Free Children's Ministry Curriculum Written by Sheryl Coats
Bugs Bugs and More Bugs
Hillbilly Days
Wonderfair
The Wacky Worship Workshop
The Celebration Medical Centre
The Celebration City Courthouse
Growing in God's Garden
The Armour of God
The Wild Wild West
Forgiveness
Welcome to the wacky worship workshop...where we learn about building our relationship with Jesus.
The set: set up the room like a workshop with all kind of wacky inventions. The weirder it looks the better. Try obtaining some old science equipment or old computer components that can be taken apart to make the room look like a crazy inventor inhabits the room.
This week: We will learn that we must take time to make sure our hearts are pure when we pray. The inventor will decide to make a forgivoblender machine to take away sins.
To teach the children that:
Characters needed: The crazy inventor, his faithful assistant, smudge (who always tries to wreck stuff) one or two workshop workers and Einstein the puppet and Bobo the puppet.
Rules are a necessary part of life. Be sure to enforce the rules on a consistent basis. Kids need consistency and they need rules.
Many of the kids we minister to come from broken homes and rough home situations. They are so hungry for love and attention. The task we have been given by God is one of great responsibility. It is up to us to show them the love of Christ. It is up to us to disciple them. Take time this week to lift the kids up in prayer and to seek Gods direction and anointing.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Bobo comes up filthy dirty...he has dirt and scum all over.
Leader: What is that atrocious smell? P.U. It smells absolutely terrible in here. Does anyone know what that smell is?
Bobo: (comes up singing) Manamana tutudududu manamana dudutududu Hallo everyone.
Leader: Oh Bobo!!!!!! What is that smell? What have you been into?
Bobo: Why it's not me you smell. I just had a bath. Why I am clean as a whistle and I sparkle like a diamond! Yes sirree George! I am what you call fresh and clean.
Leader: I think I am going to puke. Bobo, are you sure you JUST had a bath? You look terrible dirty to me.
Bobo: Of course I am sure. I am definitely clean. I had a bath JUST last week.
Leader: LAST WEEK????? That's a long time ago! Bobo you are filthy! You need a bath.
Bobo: But, I had a bath, I don't need another one ever again.
Leader: Oh Bobo, a bath is something we need to take on a regular basis, like everyday. You see when you take a bath you get clean, but you don't stay clean unless you keep taking baths.
Bobo: You mean I am dirty? Oh I am so embarrassed!
Leader: Bobo, you smell BAD. You smell like you got in a fight with a skunk.
Bobo: Well, I don't know why. All I've done this week is eat sardines and play out in the pig pen and I was running out in the cow pasture.
Leader: That will do it. You definitely need a bath. You know something? This reminds me of a Bible verse.
Bobo: Me being stinky reminds you of a bible verse?
Leader: It sure does! You see, Just like we need to take a bath on a regular basis to keep our outsides clean we also need to ask Jesus to clean our hearts on a regular basis to keep our souls clean.
Bobo: You mean I need to ask Jesus to clean my heart more than once?
Leader: That's right Bobo. We are all human and so we struggle with temptation and sin. All of us fail sometimes and give into sin. So we need to make sure we ask Jesus to forgive us when we pray.
Bobo: So what is the verse?
Leader: Oh yeah. It is found in Psalm 51:10 It says "create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me."
Bobo: Oh I like that one. It sounds just like a song we sing here in church.
Leader: That's right Bobo we do sing it in church. I am going to teach it to the kids today.
Bobo: Well, I think that is a great idea. Have fun. See you later.
Leader: bye bobo
Write the memory verse on wooden blocks. Form two teams. Each team must send a member up to build one block of the memory verse. If it falls down they must begin again. The first team to completely build the verse wins 2000 pts.
Smudge comes in and decides to make a terrible mess in the work room. He throws stuff all over the floor, sets banana peels on the floor, etc. (Snickering) He tells the kids that he wants to see the inventor try to build something in all this mess...He should be real sarcastic sounding and mean. He wants to make sure the inventor is not successful.
When he hears the inventor coming he hides. The inventor comes in with his arms full of stuff for building a great new invention. His arms are so full that he can't see the mess and slips on the banana peel. He can seem shocked and surprised that there is such a big mess in his work room...he can't build his incredible invention in such a mess. He decides that before he begins work he should clean up. He can then draw the parallel that we need to clean up our hearts before we go to God with our needs and wants. Repentance is a very important part of our prayer time. It should be one of the first things we do when we pray. As we learned last week we need to worship God because he is awesome and then we need to make sure our hearts are clean.
Try to obtain a diaper pail. Open it and notice the terrible smell (if you don't have dirty diapers in it you can add ammonia to the pail which will emit a strong foul odour) The trusty assistant can come in with a can of deodorizer trying to get rid of the smell. As she sprays the leader can tell her that deodorizer only covers the smell, it doesn't get rid of it. If you want to get rid of the smell all together then you need to get rid of what is causing the foul smell. It is the same way with sin. We can try to cover it but that doesn't get rid of it. It only hides it for a while. If we want to get rid of the sin we have to allow God to clean it away.
The inventor comes back in all excited because he has a plan for a new invention. He is going to make a forgivoblender machine that will clean sin out of our hearts. He has blue prints for it and starts building while talking incessantly about how brilliant this invention is. All you have to do is put your sins in one end and grind them up and taadaa...a clean heart! Now people can actually have clean hearts with just the twist of a crank! The leader can come in at this point and explain that we can't clean our hearts with a forgivoblender. Only Jesus can clean our hearts. All we have to do is tell Jesus what we have done and ask him to forgive us and taadaa...we are forgiven! (Emphasize that repentance is one of the most important elements of our prayer time.)
(you will need several pairs of mittens and unshelled peanuts) Select several kids from each team. They must run up and try to shell a peanut while wearing mittens and then run back and tag the next player. The first team to shell their peanuts wins. (The mittens represent sin. When we have sin in our lives is makes it hard to pray and maintain a relationship with Christ. We need to get rid of the sin (the mittens) in order to have a healthy relationship with Christ)
Build a watchamonger--obtain two boxes and fill with cranks, lids, and misc. odds and ends. Divide the group into teams. Each team must take the things they have been given and build a watchamonger. Each team will be allowed to demonstrate their watchamonger and explain its function.
Act out the story of Paul's conversion
Write all kinds of sins that kids might be guilty of such as lying, dirty words, cheating, etc on a large poster board with glow in the dark paint. When it dries it will not be visible to the children, but will appear to be a blank piece of poster board. Talk to the children about hiding our sin from God. Explain that sin blocks our relationship with Christ. We might think he can't see it or that he doesn't know but he does. (Turn out the lights now and the paper will glow with all the sin you have written on it) In order to keep our relationship with Christ we must make sure that we keep our hearts clean. We need to ask God to forgive us of our sins each time we come before God.
Prayer should first include worship for who God is and then it should include repentance for the things we have done. Encourage the kids to come forward and spend some time worshiping God and repenting for any sin they might have in their lives.
Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats
