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SSTN # 75- July 15, 2002
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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SSTN e-NEWSLETTER:
1) Explaining the Holy Spirit
2) Catchy theme for weekend
3) Psalm 23 suggestion
4) Children's Church
5) Keeping the Peace / cooling a conflict
6) Audio scavenger hunt
7) Children's Church...still a good idea
8) Scavenger Hunt
9) Summer Sunday School
10) Holy Spirit Lesson
11) Children's church
12) Crafts Recipe?
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1) Explaining the Holy Spirit
To: Judith in Naples Fl, Holy Spirit:
An easy way to explain the Trinity is to get all the children to hold up
their index finger. There are 3 joints in the finger. Each has a purpose.
One could not do it's job if the others were not there. The Trinity is
much the same. They are all the same but different and all 3 are
essential.
Being baptised is an outward expression of of our faith in God and His
Son Jesus. When we accept the Lord, and ask Him to be our Lord and
Saviour and abide with us, His Spirit lives in our hearts.
In Christ,
Linda R from Tennessee
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2) Catchy theme for weekend
>I am the Children's Ministry coordinator and we are having a Kids
>celebration weekend.
This is what came to me. What about Judges 16:11-12. The secret to
Sampson's strength? This is the story of Sampson and Delilah and one of
the lies Sampson told Delilah was to tie him with new ropes never used
before. He broke those easily when the Philistine guards rushed him. His
hair was NOT the secret to Sampson's strength. He was dedicated to God as
a Nizarite and the presence of God in his life was the true source of his
strength.
If you have a Bible Story time, you can continue with that and talk about
Sampson's sin. He violated his oath to God because of his sin with
Delilah and the Spirit of God left him. The themes I thought of were:
Roping Kids for Christ, Kids for Christ Roundup.
Hope this helps.
God bless,
Linda R from Tennessee
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3) Psalm 23 suggestion
I have this on a plate:
The Lord is my Shepherd - That's Relationship
I shall not want - that's Supply
He make me to lie down in green pastures-that's RestHe leads me beside the
still waters - that's Refreshment
He restores my soul - that' s Healing
He leads me in the paths of righteousness - that's Guidance
For His name sake - that's Purpose Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death - that's Testing
I will fear no evil - that' s Protection!
For Thou art with me - that's Faithfulness.
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me - that's Discipline!
Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies - that's
Hope
He anoints my head with oil - that's Consecration
My cup runs over - that's Abundance
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life - that's
Blessing
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord - that's Security!
Forever - that's Eternity!
God bless,Linda R in Tennessee
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4) Children's Church
I have read many of the posts regarding Children's Church and finally
decided to post my opinion. In our church, we offer Sunday School at the
same time as two of the worship services. The third worship service is a
contemporary service and for the most part, the families with children
bring them to the contemporary worship. this gives them time to have the
children in Sunday School before hand, and themselves either teaching a
class or involved in a Bible study during the earlier worship hours. In
addition, we have "quiet bags" containing coloring books, crayons, small
stuffed animals etc for the smaller children located just as you enter the
sanctuary so that they have something to do. We also have a children's
sermon incorporated into the service where all the kids get to go up front
and hear the Word in "their language" before the readings and the sermon.
We encourage families to worship t! ogether because often it is the one
hour per week that everyone is together and not running off to work,
school, lessons etc. The older children are involved heavily in the
services (starting in about 8th grade) by ushering, being communion
assistants and acolytes, and some even lector. The smaller children never
seem to be a "distraction" in church because most of them have been coming
since they were babies and have learned that out of all the hours they get
to run and play during the week, this is the time to be still. My
daughter is 5 and we rarely have problems with the "wiggle bugs" setting
in during church. The contemporary service also incorporates new & upbeat
music with a band to accompany and lead. This gives the kids a chance to
sing their hearts out and as a Sunday school teacher of 4-5 year olds, I
encourage them to sing as loud as they like. Nothing brings a smile to
more peoples faces than an off key, loud, joyful voice! singing His
praises on a Sunday morning. That is worth more than worrying about
having to take a few seconds to redirect your child when they get the
wiggles or giggles during a service.
