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
Listening
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 it is important to listen to God when we pray.
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 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.
Prayer is the key to effective ministry. When we pray God does great things. Take time this week to pray for our service and for the kids you will minister to.
Worship and offering time
Puppet song (Psaltys missing 9 "Talk to Jesus")
"Be still, and know that I am God" Psalm 46:10 Play a telephone game to learn the memory verse. Divide the kids into teams (or select a certain number of kids from each team to participate.) Tell the memory verse to the first child in line who then whispers it to the next until it reaches the end. The first team to successfully complete the verse wins.
Bobo (comes up with a map) Howdy, Howdy!!
Leader: Hello Bobo. Are you getting ready for a trip Bobo?
Bobo: Nah, I heard that pastor talking, you know the ugly one?
Leader: now wait a minute there Bobo, that pastor is my husband and I think he is pretty cute.
Bobo: Yeah yeah, I suppose we can't all have good taste. Maybe God will give you better taste soon.
Leader: Bobo, you are being really mean today.
Bobo: Oh well, let's see, what were we talking about?
Leader: you were about to tell me why you have that map.
Bobo: Of course I was. Well, as I was saying, I heard that pastor fella say that God would guide us and tell us where he wanted us to go. So I am trying to find out where God wants me to go. I only got a Wisconsin map though because I don't want him to tell me to go to Africa or somewhere scary like that.
Leader: Oh Bobo. You are really something else. You don't need a map to hear from God about where he wants you to go.
Bobo: I don't? Well, just a minute then. I will be right back. (He exits and returns with a flash light)
Leader: Now what do you have?
Bobo: Well, I got this nice new flashlight. It will help me to at least see where God wants me to go. I wouldn't want to trip in the dark trying to find God's will for my life.
Leader: Bobo, you don't need a flashlight to find God's will for your life either.
Bobo: But if I don't need a map or a flashlight then how in the world am I going to find out what God's will is for my life?
Leader: All you have to do is listen.
Bobo: OOOHHHH I get it now. Just a minute, I will be right back. (He exits and returns wearing very large plastic ears)
Leader: WOW!!! What BIG ears you have grown all of a sudden Bobo!
Bobo: Naturally, because I am so spiritual
Leader: Spiritual???? What do those gigantic ears have to do with being spiritual?
Bobo: Well, since I have to listen and then God will tell me his will for my life I decided I better have bigger ears cause I can't hear him with these little ones I have. These will really make me spiritual.
Leader: Bobo, the size of your ears doesn't help you hear from God.
Bobo: It doesn't? Well, if a map won't help me and a flashlight won't help me and these ears won't help me then how in the world am I supposed to hear from God about his will for my life?
Leader: You see Bobo, all you have to do is pray and ask God and then listen quietly and you will hear from God.
Bobo: You mean that is all there is to it? It is that easy? All I have to do is listen to God?
Leader: That is it! Anyone can hear from God if they seek him and listen for his voice.
Bobo: Well, in that case I am going to go and listen....see you all later.
Leader: bye Bobo
The inventor will build a machine this week that is supposed to help us know what to do. It looks like one of those big hair dryers that they use in beauty shops. It has antenna added and lights and levers and buttons, etc. It is supposed to be able to pick up Gods signals and tell you what to do. Of course it doesn't work. The inventor tries it out on smudge and it gives him a big shock, but that is all. The leader can now explain that we don't hear from God by putting a thing on our heads. We hear from God by listening when we pray.
Divide the kids into four groups. Whisper instructions to each group so the other groups don't know what you told them. Tell the first group to sing twinkle twinkle little star as loudly as possible. Tell the second group to shout out their favourite foods. Tell the third group to do jumping jacks and count them as they do them. Tell the last group to use their normal voice level and say "God loves you". On "go", have each group begin. Allow the kids to do this for about 60 seconds. Then call them all together and ask the first three groups if they can identify what each group was doing. They will probably be able to tell you what the first three groups were doing, but will have no idea what the last group was doing. The parallel you want to draw here is that we can't listen when we are talking or being loud or distracted. If we want to know what God wants to tell us then we need to be still and listen.
You will need a radio with an antenna. Explain what an antenna does..how it picks up invisible signals. Ask the kids if they have ever driven through a tunnel while the radio was on. When the signal is blocked the radio no longer works right and you can't pick up the station. Prayer connects us to God and picks up the "signals" that God sends us. When we pray we need to pick up the signals by listening to God. If we don't pray we block the signals from God.
You will need jelly beans of different flavours. Blind fold a volunteer. Give another child a card with a jelly bean on it and the flavour that it is. That child must describe the jelly bean from across the room and the blindfolded child must guess the flavour. (This works best with jelly belly brand since they have many unusual flavours.) The point that you want to stress here is that you must listen closely to the voice that is talking to you. If you don't listen closely you won't know the answer. Like wise we must listen closely to God. If we don't we won't know what he wants to tell us.
Tell the story of Elijah listening for God in the whirlwind, and the fire, etc. (If available to you, you could do a puppet song from Psaltys Missing 9 called "The still small voice".)
Allow the kids to come forward to seek God. Encourage them to put into practice what they have learned about prayer in the past five weeks.
Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats
