Starchasers: Sessions (Archive)
Autumn Term 2009: David – The boy who would be king
Our series for the Autumn term will look at the life of David, from humble beginnings working as a shepherd on his dad’s farm to his rise to be one of the greatest kings ever of Israel.
Check back here after each session for a summary of what we’ve looked at.
13th Dec – Christmas: A king from David’s line (2 Samuel 7v11-16)
Theme – Jesus, whose kingdom will last forever
Throughout the term we’ve been looking at promises and in particular the promises that God gave David. We saw right at the start of term God promised David that he would be king and God kept that promise. In this session we looked at a promise that God gave David about his descendants and their kingdom lasting forever.
We started by getting the kids to look through the Bible for promises God gave about David, his descendants and a kingdom that lasted forever. We started with 2 Samuel 7v11-16 and also looked at Jeremiah 23 v 5-6, Isaiah 9 v 6-7 and Luke 1 v 31-33. We had to explain what ancestors and descendants were but luckily with a father and son in the group we could explain that by thinking about their fathers and their sons.
These verses told us all about a king. A king from David’s family. A king who be right and just. A king whose kingdom would last forever. And who was this king? Jesus!
We looked at the Christmas story and saw how Jesus kept these promises. His great (x a lot) grandfather was king David. He was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. A star was used as a sign to show a new king was born. And wise men bought him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, gifts fit for a king.
So at Christmas we see God keeping His promise to David about a king from his line whose kingdom will last forever. And that king is Jesus.
29th Nov – David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11&12)
Theme – David sins and needs to be forgiven
Over the last few weeks we’ve seen how David has trusted God and obeyed Him. We’d seen how God had made David king, had protected and looked after David and had blessed David in many different ways. But David wasn’t perfect, he could mess things up just like the rest of us. And we saw in this story how David went wrong, went really, really wrong.
Before we looked at the story about David, Stavs showed us a favourite plate of hers. It was a very precious plate to her and she gave it to Steve to look after. However, when Steve was putting the plate away he dropped it and the plate smashed. Steve hid the plate and asked everyone to cover up what he did. Unfortunately Stavs found the plate and Steve’s attempt to cover things up just made things worse. [Disclaimer - plate wasn't actually Stav's favourite and she knew it was going to be broken. You can relax now.]
And that reminded us of the story of David and Bathsheba. The story started when David’s armies were off fighting but David was back in the city. When he was there he saw Bathsheba, thought she was very beautiful and invited her back to his palace. But Bathsheba had a husband and David shouldn’t have done that. He tried to cover up his mistake by arranging to have Bathsheba’s husband (Uriah) killed while he was fighting in a battle for David’s armies. Uriah was killed and David married Bathsheba and she went to live with him. Had David managed to get away with doing something wrong? Had he managed to cover up his mistake?
No he didn’t! David couldn’t hide what he’d done from God. God sent a prophet, Nathan, to see David and Nathan told David a story. Nathan told the story of a rich man who owned many cattle and a poor man who owned just one lamb. The lamb was a pet lamb to the poor man, almost like a child to him. A visitor came to see the rich man and the rich man wanted to give his visitor a meal. But rather than take one of his own sheep or cattle he went and killed the poor man’s lamb and served that up instead. David was furious when he heard and thought the rich man would have to pay for what he had done!
Then Nathan pointed out that David was like the rich man. God had given David his kingdom, his riches and his wives and yet he still went out and stole the wife of another man – Uriah. In fact he had had Uriah killed so he could steal his wife. David realised his mistake and realised he couldn’t hid his mistakes from God. He prayed to God, he said sorry and God forgave him. God still punished David for his sin but God was able to restore their friendship and David could carry on serving God.
And in small groups we thought about some of the mistakes we made, when we’d done things wrong. We can’t hide them from God or cover them up, instead we need to say sorry and ask God to forgive us.
22nd Nov – David brings the Ark back to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6)
Theme – David didn’t worry about what others thought only God
We met someone new today at Starchasers – Colin. He looked a bit like Tom but it wasn’t him. It really wasn’t. Someone completely different. And Colin wasn’t very good at making choices. For example Colin had a football match and a concert on the same day and couldn’t decide which one he should go to.
We helped Colin by getting him to think about which one was more important to him and that’s the one he should choose. That’s the one that should come first. And it wasn’t just the football vs. band problem he’d also double booked the next week as well. It was his friend’s party that he really wanted to go to but it was the same day as his mum’s birthday meal. What should he choose? It was tough but he thought his mum’s birthday was more important so he chose that, his mum came first. So Colin helped us to think about what is more important, what comes first for us. And that was the theme of today’s story.
Last week we learned that David had become king, just as God had promised. David was now king over the whole country of Israel and then he captured the city of Jerusalem with God’s help. David had made Jerusalem his new captial city so David was now king over the whole country ruling from Jerusalem. And David was going to bring the ark into Jerusalem. The ark was a holy object that was very important to the Israelites, where it was it showed that God was present there. By bringing the ark to Jerusalem David was showing the people God was there with them and David was showing that it was God who was the true king of Israel.
So David was bringing the ark into the city of Jerusalem and it was a big deal for David. As it was being brought in David danced and leapt about praising God. He took off his kingly robes as he was dancing. The people cheered and sounded trumpets as it came in. And when it arrived David blessed the people and gave out bread, dates and raisins to celebrate.
Then David went home to bless his house and his wife Michal was there. And she wasn’t happy. Oh no. She’d seen David dancing and jumping before God and she didn’t like it one little bit. She thought he hadn’t acted in a very kingly way taking his kingly robes off and dancing around like that. What would people think! And David replied – I did it for the Lord. David didn’t worry that people might think less of him, he was only worried about what God would think. That’s what really mattered to him.
So we carried on our theme of thinking about what’s more important to us, who is going to come first. We’d seen Colin had put his band first and his mum first. Then we looked at today’s story about David and saw two choices – between God and other people. Were they more worried about what God thought or what other people thought. Who was more important to them? Who was going to come first?
We asked who David put first in today’s story? God had come first for him, he wasn’t worried about other people thinking he was acting silly or not in a kingly way, he was just worried about what God thought and wanted to praise God. What about Michal, David’s wife? She put other people first, she was more worried about what other people thought than God. She was ashamed and embarrassed about how her husband had acted.
And then in small groups we asked about the times when we find it difficult to put God first, when it’s difficult to worry more about what God thinks than other people. It could be telling people what you believe or telling them about what you do on Sunday. Or it could be when people want you to do something but you know God wants you to do something else. Leaders and kids shared times when we found it difficult to put God first and to remember that God is more important. The times that came out in small groups were different for different people and they included - at school or work, playing with people who live near us or with our family if they didn’t believe in God. We closed in prayer for God to help us and be with us in those difficult situations over the next week.
8th Nov – David is made king (2 Samuel 2&5)
Theme – God always keeps his promises
We started off this session by thinking about promises. We got the kids to think about a promise someone had made to them. For example, someone promised to take them to the park, to get them something for their birthday or to help them with their homework. So we all knew what a promise was.
Then we looked at keeping promises. We looked at three people to see if we thought they kept their promises. First up was Homer Simpson and we looked at a promise he made to his daughter Lisa and a promise he made to his son Bart. We saw Homer didn’t keep his promise to Lisa but did keep his promise to Bart. How do we think Lisa felt? Sad, let down, embarrassed and disappointed were some of the answers the kids gave. How do we think Bart felt? Happy, glad, excited and relieved were some of the answers the kids gave. So we were starting to think what it felt like if someone kept a promise to us and if someone didn’t. Much better to keep a promise and not let someone down.
We then looked at a second person and a promise they gave – Steve! We brought out a nappy full of a suspicious brown substance. I promised the kids that the stuff in the nappy was ok to eat and that it would even taste a bit sweet. Most of the kids didn’t believe me and only two trusted me enough to actually try it! Now, like Homer, and probably like all of us, I sometimes keep my promises and I sometimes let people down. I definitely wasn’t saying I always keep my promises. But what we were showing was that if someone gives you a promise it can be difficult to trust them, sometimes it isn’t easy, sometimes it can be difficult to trust that promise.
So far we’d learnt that we feel better when people keep their promises to us and trusting people to keep their promises can sometimes be difficult. Now we looked at a third person and a promise they gave – God. We looked back to what we heard at the start of term about a promise God gave David. This was that David would be king one day. So we got the youngest kid out to be David as a young boy receiving the promise from God that he would be king. And David was shown to be the chosen one by having oil poured on his head. Then we picked out the oldest kid and they were to be David as a young man. Years had passed between David getting the promise but now Saul had died. Did David become king? Yes he did! God had kept his promise! First David was king over part of the country then finally over all the country. It had taken years, longer even than the gap between the youngest and oldest kid at Starchasers but God kept his promise. So we put David as king in a crown & robe, got him to wave, played some coronation music and got the rest of the kids to cheer. David was king! God kept His promise!
Now this was just one promise we looked at from God and the Bible is full of promises from God. And you know what, God has kept every single one of them. God always keeps His promises. God never lets us down. So we can trust God. But is it always easy to trust God to keep His promises? We looked at David again and what happened between him as a young boy and him becoming king? David had waited years to be king, he’d fought a giant Goliath and had to go into hiding as Saul was trying to kill him. It probably wasn’t easy for David to keep trusting God for that long and through all that but he did. It wasn’t easy but David kept trusting God.
And finally we looked at some promises that God has given us. Ones such as that when we pray God will hear us, that God offers us life and life to the full and that God will give us what we need. Can we trust God to keep those promises? – yes! But it sometimes isn’t easy to trust God. We thought about different situations when we might think it would be helpful to remember those promises. We then thought about what promise from God we really wanted to hear about right now. And as we stood by the key promise for us right now we closed in prayer.
25th Oct – David spares Saul (1 Samuel 19-26 esp. 24&26)
Theme – Loving your enemies / The Heart bucket
After David defeated Goliath he became an high ranking officer in Saul’s army and was very popular among the people. As David became more popular and more famous Saul (the king) grew more and more jealous of David. That jealousy lead to Saul wanting to kill David and David had to flee for his life.
God kept David safe and God gave David two different chances to kill Saul – once while he was, ahem, relieving himself in a cave (chp. 24) and once when Saul was asleep (chp. 26). Both times David spared Saul’s life even though Saul wanted to kill him.
We then introduced the idea of a “Heart Bucket”, a bucket to represent the heart. We looked in Saul’s “Heart Bucket” and in there was a yucky, green substance – jealously. That lead Saul to want to try and kill David and behave in a way that didn’t please God. We also looked in David’s “Heart Bucket” and in there we found TRUST – David was trusting in the Lord. He wasn’t rushing God’s plan and he didn’t want to get revenge on Saul for trying to kill him, instead he showed Saul love.
In the small groups we asked the kids what does God see when he looks into our hearts? Is he pleased or sad? What things please him,what makes him sad? What do we do if there is ‘yucky’ stuff in our hearts? What might that yucky stuff be? And we talked about how God can deal with those things in our heart:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God” Psalm 51 v10
“If we confess our sins he is able & just to forgive us.” 1 John 1 v9
11th Oct – David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
Theme – Trusting God when faced with danger
In this session we looked at what is probably the most famous story about David – when he takes on the giant Goliath.
We started off by comparing the two characters in the story – David the youngest of eight sons who was still too young to fight for his country and Goliath a 3 metre tall giant who had trained all his life as a warrior. We wanted to get across to the kids just how uneven a contest this was and how frightening Goliath was.
To tell the story we split the kids into Israelites (Hot team) and Philistines (Cool team). And they shouted at each other across the valley. And then Goliath came out. 3 metres tall, rippling with muscles and dressed in armour as heavy as a normal man. He came out daring the Israelites to challenge him and mocking them. He wanted one man to come out and fight him, the Philistine champion, and the winner would take all. He was a terrfying sight and the Israelites were frightened, even their king, Saul.
One day, as Goliath was bellowing, shouting and taunting David came to the Israelite camp to take food to his three oldest brothers. He heard Goliath’s chants and said he would take him on! David the young shepherd boy was taking on the mighty warrior! Although everyone else was scared David wasn’t. He’d beaten lions and bears when protecting his sheep and, most importantly of all, he knew God was with him. God would protect His people and the victory would glorify God. Goliath was scary, very scary, but David was prepared to trust God.
So what happened? When David came out to fight Goliath Goliath laughed at him. Goliath said he would beat David and feed him to the birds and wild animals. But things didn’t turn out as Goliath thought they would. David used his sling and hit Goliath in the head with a stone and Goliath fell to the ground. David took Goliath’s sword, killed him and cut off his head. Seeing Goliath was dead the Philistines turned and ran and the Israelites chased after them. Against all the odds God had given the Israelites the victory!
And in the small groups we looked at things God might ask us to do might frighten us? Do we trust God will be with us? We used the words of Psalm 27 v1 to close in prayer:
“The Lord is my light and the one who saves me. I fear no-one. The Lord protects my life. I am afraid of no-one.” – Psalm 27 v1
27th Sep – David is chosen as king (1 Samuel 16)
Theme – David was going to be king but he knew he had to trust & follow Go
We love the idea of stories that start with an ordinary person suddenly discovering that there’s something special about them and we see it time and time again in books, films and TV programmes. At Starchasers we looked at a clip from the first Harry Potter film when Harry gets a midnight visit from a strange man telling him there’s something special about Harry. He’s not an ordinary boy but a wizard. We got the kids to think about how they would have felt in Harry’s position about someone arriving to tell them they were someone special. Some kids said happy, some said excited and some said confused as they didn’t know whether they could trust this strange visitor or not.
Although the Harry Potter stories are great they are made up and aren’t true, people aren’t really wizards but that idea of finding out you’re special is interesting. We then looked at a true story from the Bible where somebody found out that God said they were special, that God had a special role for them.
The story involved a prophet (someone who had a word from God and took it to the people) called Samuel. God had sent him to a man called Jesse in Bethlehem and God was going to choose one of Jesse’s sons for a special role. Samuel went through all 7 of Jesse’s sons that were bought before him and God said no to all of them! But it turns out there was an eight son, the youngest one who was still out looking after the sheep. This son, David, was brought to Samuel and God told him YES! This is the one. God chose David to be the king of Israel. This ordinary boy from Bethlehem, the youngest of 8 sons was going to be the king! And to show that David was God’s chosen one Samuel poured some oil on his head.
We then asked the kids again how they would feel in David’s position if Samuel came to their house to tell them they were going to be king. Again we had happy and excited but we also had worried, worried because what would they know about being king, they just knew about looking after sheep.
In the small groups we told the kids that God had a plan for them, had something He wanted them to do. Now it might not be to be a great leader or a ruler but God does have a plan for them. And again we asked them how they felt about that. Again some said happy and excited and some also said scared, scared because what if God asked you to do something you didn’t want to do. (Great answer!)
We then ended by looking at a Psalm of David. We saw how David was looking after sheep then was told that he would be king. What was it about David that meant God chose him as king? Well to be honest we don’t really know. In fact there might not have been anything particularly special about David at all. What we do know is what God told Samuel when he was looking at Jesse’s sons:
“God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16v7
God knows everything about us, God knows us better than we know ourselves. And God knew He wanted David to do this job. And it’s interesting to see how David responded. He didn’t start lording it over his brothers or boasting about the fact that he would be in charge or tell people they’d have to start doing things his way. Instead he trusted and followed God. Although David would be king, David knew that God was really in charge.
And we saw this in one of the Psalms that David wrote – Psalm 23. From his time as shepherd he knew what a good shepherd did for his sheep, he cared for the sheep, looked after them, protected them and guided them. And the best thing for the sheep was to follow the shepherd. And David saw God as his shepherd, someone who knew best and someone who should be trusted, followed and obeyed. This is summed up in our memory verse for the week:
“The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need” – Psalm 23v1
13th September – Getting to know you (Psalm 139, Romans 5v6-8, Zephaniah 3v17)
Theme – God knows everything about us and He loves us
At the start of a new school year we get to met knew people and start to get to know them. We had some new people at Starchasers and had new teams so we were thinking of how well we know each other.
We started off by seeing how well we knew various TV, film and indeed other characters (including Captain Redbeard who a few people may have recognised from Bemerton Soul). With the Hot and Cool team going head-to-head to see how well they knew these characters we found out the answer was very well indeed!
We saw that we knew a lot about these characters and they looked at how well does God know us. We looked at Psalm 139 and Stavs acted out the chapter as we read it. We saw that God knows everything about us and He knows us no matter where we go or what we do. Or as one of the kids put it: How well does God know us? – Infinity and beyond.
So God knows us everything about us. The good things and the bad things. He knows the things we want Him to know and the things we may not want Him to know. Yet how does God feel about us knowing everything about us? We looked at Romans 5 where we see God loved us and loved us so much He sent his Son to die in our place and we looked at Zephaniah 3 where God will sing and be joyful if we are one of His people. In short – We are God’s treasure, just like we were looking at at Bemerton Soul.
In the small groups we did a few games to get to know each other a little better and find out what we did in the summer holidays. The kids then had a chance to respond to what they thought about God knowing everything about us and that God loves us so much.
Summer Term 2009: Life in the Spirit
Our series for the Summer term is “Life in the Spirit” in which we’ll be looking at what it’s like to live as a Christian and what hope Christians have for the future. The Holy Spirit helps us and strengthens us as in our Christian life and it is also the “firstfruits” of the glory that lies ahead.
12th July – Life as it should be (Revelation 21 – 22 v6)
Theme – One day everything will be just as it should be – A perfect world & God living with us
We ended our series on Life in the Spirit with a look forward to the hope that Christians have for the future. What are we looking forward to when Jesus returns?
We started with a short video featuring some Vox Pops of people from Church on the Corner saying what they think heaven will be like. And then we looked at Revelations 21v1-5 to see what life will be like when Jesus returns.
We saw that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All the bad things and things that make us unhappy and cause us pain will be gone. Everything will be made perfect. And, best of all, God will be living us. Things are what they should be. Us living in a perfect world, in a perfect relationship with God.
In small groups we gave the kids a picture of the earth from space and then asked them to write down some of the things that upset them in this world (e.g. sickness, bullying, falling out, pollution, death). We crossed these out as these won’t be present in the new earth and the new heaven. We then asked them to think of some things they love about this world (e.g. friendship, community, fun) and said they would be present in the new earth and new heaven. Finally we wrote God across the earth to show that He would be living with us in this perfect world.
What a hope, what a prize! As the end of Revelations says: “Jesus is the One who says that these things are true. Now He says ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”
28th June – Press on towards the goal (Philippians 3v12-21)
Theme – We need to keep going in life in the Spirit
Our session this week had a gardening flavour to it. Mary shared with us her joy as a new allotment holder and she talked us through the process of growing courgettes.
A courgette plant started life as a small seed but as as you watered it and it got warmed by the sun the seed grew into a shoot and then a small plant. As it continued to grow you had to watch out for problems like snails and weeds as they could stop the plant growing. It took a while for the plant to grow but Mary kept going as she thought of the prize that lay at the end of it, some delicious courgettes that she had grown herself.
And to cap it all off Mary bought along a fully grown courgette plant that she had dug up that morning. It was massive! and you could see 3 or 4 courgettes growing on this one plant. Well worth all the effort!
Mary said that living as a Christian was a bit like growing plants. Our faith can start off as a small seed but it can grow. As we learn more about God and get encouraged by other Christians our faith grows. However, on the way are difficulties, things that can put us off and stop us growing or even cause us to lose our faith. At these times it’s important to think about what the prize is at the end of it, what we as Christians are striving for – A perfect life with God with a new heaven and a new earth (more next session!). By keeping our eyes on that prize, the promise that Jesus will return, we will continue to grow to be the people that God wants us to be.
In our small groups we talked more about some of the difficulties we might face as Christians and what we can do to help us at those difficult times. We thought of things like finding out more about God from the Bible, talking to God and listening to God through prayer, going to church to worship and praise God and being encouraged by Christian friends and families around us. Keep growing, keep changing and keep our eyes on what lies ahead!
14th June – Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12)
Theme – We all have different gifts but need to work together as part of one body
This week we were thinking of gifts and in particular gifts of the Spirit, another way the Holy Spirit helps us prepare for Jesus’ return.
We started off inviting the leaders up the front to the hot-set. They had to tell us the best present they had ever received and why it was so good. Then they had to tell us about a gift of the Spirit they had been given or someone else they knew had been given. They told us why the gift of the spirit was so good and how could it could be used to help others.
We then got two of the kids to read 1 Corinthians 12 v4-11. We had a memory test to see how many of the gifts in the passage the kids could remember. And then we looked again at what we were supposed to do with the gifts – to support, serve and encourage each other.
In the second part of the session. We looked at the human body – we drew a picture of a stick-man and a stick-woman in our two teams, Hot and Cool. We then asked the teams to think of different things that the different parts of the body are good at – e.g. head for thinking, feet for walking, hands for holding, mouth for talking & eating etc.
The idea was to show that although the parts of the body are different to each other each body part has something useful to do. And the body needs all these different parts to work properly.
And so with us and the Gifts of the Spirit. We are all different but we all have something useful to do. The body, the church, needs all these different people to work properly.
24th May – Our Helper (Romans 8 )
Theme – The Holy Spirit helps us pray
This week we were looking at how the Holy Spirit helps us and in particular how it helps us pray.
Our two new friends, Boris and Lucy, were back again and this time we see Boris struggling with a pair of headphones he’s just bought. He’d love to listen to his music on them but he can’t get them on his head as his arms are too weak (well he is just a puppet). But with Lucy’s help he managed to get them on. She helped him with something he was finding difficult.
That lead into talking about the Holy Spirit. There are some bits of living as God wants us to live that we find difficult but God doesn’t leave us to fend for ourselves. He has given us the Holy Spirit to help us. And one of the ways is to help us to pray. Sometimes we aren’t sure what to pray for or how we ought to pray for something but the Spirit helps us. The Spirit does this with groans that can’t be put into words.
What does that look like? Well we aren’t exactly sure but we listened to some pieces of music with no words (Morning, Jupiter & Star Wars Imperial March) and asked – how did they make us feel? – what were they trying to say? And we can see how things could be expressed without using words.
And to finish we put this into practise by praying in our small groups.
10th May – Pentecost: The Holy Spirit Comes (Acts 2, Romans 8v9-25)
Theme – God kept His promise about the Holy Spirit and we can trust that Jesus will return
We met two new friends at Starchasers this week, Boris and Lucy. Boris was an orang-utan, which is like a gorilla but hairer and orange-er, and Lucy was a girl, which is like a boy but less hairy and less orange.
Boris loved bananas and Lucy loved chocolate and both promised to go to the shop for me (located under the table conveniently) and get me a banana and a chocolate bar respectively. When they returned Boris had eaten the banana on the way home so didn’t keep his promise to me but Lucy had kept her promise and bought me a chocolate bar. We asked the kids who they would trust more to go to the shop the next day to get a banana / chocolate bar. I said I’d trust Lucy more next time as she kept the first promise so was someone I’d trust to keep their promise next time.
We then looked at the story of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and when God kept the first of the two promises we looked at last week. We re-enacted the story and heard a noise like a strong wind, saw flames of fire that split up and stood over us and then we could speak different languages. The Holy Spirit gave the disciples the power to speak different languages and this meant lots of people from different countries, who were in Jerusalem at the time, could understand them and hear them talking about Jesus.
Peter stood up and told the crowd about this very special person, Jesus. He told them about the wonders and miracles Jesus did. He told them that Jesus died and rose from the dead. And he told the crowd that they needed to say sorry to God and follow & obey Him. That day over 3,000 people decided to follow God and were baptised. What a way for God to keep the first promise!
In the final section we then looked at the two promises from last week again. If God kept the first promise could we trust Him to keep the second promise – that Jesus would return? Yes! In fact God has kept all His promises, every single one, so we can definitely trust Him.
And the Holy Spirit is more than just God keeping His promise, it’s a guarantee that Jesus will return, that we will share in this future glory with God. The Holy Spirit isn’t just something the disciples received, it’s something that every Christian receives. If you’re a Christian the Bible says you will have the Holy spirit. So every Christian has the Holy Spirit, every Christian has that guarantee that Jesus will return.
26th April – Ascension: Two promises (Acts 1v1-11)
Theme – God promised the Holy Spirit & that Jesus would return
This week at Starchasers we were thinking about things that we look forward to. We thought about some things we’re looking forward to – holidays, birthdays, football match, getting a new kitchen. We thought about how it made us feel (excited, nervous, happy, pleased, can’t wait) and we thought about how we would have to prepare for these things (e.g. pack, send out invites, train, clean room). When we look forward to something we feel excited about it and we have to prepare for it.
We then looked at what happened to Jesus after Easter. What did Jesus do when He came back from the dead? We learnt about Him appearing to over 500 people after His death. And we learnt about a promise that Jesus gave His disciples, His closest friends:
Promise 1: In a few days you will be baptised by the Holy Spirit
And one day when Jesus and His friends were together He told them again the Holy spirit was coming. He also told them to tell people all about what they had seen and to tell people all about Jesus. To tell people all over the city, Jerusalem. To tell people all over the country, Judea. To tell people all over the world.
When Jesus finished speaking He rose up into the sky, up into heaven and a large cloud hid Jesus from their sight. The disciples stood staring at the sky and we stood staring up through the skylight at this point in the story.
While we were doing this two men dressed in white appeared on the video screen. They told us that this same Jesus we’d seen go up into heaven would come back the same way we saw Him go. And this was the second promise we learnt about:
Promise 2: Jesus will return.
So the disciples had two promises to look forward to and we discussed how they would have felt and what they would have done to prepare for these two things. And we are still waiting for Jesus to return and we are still looking forward to Him coming back.
The leaders shared how they felt about Jesus returning (excited, nervous, happy) and some of the things we should do to prepare for Jesus coming back (tell others about Jesus, obey Jesus and live how He wants us to, Enjoy God).
For the rest of this term we’re going to be looking at this further. We’re going to see how the Holy Spirit helps prepare us for Jesus coming back. We’re also going to see how the Holy Spirit is a guarantee that Jesus is coming back.
Spring Term 2009: Who do you say I am? – Mark
Right at the start of his gospel Mark makes some pretty big claims about Jesus, about who He is and why He has come to earth. (”This is the beginning of the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God”). This term, as we work through the book of Mark, we’re going to find out more about Jesus and see if He is who He’s claimed to be.
We’ll be looking at various events in Jesus’ ministry that Mark writes about and see what that says about the type of person Jesus is and why He came to earth. His miracles, His teaching and how He deals with people.
And we’ll also encourage the kids to think who do they think Jesus is. This will be captured in our memory verse:
Then Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
Mark 8v29
To view the archive of what we looked at in previous terms click here.
Session 6: 29th Mar – Easter (Mark 14-16)
Theme – Jesus died to save us. Jesus had the power to rise from the dead.
We’ve reached the end of Mark’s gospel and come to the most remarkable thing that Jesus did. We looked at what Jesus had to do to save us.
But what was Jesus saving us from? What was our problem? We all sat at one end of the hall and at the other end were some bright lights to represent God. And inbetween us and God were several black sheets that cut us off from God. These sheets were our sin (just in case they missed the point we wrote SIN on them in 4 feet high letters!) and this sin cuts us off from God. And we could do nothing about it. Only Jesus could save us.
But what needed to be done? We asked the kids about what happens if they do something wrong at school or at home. There’s a punishment, like detention, lines etc., because you did something wrong. And there has to be a punishment for our sin. An awful, horrible punishment which shows just how serious a problem our sin was.
We looked at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on The Miracle Maker DVD and saw He knew what was going to happen and was asking God if there was another way. Yet despite this Jesus still prayed for God’s will to happen and Jesus was still prepared to go through with it for us. And so Jesus was arrested and we saw on the DVD what Jesus went through, including being put to death on the cross. This was what Jesus was prepared to do for us.
And because He took the blame for our sin this barrier between us and God was removed and we could be in God’s presence and know God. We took down the big SIN barrier and bought the kids round the lights to show we could come to God now because of what Jesus did. Jesus was prepared to die to save us. To bring us back to God.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. What happened on the Sunday was even more remarkable. Jesus rose from the dead, He came back to life. We looked a little at the story on Easter Sunday and the people who saw Jesus after He died. Jesus had the power to rise from the dead.
