6) Church Turmoil 7) Watermelon Gospel 8) Watermelon Gospel 9) Watermelon Gospel 10) Books of the Bible
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Join the Super Hero Team!
Get your kids on the Super Hero team when you use, "Super Heroes of the Bible", one of our two-semester series from our Bible-4-Life curriculum section. You'll find it listed at:
we have a leadership commitment/standard. NO one is in any form of leadership unless they adhere to the standard - which includes leaving a Christian life (gossip is not living as a Christian) tithing, faithfulness to church/church functions, dressing appropriately, living in accordance to the teachings of the church, etc. Everyone knows that failure to comply means they will be asked to resign or terminated from their position.
This applies to teachers, deacons, praise singers, choir members, etc.
Teresa
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2) Gossip Sessions
This is the hardest thing to say, but if the leadership in your church is allowing this to happen and those who see the unrighteousness that is going on and don't, or can't band together to address it and stop it, than you should leave, for your own spiritual health and that of your family. I've been in a similar situation, and I've seen the destruction it can cause in the lives of believers and in their children.
Think of Sodom and Gomorrah there was a point when the bad so outweighed the good that God allowed the few who were good to leave and left the rest to be destroyed.
One question, since you are part of a denomination that has a hierarchy above the local church, is anyone looking for help in that direction? Praying for you, Linda in Edmonds
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3) Taking Prayer Seriously
I wonder if you might be imposing adult expectations on children who are too young to live up to those standards. It could be that the children are too young to understand the seriousness of the adult prayer requests. Those concerns might not mean anything to them. Perhaps it might be better to ask them what they would like to pray about and then pray together. Also remember that younger children are wriggly and have different learning styles. Have you tried other forms of prayer with them...drawing their prayers, dancing them, writing them, molding them with clay, using finger labyrinths....
In their free stuff Group has a session about prayer for children in grades 1-2 that might give you some ideas.http://www.grouppublishing.com/free/Childrens/g12_talking.htm
There is a book called " Art as Prayer; Prayer as Art - Drawing to God" by Jeri Gelding ISBN 1-893732-24-X It's a book full of ideas for creating art as a form of prayer. It is intended for adults but I have adapted many of the ideas for use with children.
Dear Y.K, about your prayer lesson with your girls, I have just started something with my Sunday school children, it`s called Massive prayer adventure, it`s an interactive prayer adventure book,and really gets them thinking and taking part, it`s full ofthings to do and scripture and explains the Lords prayer in detail on their level, they love it,we are also going togive each child a prayer jotter so they can wright down their prayers and tick off those which have been answered. hope this may help. God bless You.... Paula U.K
Have you told your kids the story of Jesus? Do they know him? Have you captivated their attention? Have you told them in a way that makes sense to them?
You can, when you use, "Tell Me the Story of Jesus", a two-semester, hands-on Bible lesson series on the life of Jesus, from childhood to Pentecost.
Hi everyone, could u please help me out by giving me ideas for kid skits at weddings. I'm a Sunday school teachers aid and i need something ASAP.. the wedding is Sept 17 and we need to start practicing. I'd love anything besides songs, as we have alot of those. Thank You!!! love, Juanita
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6) Church Turmoil
To Oklahoma Baptist Church:
Satan loves this turmoil and healing begins with prayer. Our Church was going through this alot about 3 years ago. We had a Music minister that was against the pastor and was causing discord among the congregation. We also had the controling group of people that tried there best to get rid of the Pastor. I was unhappy with the way church was going and was listening to the music minister and assumed since he was a minister that he was telling the truth about certain situations but it turned out to be the opposite. I was so unhappy with all the discord that I was even thinking about changing churches but my husband was not a christian and he was just feeling comfortable in our church that it would have ruined his spiritual growth. God helped me to realize my complaining was hindering my husbands acceptance of Jesus. I started going to a BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) group and the topic of Bible study was on Moses. The part I came into was when they were in Numbers. The second half of Numbers. This part of Numbers records the wondering of the Jews in the desert and how they continued to complain against God and Moses and even said many times they wanted to return to captivity. Each time the complained God was angry and put plagues on them, burned them, had the earth open up and consume them. Moses interceded on there behalf so many times. But