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5) Keeping the Peace / cooling a conflict
I'm doing a SS leason on keeping the peace and I'm looking for some
craft projects to go along with the lesson theme. Please help?
--from SSTN: Make friendship bracelets: see Colors of Christ or the doves
craft: Pentecost Spinners (doves=peace) in the crafts section.
Read Ephesians 4:3 too.
ysic, sarah <><
http://www.ChristianCrafters.Com
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6) Audio scavenger hunt
This is a fun activity for older teens or adults. It could be used for
younger teens if an adult is available to drive the each team around.
Some years ago I participated in an "audio" scavenger hunt. Each team was
equipped with a small tape recorder and a blank tape. A list was
distributed of sounds that had to be recorded on the tape: a fountain
splashing, an interview with a police officer, an emergency siren, a dog
barking, a doorbell, children laughing, a lawn mower, a scale played on a
musical instrument, an ice cube tray being emptied, etc. It was
tremendous fun!
Sally in Wichita
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7) Children's Church...still a good idea
In response to the question of whether Children's Church is a good idea, I
say yes. Our church offers Sunday School at 10 am for all ages. Then
offers Children's Church at 11 am during the adult worship service. I
think this is very important, because we use Sunday School as a time for
learning and Children's Church as more of a worship time. Kids need to
learn how to worship, too. But, young kids especially cannot be expected
to sit in an adult service and behave as an adult. One thing we do in
addition to this is have a family service on Sunday night. Sunday nights
include everyone (except 3 yrs. and under) in one service. This is
normally a more relaxed service with just our church members. It's
purpose is for families to worship together. That way the kids get to
participate in an adult service and learn to behave in adult church, but
also have their own service where they can really understand on their
level what it means to worship. We also meet on Wednesday nights with the
kids, so we are able to do more with them
then as well.
In Christ,
Tam Brown
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8) Scavenger Hunt
>Our VBS is in August and I'm trying to get a head start. We will be
>having a Closing Celebration Cookout at our local State Park on Saturday
>after VBS. scavenger hunt but with it being outdoors I'm not sure how
Dear K. Collins,
We're planning an indoor scavenger hunt for our local Christian hang-out.
You could probably use some of our ideas for your outdoor hunt. We will
hide miscellaneous everyday items, wooden spoon, red apple, green apple,
artificial flower, old tennis shoe, butterfly magnet, cola can, Christian
bumper sticker etc., we will randomly divide the kids in attendance into
teams. Each team will hopefully have the same number of kids as well as
one unique list of 10 to 15 items per group to find. The groups will be
given a designated amount of time in which to find all the items on their
list. They cannot move any item they may come across that is not included
on their list. Each group will have one team leader who will hold the
list, mark off items found and carry a sack in which to place found items
in. The team leaders will be responsible to delegate to the others who
will find what, while also looking for items themselves and staying
accessible to the others as items are found and being marked off and
dropped in the sack. This will teach them to work together as a TEAM.
(Together Everyone Accomplishes More)
At the end of the designated time we will blow a whistle and each team
must
come together, bring their lists and the items found to the designated
meeting spot, anyone caught still looking for items at the end of the time
period will be disqualified. Only items in the sack at the sound of the
whistle will be counted as "found" so it may be a good idea to give a 10
to
20 second count down so the kids can run and put their items in the sack.