Knowing what we’ve learnt this term and knowing what we learnt that morning we asked the kids in the small groups – Who do they think Jesus was? We asked which of the following best described what they thought:
- He is Christ, Son of God
- Not sure, want to find out more
- He isn’t the Christ, Son of God
The key question we’ve been asking all term is “Who do you say I am?”
Session 5: 8th Mar – The Greatest Commandment (Mark 12v13-17,28-34)
Theme – The power of Jesus’ teaching
This session we looked at Jesus’ teaching to see that He spoke with wisdom, power and authority. Obviously we couldn’t cover all of Jesus teaching in one session but we looked at Mark 12 as an example.
We started off by giving the two teams a list of famous names and then getting them to rank them in terms of who they thought was the most powerful and why. For both groups Barack Obama came out top because he was in charge of the most powerful country, he had done something that no other person had done in becoming the first black president of the USA and he had given hope to a lot of people. We then asked where Jesus would go on the list and thankfully both teams put Him at the top!
We then looked at the idea that one of the places we see Jesus power is in His teaching and in His dealing with people. We read Mark 12v13-17 and saw how Jesus was able to handle people trying to trick Him and catch Him out. The result was that those listening were amazed by how Jesus answered the question.
Then we looked at how Jesus answered the question of what was the greatest commandment in Mark 12v28-34. Jesus says the two most important ones are love God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength and love your neighbour as yourself. Through all Jesus teaching the greatest lesson He teaches us is about love – both in what He said and what He did.
We spent the rest of the session going through these commandments and learning them. First through some actions the kids devised and then making a bookmark to remind us of Jesus’ words. If we want the kids to remember one thing about Jesus’ teaching it’s these two commandments.
Session 4: 22nd Feb – Blessing the children & The rich man (Mark 10v13-31)
Theme – How Jesus deals with different people
It’s not just in the power of Jesus’ miracles that we see what type of person He is but also in how He deals with people. Mark 10 gives the story of two different groups of people and how Jesus dealt with them both.
First there were a group of children who the disciples tried to stop from seeing Jesus. Surely He would be too busy to see them and wouldn’t have time for kids? Jesus wasn’t happy that the disciples were turning them away and insisted they come to Him. He then took the children in His arms and blessed them.
Next came a rich, young ruler who wanted to know how to get eternal life. Jesus took the time to talk to him and explain to him. But he also didn’t shy away from telling him the truth about what he needed to do – sell everything he had and give it to the poor. Although the truth was difficult and it meant the man went away disappointed Jesus was prepared to tell him what he needed to here.
We went through the story as a mime, with different actions for key words in the story. From obvious words like being cross (angry face, stamp foot) to the less obvious like shoo away (touch your shoe). We went through it a few times to give the kids a chance to do the actions and to get them familiar with the story. The mime also gave us a chance to see the reactions of different people – Jesus cross, disciples shocked, rich man sad and so on.
The key point of the morning was that Jesus made time for everyone, not just the rich and powerful but the young, the weak and the poor as well. Jesus had real love for all of them and real love for all of us as well.
Session 3: 8th Feb – Feeding the 5,000 (Mark 6v30-44)
Theme – The power and compassion of Jesus
Last time we saw the power of Jesus and we see that again in this passage with another miracle, but this time we also see the compassion of Jesus.
We started with a short video of celebrity chef Martynella and her adoring fans who had come to see her. But, alas, Martynella didn’t have time to see them so sent them away disappointed.
How different was Jesus’ response in a similar situation. Despite being tired (and hungry!) Jesus took time to teach the crowd who came to see Him because He felt compassion for them.
Again we told the story with the kids lying or sitting on mats, duvets and pillows and to imagine themselves in the story. (We did this so last session didn’t seem like a one-off but rather one of the ways we can do things). We told them about the large crowds coming to see Jesus. How He felt sorry for them and taught them. Then we told them about the need to feed the large crowd. So Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fishes a young boy had, thanked God for them and then broke them up to give out to the crowd. Everyone had enough to eat despite there being more than 5,000 people present! And there was plenty left over as well!
Who is this Jesus? A man with the power to feed 5,000 people with just one young boy’s lunch and also someone who showed compassion and love to this great crowd as well.
Session 2: 25th Jan – Jesus heals a paralysed man (Mark 2v1-12)
Theme – The power of Jesus – to forgive sins and heal
For this session we tried something a little different. Before the story we laid out some mats on the floor, gave the kids some blankets and duvets and got them to lie or sit comfortably while we told the story.
We then told the story – Jesus was in a house and so many people had come to see Him the house was completely full. Some men had bought their friend, a paralysed man, to see Jesus but they couldn’t get into the house. Instead they made a hole in the roof and lowered their friend through the hole to see Jesus.
Jesus turned to the paralysed man and told him his sins were forgiven. And to prove that He could forgive sins He also told the paralysed man to get up, pick up his mat and walk. And he did! The crowd were amazed and said they had never seen anything like this before.
As we told the story we asked the kids to imagine themselves in the story. What it was like? Who was there? What happened? At the end of the story we asked them to listen to see if Jesus had something to say to them. We wanted to allow space for God to talk to the children and to allow them space to tune in to what he is trying to reveal.
Then in the small groups we invited the kids to tell us where they imagined they were in the story and what they thought was happening. We also asked them what they thought this story said about Jesus and if Jesus had a message for them.
Session 1: 11th Jan – Who do you say I am? (Mark 1v1-13)
Theme – Jesus is the Christ, God’s chosen one come to save us
We started off the session by making some claims about the leaders. We said that Stavs could speak fluent Greek, Mary was a superb cook and Peter could do parkour (sort of like free running). We then asked the kids what they’d like to know or find out to be convinced that these claims were true. They said things like – get them to speak greek, try some of their cooking, get them to show you some, get them to translate some greek words from a dictionary & ask someone who’s tried their cooking. [I'll leave you to guess which things they said about which claim, hopefully it's fairly obvious.]
Then when we looked at Mark’s gospel we saw some big claims that Mark made about Jesus right at the start in verse 1. Mark claims that Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ. We explored what “the Christ” (or sometimes “the Messiah”) meant and summarised it as God’s chosen one come to save us. These are big claims, huge claims, that Mark is making and what would we want to know or find out to be convinced about them. As we go through Mark’s gosepl this term we’ll be looking and what Mark tells us about Jesus us to convince us of these claims.
And we started with how John the Baptist became convinced that Jesus was the Christ. This happened when Jesus was baptised by John and God himself said that Jesus was His beloved Son. A pretty good confirmation if you ask me!
That convinced John the Baptist that Jesus was the Christ but in the small groups we asked them who they thought Jesus was. Did they think He was God’s chosen one come to save us? What more would they like to know and find out to be convinced that Jesus was the Christ? This is something we’ll be looking at in every session as we discover more about Jesus in Mark’s gospel.
Autumn 2008: TRUST – Joshua & Judges
This term we’re following on from the story of Moses last year to look at Joshua and Judges. The key point of the whole term is that we can trust God and trust the promises He has made. And at the centre of everything we’re going to be teaching is Joshua’s challenge to the people of Israel at the end of the book in Joshua 24 from where our memory verse is taken.
