Holy John Pray for us.
Holy John, cousin of Jesus Pray for us.
Holy John, the Baptizer Pray for us.
Holy John, last of the prophets Pray for us.
God our Father, We thank you for sending your servant John, to prepare us for the coming of your Son. Help us this Advent to heed his word, so that we will be ready to greet Jesus when He comes again, For Jesus' sake. Amen.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Creative Ideas for Children's Worship by Sarah Lenton. Copyright © 2012 Sarah Lenton. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements, xi,Introduction, xiii,
Setting up a Children's Church Team, xvi,
How to Use this Book, xxv,
Frequently Used Prayers, xxxvi,
THE SESSIONS,
Script 1 – Stay Awake! (Advent 1), 1,
Script 2 – John Gets a Name (Advent 2), 7,
Script 3 – Cheer Up! (Advent 3), 14,
Script 4 – Mothers (Advent 4), 20,
Script 5 – Light in Darkness (Christmas 1), 26,
Script 6 – Jesus Gets Lost (Christmas 2), 31,
Script 7 – The Epiphany, 35,
Script 8 – Baptism of Jesus (Epiphany 1), 41,
Script 9 – Happiness (Epiphany 2), 48,
Script 10 – The Bible (Epiphany 3), 53,
Script 11 – Candlemas (The Presentation), 60,
Script 12 – Stilling the Storm (Extra Session), 66,
Script 13 – Jesus Annoys His Neighbors (Epiphany 4), 71,
If Easter is late you will use some scripts from Script 32 onwards in the period leading up to Lent.,
Script 14 – Too Many Fish ... (Epiphany 5 or Proper 1), 78,
Script 15 – The Transfiguration of Jesus (Last Epiphany), 84,
Script 16 – The Devil Tries It On Again ... (Lent 1), 90,
Script 17 – Cities (Lent 2), 97,
Script 18 – Extra Time (Lent 3), 104,
Script 19 – The Prodigal Son (Lent 4), 109,
Script 20 – Two Sinners (Lent 5), 118,
Script 21 – Palm Sunday, 125,
Script 22 – Rock and Roll (Easter Sunday), 131,
Script 23 – Doubting Thomas (Easter 2), 136,
Script 24 – Jesus Cooks Breakfast (Easter 3), 141,
Script 25 – Sheep Stealing (Easter 4), 148,
Script 26 – A New Commandment (Easter 5), 153,
Script 27 – The Promise of the Holy Spirit (Easter 6), 157,
Script 28 – Paul and Silas are Shaken but Don't Stir (Easter 7), 163,
Script 29 – Going Home (Ascension Day), 169,
Script 30 – Pentecost, 175,
Script 31 – The Holy Trinity (Trinity Sunday), 182,
Script 32 – Corpus Christi (Extra Lesson), 190,
Some of the following scripts will be used before Lent if Easter is late,
Script 33 – Turning the World Upside Down (Proper 1) Sunday closest to May 11, 196,
Script 34 – Crazy Love (Proper 2) Sunday closest to May 18, 200,
Script 35 – A Plank in the Eye (Proper 3) Sunday closest to May 25, 205,
Script 36 – The Centurion's Servant (Proper 4) Sunday closest to June 1, 210,
Script 37 – Families (Proper 5) Sunday closest to June 8, 215,
Script 38 – Jesus and the Unwelcome Guest (Proper 6) Sunday closest to June 15, 220,
Script 39 – The Gadarene Swine (Proper 7) Sunday closest to June 22, 226,
Script 40 – Peter Gets It Right (Extra Lesson), 232,
Script 41 – St. Francis Takes His Clothes Off (Proper 8) Sunday closest to June 29, 236,
Script 42 – Trusting in God (Proper 9) Sunday closest to July 6, 243,
Script 43 – The Good Samaritan (Proper 10) Sunday closest to July 13, 249,
Script 44 – Mary and Martha (Proper 11) Sunday closest to July 20, 255,
Script 45 – Learning to Pray (Proper 12) Sunday closest to July 27, 261,
Script 46 – The Rich Fool (Proper 13) Sunday closest to August 3, 267,
Script 47 – A Summer Pantomime (Proper 14) Sunday closest to August 10, 272,
Script 48 – Fire! (Proper 15) Sunday closest to August 17, 278,
Script 49 – The Woman Who Was Bent Double (Proper 16) Sunday closest to August 24, 286,
Script 50 – The Narrow Gate (Extra Lesson), 293,
Script 51 – Being First (Proper 17) Sunday closest to August 31, 298,
Script 52 – Counting the Cost (Proper 18) Sunday closest to September 7, 303,
Script 53 – The Lost Coin (Proper 19) Sunday closest to September 14, 307,
Script 54 – God vs. Mammon (Proper 20) Sunday closest to September 21, 312,
Script 55 – Dives and Lazarus (Proper 21) Sunday closest to September 28, 317,
Script 56 – Faith (Proper 22) Sunday closest to October 5, 323,
Script 57 – The Ten Lepers (Proper 23) Sunday closest to October 12, 330,
Script 58 – The Unjust Judge (Proper 24) Sunday closest to October 19, 335,
Script 59 – The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Proper 25) Sunday closest to October 26, 340,
Script 60 – The Man in the Tree (Proper 26) Sunday closest to November 2, 346,
Script 61 – The God of Abraham (Proper 27) Sunday closest to November 9, 353,
Script 62 – Troubled Times (Proper 28) Sunday closest to November 16, 360,
Script 63 – Christ the King (Proper 29) Sunday closest to November 23, 366,
Script 64 – Saint Spotting (Any Saint's Day), 371,
Index of Biblical References, 377,