The team with the most items "found" wins. In the event of a tie, each
tying time is given a lesser amount of time in which to find the most of
whatever items are left to be found. The team who finds the most, by
using
their sheets and the sheets from the other teams win. These sheets will
stay with the scavenger hunt coordinators while each team member can
review
them and then run to find what's left. And the end of designated time,
whistle blows, every team member comes with items in hand to determine the
winner! I thought about including items found in Bible stories, like a
sling-shot and giving prizes to the first to raise their hand and
correctly
tell me the Bible story associated with it. (David & Goliath) Can
include
an multi-colored baby doll coat for the story of Joseph, a staff for
Moses,
etc. Prizes can be candy bar, t-shirt, sun-visor, etc. I wish you
success
with your hunt. Glory to God in the highest! M. Johnson
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9) Summer Sunday School
Our first church tried to do a Children's Church program. I didn't care
much for the way it was being done and felt alone with that feeling. My
boys started complaining about the way the service was done and that they
missed "the old church", which was children's sunday school classes during
adult worship, then joining them right before communion and celebrating
communion and last prayer and song as a family.
We changed churches and found a real home. The only problem, they didn't
offer a summer sunday school. Like most Episcopal churches ( in Maine,
anyway) when June arrives, school and church school ends. My boys are too
rambunctious to sit still for "regular" church and I felt bad about
burdening my new-found church family with my hyper-active offspring. So I
started asking other parents about their feelings. Turns out that most of
them stopped going to church in the summer as there was no sunday school
program and their kids were alot like mine. I approached the Vestry with
an offer to teach a summer sunday school program. I make a 10 min. Bible
lesson, we do a craft project and have snack and juice and close with a
prayer. The Vestry agreed to give it a go. It was a big hit!! Parents
that usually didn't come to church during the summer started attending and
I love the teaching part. I get alot of help and ideas from the internet
and the different web sites (like this one!!) that cater to teachers. I
was asked to do this again this year and I don't know who gets more out of
it, me or the kids. It's an answer to a real prayer, I missed teaching
children (our old church stopped that to have a Children's Church) and our
boys now feel like God doesn't stop going to church just because it's
June.
Is it better than Children's Church? I don't know. This is best for me
and my family, that I do know.
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10) Holy Spirit Lesson
I'm a birdkeeper and among these little creatures in my aviary are white
doves and the Promise Kids [our children's liturgy of the word group]
have enjoyed those times when one of the doves has come along with me on
a sunday morning. Since these birds are a traditional symbol of the
sacred, they are easily used in explaining the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Touching and holding a dove can create tangible learning experiences, as
do the events of releasing a dove from your hand and welcoming it to land
on you. You may even find a birdkeeper among your members - those of us
who are birdkeepers can be quite excited about such an adventure :)
Here's a dove picture to color, cut, and glue
http://www.dovepage.com/javadove/dovetocolour.htm
Peace, Janice
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"Get em' in the LOOP!"
L-eading kids to Christ,
O-ffering advice
O-pen discussion forum
P-roviding free resources
Invite your friends, pastors, and coworkers
to join our discussion in SSTN.
http://www.christiancrafters.com/page3.html
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11) Children's church
Sarah, As I was reading your post this morning June24th. I came upon a
post from someone who used alot of my quotes concerning childrens church.
I would just like to say I'm sorry for bothering anyones mind in saying it
sounded like a babysitting service. I could tell the way she worded her
post she was very upset and I'm sorry......I've read many of the post from
your subscribers.........And I'd just like to say it sounds
wonderful.....But it also sounds like they have alot of help in making
childrens church happen. Can one or two people make this happen? I'm in a
church that I love, but no one wants to get involved........How does a
person try to get something like this started? I agree with what the
person said in her post completely.............It was almost a smack in
the face for me this morning.... If anyone would like to explain to me how
to get something like this started you can e-mail me at
mitziyoung01@hotmail.com I'd love to hear what you have to say. Hope
this was ok Sarah..........Mitzi
--from SSTN: Quite OK, Mitzi. This is why SSTN exists. ;o))
ysic, sarah <><
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12) Crafts Recipe?
I would like to know if you have any crafts receipe that we would be able
to use in our sunday school class and in a day care that the church is
trying to get ready to open. if so would you please let me know email them
to me, or tell me where i can go and get them. this dose mean alot to me
thank you for your help. anita
--from SSTN: check out the Yummy Devotions section on the Crafts page:
http://www.christiancrafters.com/page6.html
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