“You must choose for yourselves today. You must decide whom you will serve…As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24v15
Session 8: 14th Dec – Samson (Judges 13-16, esp. 16)
Theme – Trust God and keep on trusting God.
In our themesetter we looked at a clip from the Simpsons where Lisa was conducting a test on her brother. She wired a cupcake up to an electric battery and each time Bart touched it he got a shock. And Bart kept on trying to get the cupcake despite getting a shock each time.
Then we had a real life example with Shan being offered the choice between orange juice and lime juice. Despite the fact the lime juice tasted very bitter and unpleasant he kept on choosing the lime juice and not the orange juice. We all thought that Bart and Shan we’re being stupid as they kept making the same mistakes over and over again.
And when you read through Joshua and Judges you can feel the same about God’s people. They keep making the same mistakes. They keep turning away from God, despite all that He’s done for them.
In this session we learnt about our final judge of the term, Samson. The Israelites were being ruled by the Philistines and God used Samson to help defeat the Philistines, although in a most unusal way. We learnt that Samson had been set apart for God from birth and had to keep some special rules, one of which was to never cut his hair. And God gave Samson amazing strength and Samson had used this to beat the Philistines on several occasions.
But Samson’s weakness was women, and one woman in particular – Delilah. She had been paid by the Philistines to learn the secret of Samson’s strength so they could capture them. So she kept pleading with Samson to tell her the secret of his strength. Through the use of many bad wigs and other props we learnt that the secret of his strength wasn’t 7 new bow strings, new ropes or weaving his hair into a loom.
The fourth time though Samson told Delilah if she cut his hair off he’d be as weak as any other man. So Delilah cut his hair off and at that point God left Samson. He was captured, thrown in prison and the Philistines blinded him.
But that wasn’t the end. The Philistines threw a party to celebrate capturing Samson and he was bought out so they could laugh and jeer at him. But in prison his hair had started to grow back. And when Samson prayed to God his strength returned and he was able to push over the two pillars he was placed between. That brought down the whole building and, although Samson died when the building feel down, he was able to defeat all the Philistines present. God had used Samson to help His people, even if it was in a very unusual way.
Yet what happened after Samson died? The people turned away from God and did there own thing. WHAT?!!?? Even after all that He had done for them? Why did they keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
Then we thought, hang on, do we keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Do we trust God for a little bit and then turn away from Him? We’d be learning all term about Trust and how God was someone we could trust. He keeps His promises, He has the power to do what He says He will and He knows what’s best for us. So what should our response be? We need to trust God and keep on trusting God. Not just for a little while or until it gets difficult but to trust God and keep on trusting God.
So TRUST GOD AND KEEP ON TRUSTING GOD!
Session 7: 30th Nov – Gideon (Judges 6 – 8 )
Theme – Trust God even when we are frightened of what He wants us to do
There’s a bit of a pattern emerging. After Deborah last week the Israelites once again turned away from God, then the Midianites (and others) invaded and made the Israelites suffer. The Israelites then cry out to God for help. Once again God hears their cry and rescues them.
This time God calls Gideon to rescue His people but Gideon is a bit unsure and needs some persuading. He needs three signs from God before he agrees to lead the Israelites – the first was when God burned up a food offering, the second was when a fleece was wet but the ground was dry and the third was when a fleece was dry but the ground was wet. Finally, after all that, Gideon agreeed to lead the people.
And God made sure that the people knew that it was Him who had given them the victory. From the initial 32,000 men who turned up to fight God selected only 300 to fight the Midianites. And with those 300 God used trumpets, torches and glass jars (well balloons in our case) to defeat the Midianites.
In our small groups we thought about things that scared us or frightened us and when we find it difficult to trust God. We prayed for the situations over the next couple of weeks when we wanted reassurance.
Session 6: 23rd Nov – Deborah (Judges 4-5)
Theme – Even when they turned away from God, God still kept His promise to His people and rescued them
Oh dear. Things have taken a turn for the worse, after Joshua dies the people turn away from God. As God had promised (Joshua 24v19-20, Judges 2v14-15) when they turned away from Him He would not be on their side and so we see a king defeat and oppress the Israelites.
But even though the Israelites turned away from God, God still kept His promise to the Israelites and remembers His people when they cry out to Him. We learned how God used Deborah and Barak to defeat the army of the king who was oppressing the Israelites and how God rescued His people.
God keeps His promise that even when we mess up and turn away from Him, He will rescue us if we turn back to Him. In small groups we looked at some promises God gives us in the bible, we had some children’s books to look at along this theme.The children made a small hanging with their favourite promise on.
Numbers 23 v19 – ‘God is not like men who lie,He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever He promises he does,He speaks and it is done.’
Session 5: 9th Nov – Israelites take the rest of the land (Joshua 10-12,24)
Theme – Joshua & the Israelites trusted God and He kept His promise
For this session we went right back to the start of term – to look at the promise that God had given to Abraham then to Moses and finally to Joshua. The promise that God would give the Israelites the land. The people under Moses hadn’t trusted God and were frightened off when the spies bought back their report. But would Joshua and the people trust God and His promise? We found out last week they’d taken the city of Jericho but what about the rest of the land?
We picked up the story just after the Israelites took Jericho. The land was controlled by lots of kings and after Jericho God told the Israelites to go and fight the king of Ai. They did and they captured his city and we turned that part of the land red to show the Israelites were in control. After Ai, 5 kings came out to fight the Israelites but because God was on their side the Israelites won – again that area turned red. Then they went to the south of the country and God gave them the cities there and finally to the north of the country and God gave them the cities there. In all God helped Joshua and the Israelites defeat 31 kings and most of the hall was now turned red. They were (say them quickly…):
Jericho, Ai, Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon, Gezer, Debir, Geder, Hormah, Arad, Libna, Adullam, Makkedah, Bethel, Tappuah, Hepher, Aphe, Lasharon, Madon, Hazor, Shimro, Meron, Acshaph, Taanach, Megiddo, Kedesh, Jokneam, Dor, Goyim, Tirzah.
So God had kept His promise to give them the land. He had helped them beat all these armies, given them good farmland they hadn’t planted and given them cities with strong walls they hadn’t built. There were still parts of the land left to capture (more on that in later sessions…) but Joshua was very old now and God told him to divide up the land between the different groups, or tribes, of Israel. God had promised He would give them the land and He did.
And right at the end of the book of Joshua we find Joshua speaking to the Israelites and reminding them of what God had done for them. And Joshua issued this challenge to the people:
“You must choose for yourselves today. You must decide whom you will serve. As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24v15
Think about what God has done and decide are you going to serve and trust Him.
And we issued the same challenge to the kids. You’ve seen what God did for Joshua and the Israelites and are you going to serve and trust Him. In the small groups and we replaced “you” in the verse with our name (and yourselves with “himself/herself”) and went through the verse to see what we would decide to do.
We looked at what it might mean to trust and serve God. To stand up for God in a difficult situation. To put God first even if that means giving up something we’d really like. To use our gifts to serve God. These were just some of the ways we can trust and serve God. And we’ll keep on looking at how we can trust and serve God during the rest of the term.
Session 4: 26th October – Fall of Jericho (Joshua 5v13 – 6v27)
Theme – Joshua & the Israelites trusted God and He kept His promise
Once again we were thinking about the theme of “Trust” and how God was someone the Israelites could and should trust. The Israelites have now entered the land God promised them and the time has come to take their first big city – Jericho.
In our teams we thought about different ways you could capture a city and what sort of equipment you might need. Inspired by what we’d seen on TV & on film we came up with great battle plans to take Jericho. We were going to use flaming arrows, battering rams, ladders, grappling hooks, siege towers and even dead animals, which we would fling over the wall. We thought we’d got some good ideas about how the Israelites could take Jericho.
But then we ripped up our battle plans. What??!!?? Why??? Because the Israelites weren’t going to do it their way, they were going to do it God’s way. And that involved walking around the walls with trumpets and the Ark of the Covenant. That sounded crazy but the Israelites did it because they trusted God. And if it worked then they knew it was because God had given them the city and not because of their own might and strength.
So we marched round our hastily-constructed city of Jericho for six days with trumpets, the Ark and the Israelite army. Then on the seventh day we blew the trumpets, shouted and the walls fell down just as God said it would! The Israelites captured the city and while doing so they rescued Rahab and her family so the Israelites kept their promise to her (see Session 2) .
And in our small groups we thought more about trusting God. It can be a difficult concept to understand so we’ve recapped it several times this term. We looked at: Why can we trust God? When is it difficult to trust God? What does it actually mean to trust God? Should it change what we actually do? And even if it seems difficult or strange to trust God we should because His way is the best way.
Session 3: 10th Oct – Crossing the Jordan (Joshua 3v1 – 5v12)
Theme – When God does great things in our lives we need to remember them
The time has now come to cross the Jordan and God did it in spectacular style. God told Joshua what to do and he followed God’s instructions. The Israelites were able to cross the Jordan on dry land because God stopped the river and when they arrived in the promised land the people dedicated themselves to God once more.
During the crossing God commanded the people to take 12 stones from the river to help them remember what God had done. This meant in future generations people would ask and be told what God had done while crossing the Jordan. And that reminder was certainly needed.
We had great fun acting out the story with props for the Jordan, the Ark of the Covenant and the 12 stones. In the midst of the fun we also remembered God’s power, what He was able to do and that He was someone the Israelites could trust.
And maybe we need to remember what God has done for us in the past so the present or the bad times don’t get on top of us.
Session 2: 28th Sep – I spy part 2 (Joshua 1 & 2)
Theme – Rahab trusted God and knew He would give the Israelites the land
We’ve fast forwarded 40 years and Moses has died and Joshua has become leader of the Israelites. God reminds Joshua of His promise to give the Israelites the land and that He will be with them. Joshua sends two spies to spy out the land but they have to be hidden by Rahab to keep them safe. Rahab, who wasn’t an Israelite, had heard about God and what things He had done. She knew that God would be able to keep His promise and give the Israelites the promised land.
We read through the story as a group and then as we recapped the key events we invited the kids to come up one by one and sit in the hot seat. We asked the person in the hot seat how they think they would have felt as different people in the story. As Joshua getting the promise again from God, as the spies sent into the land, as Rahab hiding the spies and as the King of Jericho when he heard about the spies.
We focused especially on Rahab and how it was a very brave and difficult thing for her to do to hide the spies and why she did it. She did it because she trusted God and knew He would give the Israelites the land.
This lead on to us thinking about us trusting God. If God is someone who can be trusted then we need to choose to follow and serve Him. And we need to do that when things are going well and when things might be difficult or frightening.
This was summed up in the first part of our memory verse for the term:
‘You must choose for yourselves today. You must decide whom you will serve.’ – Joshua 24 v15
Session 1: 14th Sep – I spy part 1 (Numbers 13 & 14)
Theme – We should trust God and His promises no matter what we face
The first session followed on from where we left the Israelites last year. After they had escaped from Egypt God promised to give them the land of Canaan for their home. This was the land He had promised Abraham (e.g. Gen 15 v17-19) and God had reaffirmed the promise to Moses (e.g. Exodus 6 v1-8). The time had now come for them to enter this land God had promised them so Moses chose 12 people to spy out the land and bring a report back.
So we went spying. Hiding behind an inconspicuous white sheet we peeked through the holes to see what this land was like. We found lots of grapes, figs, pomegranates and good farm land. But we also found strong armies, walled cities and giants!
So when the spies came back they were scared. They were scared of the strong armies and the fortified cities and didn’t think they could take the land, even though God said they would. Only Joshua and Caleb trusted God when He said they would take possession of it. The people grumbled and rebelled against God. And God made them wander around the desert for 40 years so none of those adults would enter the promised land.
Is God someone that could be trusted? We looked at some things that make a person trustworthy:
Loves us – care for us so only want the best for us
Have kept their word before – If they’ve kept their promises before we would trust them again
Has the power to do what they said they’d do – Need to be able to back up their promises
And we saw how God had shown the Israelites that He loved them, that He kept His word and He had shown His power in rescuing them from Egypt. We’ll be returning to this theme all term but God is someone who we can totally and utterly trust.
Let’s not underestimate how difficult the task must have seemed to the Israelites. It looked like it would be really, really tough to take this land. This was a real challenge to them to trust God, but sadly they didn’t. Throughout this term we’ll be learning more about God and the more we learn the more we’ll see God is someone we can trust.
Summer 2008
This term at Starchasers the theme is “Life to the MAX”, based on John 10v10 where Jesus said that He has come to give us life and life to the full. Sometimes we forget that Jesus promises us “Life to the MAX” so we’re going to be looking at why God’s way is the best way to live.
Our memory verse for the term is:
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” – John 10v10
Session 7 – 14th July – Look to the future now (Romans 8, Revelation 21v1-5)
Theme – Things may be difficult now but we will share in God’s future glory. One day everything will be just as it should be – Us living in a perfect world and God living with us
Throughout this term we’ve been learning how life with God is Life to the MAX. It’s the best way for us, the church, everyone and the world. But if it is Life to the MAX then why are things still difficult, why do bad things still happen to us?
We started by talking about some of the things we enjoy making or creating. Paintings, clay models and pots, writing etc. And one of the things I love doing is taking photos. And particularly that moment when you download them onto your computer and see which ones are good and which ones are bad. And I showed one of my favourite photos, one I took in Barcelona:
Then someone took this photo and scratched it with scissors and drew on it with pen. How would we feel if someone did this to something we made? We can still see the good things in the photo, the colours, the shapes, the story etc. but it has been spoilt by the scratches and the pen.
And this is like our world – it has been spoilt by our sin. We can still see the good things in it but also in there are bad things like pain, sickness, hunger, death, pollution etc. because of our sin. And this means that even life with God will have difficulties and bad things will happen because of this sin.
But this isn’t the end of the story. Because what can we do about the photo, how can we make it right? We can print off a new copy, where everything is just as it should be, like it was meant to be.