when I read all of that, God was speaking to me. God hates complaining and I was one of those complaining about my church, about the Pastor and the people. I realized that my healing had to come from with in first. So I began to pray and ask God to heal my spirit and to teach me what it is that He wanted me to learn. I began praying for the Pastor and for the Music minister and that the problem would come to an end. That what was wrong would be healed. Not too much later, the Music minister retired. I began to listen to the sermons and each Sunday morning would pray for the Pastor and his sermon that I would hear Gods words that morning. My husband became a christian and is serving along with me. Since that time, I have enjoyed all the sermons and have learned much. I have grown to love the Pastor and many people started to change and our church is back on track. We have still got our factions but they are the minority and those that were causing alot of the problems decided to leave our church. And even thought they have left our church they are still not happy at the new church or they haven't found a perminent church home. Our church population got down to maybe 110 on Sunday mornings but now we are up to 175 and still having more new members everyday. Our Pastor instilled one day a month designated for prayer and had people sign up for praying on the seventh day or each month from 7:00am to 7:00pm. He called it 7 to 7 on the 7th. This past summer he wanted to make June the testimony month. People signed up to give there testimony in church. There were so many people signed up that he had to run it through July. HALLELUJAH! God helped me to realize that some one could benefit from my testimony and He gave me the courage to get up and tell my testimony. I really shocked some people I think but they all realize that that was the old me and not who I am today. Thank God for His Mercy.
We have come along way and it is all due to prayer and self searching. We have no control over others. They will do what they are going to do. But God is in control and we just need to rely on His power and His time. So start with you own heart and then pray for others. It will make a difference.
God Bless you Lisa Pannell Austin TX
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7) Watermelon Gospel
Before you cut a melon, notice the green and yellow or gold markings on the outside. Then, slice it open and see the wonderful juicy red fruit, dotted with black seeds. There might be a little white rind, too.
Green represents things that grow; the yellow or gold color is a reminder of the streets in heaven, paved with gold. Red repesents Jesus' blood, which He sacrificed for us. Black is a reminder of our sin, and white represents a clean heart when we ask Jesus into our lives and follow His teachings. Now...enjoy the goodness God has provided!
Thanks so much for your wonderful website! Julie in Illinois
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8) Watermelon Gospel
Hi Cindy,
The Secret of the Watermelon is found in CEF Magazine, Evangelizing Today's Child's issue January/February of 1995. I suggest you go to your local CEF office to see if you can borrow it. Basically, the yellow blossom represents the gold like street in Heaven. The dark seeds represent the curiosity Eve demonstrated when she could not resist temptation to eat the forbidden fruit and upon doing so, sin entered the world with all mankind's hearts as dark as seeds in watermelon. God gave the world the greatest gift which is shown by the red coverning all the seeds of darkness. It stands for the blood of His Son Jesus who died on the cross in our place taking our punishment for sin. The white of rind shows when one admits he has sinned and asks for forgiveness , receiving Jesus as their Savior, their sins are washed away and God sees their hearts as clean. The outside green reminds one of growing in the knowledge of our Lord and to turn away from seeds of temptation and sin. I hope this is helpful. Shirley from Pa.
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9) Watermelon Gospel
I just bought a story like this at our church camp as a gift for one of our SS teachers. The company that puts it out is Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). They have a website - though I'm not sure of the exact address. Do a search for them on the web. The story was very well done with reproducible verses, fun activities etc.
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10) Books of the Bible
I hope I am answering this in the correct manner. We are about to embark on
the same thing in our sunday school class when we start our fall session. I am going about this in 3 ways. Actually 4 a) Fun songs to sing it too, one is from "Scripture Rock" and another is off a site I use frequently, "kidology.org" and involves different motions to each book. b) we are having a route 66 club that the kids can join when they finish saying all the books. c) playing games and using worksheets to drill the kids with the bible names; obtained from the following websites. www.fillthevoid.org, www.kidology.org.
I plan on using the first 25 minutes or so before each lesson to focus on the books of the bible. I also give out bible bucks for memorization of any
scripture, so will probably give them for this also. Good luck!
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