And in Revelations 21v1-5 we see what God promises for the world. One day he will make everything new, a new heaven and a new earth. And on this new earth the sin is gone and everything is as it should be, like it was meant to be. All of the bad things will be gone (pain, sickness, death etc.) and we can enjoy all the good things. We can live like we were meant to live on a world like it was meant to be. And at the heart of it all is God who will be living with us.
So when Jesus offers us Life to the MAX it may be difficult now but we can look forward to a glorious future. When everything will be made new and made as it should be. Us living in a perfect world and God living with us.
Session 6 – 29th June – Care for the world (Genesis 1-3, Romans 8v18-27)
Theme – God’s life is the best for the whole planet. God created it and wants us to take care of it
In this last session we looked at how life with God was the best for everyone as we should be looking out for those in need. This session we were looking at how it is best for the planet itself.
At the start of the session we met Mr. I-don’t-care-about-you. Not a very nice person, he only loved himself and, as his name suggested, he didn’t care about other people. This meant he was a very selfish person who didn’t really care about how he treated other people or other things. He’d chuck down litter as he didn’t care about what other people thought of it, drive everywhere as he didn’t care about what the pollution would do to other people and basically did everything only thinking about himself. An extreme example but it showed how bad it is when we only care about ourselves.
But that’s not how God intended things to be. When he made the world He put us in charge of it, He made us responsible for it and wanted us to look after it (Genesis 3 v16-19). If we only care about ourselves it wouldn’t be a very nice place to live but if we look out for each other that will involve taking care of the place where we live.
In small groups we then looked at different ways we can help take care of this planet that God has made us responsible for. This involved things like cycling or walking to school (if possible!), recycling, turning off unnecessary lights, heaters etc. and some other great suggestions from the kids.
So life with God is Life to the MAX for all of us because if we take care of the planet as God wants us to it makes it a better place for all of us to live.
Session 5 – 22nd June – Everyone matters to God (Luke 10 v22-37 Matthew 25 v31-45)
Theme – God’s life is best for the whole world as He cares about everyone
In this last session we started to think about God’s way not just being about us as individuals but as a group of people. God’s way was best for the church, a group of believers, because we are asked to help and support each other. And God’s way isn’t just best for Christians it’s best for everyone as everyone matters to God. God cares for all of us and wants his people to look out for those who need our help.
We looked at an updated version of the Good Samaritan to see what it means to look out for other people, to help those who need it. It’s not just our friends we should look out for but everyone who needs our help.
Then we played a (very difficult!) game of hangman based on Matthew 25 to look at some of the ways we could help other people. If someone is hungry give them food, if someone is thirsty give them a drink, if someone is sick look after them and so on. And in the small groups we looked at groups of people who might need our help. In the oldest group, Starlets, we prayed for some of those groups of people – those who are hungry helped by Breakfast Stop at All Saints, those who don’t have a job helped by Prospex and those who are homeless helped by The Simon Community.
So life with God is Life to the MAX for all people as God cares for everyone and wants his people to look out for those who need our help.
Session 4 – 8th June – The Church (1 Cor. 12&13, Acts 2&4, Heb 3&10, 1 John 4)
Theme – We have other Christians to help, encourage & support each other
In this last session we learnt that we are not facing this life alone but rather that God has given us the Holy Spirit. In this session we learnt that we also have other Christians to help & encourage us.
We started off by looking at what the Church is. It’s not a building we go to or some particular place but rather it’s the other Christians we know. And the Bible tells us that we as Christians are to help & encourage each other, or as we put it – Big Up Each Other. And God has given each of us different gifts and different things we are good at. He wants us to use those different gifts to help and encourage each other – to Big Up Each Other.
So how can we Big Up Each Other? Some of the things we can do are to look out for each other, to be kind to each other, to forgive each other, to listen to each other, to pray for each other and to accept and welcome each other. In the small groups we thought about some of the ways we could Big Up other people in Church. We asked what we were good at and what we enjoy doing and how we could use that to Big Up Each Other. For the Starlets we even set them a specific challenge of something they have to do over the next two weeks to Big Up others.
So life with God is Life to the Max because we have other Christians to help and encourage us. And we also need to help & encourage others as well.
Session 3 – 25th May – The Holy Spirit is with us (John14, Acts 2, Romans 8 )
Theme – The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to help us and equip us
In this session we learnt that the Holy Spirit was a gift from God to help us and equip us for the life He wants us to lead.
We looked at someone about to set off on an expedition but just before they went they received a present from someone. The person gave them that present because they cared about them and also to help them with the expedition. The gift was a Swiss Army knife and we saw the many different things it could do and the many different ways it could help for the journey ahead.
And this life with God is like an expedition or journey and the Holy Spirit is a gift from God to help on the way. God gives us this gift because He cares about us and wants to help us. And the Holy Spirit can help us and equips us for life with God in many different ways. Life with God can be difficult and we can’t make it on our own but with the Holy Spirit we can do it.
So life with God is Life to the Max because we have the Holy Spirit with us to help us.
Session 2 – 11th May – A design for life (Genesis 1&2, 2 Corinthians 5v5)
Theme – God made us. God made us to have a relationship with him
In this session we looked at why certain objects were made and what they were best at doing.
For example – what was a hammer designed to do and what was a toothbrush designed to do? What happens if you use a toothbrush for DIY and a hammer to brush your teeth? (if you’re not sure of the answer try it for yourself…).
The result was that things work best when they are used for the purpose they were designed for.
We even had a go at making some things ourselves. We made things to fly (paper planes) and things to make noise (shakers and paper snappers). The paper planes were best at flying and the shakers and snappers were best at making noise.
Again, we saw that things work best when they are used for the purpose they were designed for.
And we are no different. The bible tells us that God made and designed us and the reason He made us was to have a relationship with Him. We were designed for life with God.
So one of the reasons why life with God is “Life to the MAX” is that is what we were designed for.
Session 1 – 27th April: Life to the Zero (Luke 5 v11-32, Ecclesiastes 2 v1-11)
Theme: Life without God doesn’t lead to happiness – But God is always there, waiting for us to turn back to Him.
In the first session we looked at choices and how good we are at making them. For example, do we prefer School time or School holidays, Chocolate or Ice Cream & Saturday or Sunday.
But the biggest choice we’re faced with is whether we want to choose life with or without God. And in the first session we looked at what life is like without God, when we go our own way and do our own thing.
To help us with this we looked at a video (see below), based on a story that Jesus told. In the video Tom left his father (J. Mortley) and went and did his own thing. Although he had fun for a while it didn’t last and he didn’t find happiness away from his father. Jesus said we’re like the son, Tom, and God is like the father, J. Mortley. When we do our own thing without God it doesn’t lead to happiness. And as the writer of Ecclesiastes found, just having fun may bring short term pleasure but it doesn’t lead to real, true, permanent happiness. We’re not saying these things are bad but on their own they don’t lead to happiness. Life without God is life to the zero.
But, as the parable of the Prodigal Son reminds us, God is always there, waiting for us to turn back to Him. Jesus used an extreme example in the son (Tom) to show that no matter how low we might feel, or how far away form God we think we are, we can always turn back to God and choose life with Him. And this life with God is new life, life to the full, life to the MAX.
During the rest of the term we’re going to looking at life with God and why it really is Life to the MAX.
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