Welcome!
We’re so excited that you stopped over to see what’s happening in kids ministry! Each week we’ll have all information and links you need to stay up-to-date right here in one convenient place.
We have options for you to work through the lesson with your family or set your kids up to watch one of our virtual lessons.
What we’re studying this month
REAL LOVE:A SERIES ON JESUS’ TEACHINGS
We are always teaching our kids that we need to love God and love one another, but often times neglect to give them tangible ways to do so. In this series, we are going to examine a few of Jesus’ teachings in-depth and discover practical ways we can demonstrate our love for God, family, friends, and enemies, too! Our hope is that by the end of this series, every kid will be able to say, because God loves everyone, I can show God’s love by being kind, I can show God’s love even when it’s hard, and that ultimately, love is the best choice!
DOWNLOAD THE PRESCHOOL PARENT GUIDE
DOWNLOAD THE ELEMENTARY PARENT GUIDE
How to Study at Home
Get your Child a snack
Read the Bible Story to your child and/or
Click on the link to the YouTube Playlist for that week and watch the videos. Lessons each week brought to you by our Children’s Director Melissa. “in-person” lessons complete with worship music, videos, games, memory work, and more.
Review Memory work and Pray with your kids when they are done
If you have time or the desire - choose one of the follow-up activities to help the kids engage with the lesson
Weekly Lesson Plan -
INSTRUCTIONS: Look up the story in your Bible. See if your kids can guess the Big Idea
THE BIBLE: The Greatest Commandment: Mark 12:28-34; (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)
BIG IDEA: Love is the best choice.
INSTRUCTIONS: summarize Mark 12:28-34 so it's easy for the kids to understand. Here's an example you can use:
One day, a man asked Jesus a question. He asked Jesus, "What is the most important rule?" Jesus said the most important rule was to love God.
But that's not all. We can't just love God a little bit. Jesus says to love God with all of our heart (draw a heart in the air), with all of our soul (put your hand on your chest), with all of our mind (put your hand on your temple), and with all of our strength (put your arms up and flex).
Then, Jesus said the second most important rule is to love other people. I know I want to show love to other people. How about you?
I can choose to show love to God. I can choose to show love to people. Love is the best choice.
Additional SCRIPTURE | 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
INSTRUCTIONS: Read 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 together as a group. If your kids have Bibles or if you have the Bible passage available for them, have them read along or read aloud. Otherwise, read to them.
Has anyone ever played a sport or been involved in some type of competition? What is the ultimate goal of the competition? That's right! To win!
At the end of the day, God wants us to be committed. Making God happy should always be our number one goal. We do this by thinking about every choice we make. And just in case you get lost among all the choices you have to make each day, you can be sure of one thing— love is the best choice!
ACTIVITY |Coloring page
INSTRUCTIONS: Remind the kids of today's story. Be sure to write each kid's name on the coloring page. Ask the kids how they are going to show they love God, and how they are going to show God's love to others this week.
REFLECTION | Loving Our Neighbors
INSTRUCTIONS: Go to the Compassion International website and view a few of the children’s profiles, reading about their different communities and countries. You could either browse through the site with your kids, or you can prepare a slideshow with screen grabs.
When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, He’s not just talking about people who live near us. It means all people are our neighbors, even if they live in other parts of the world.
These are some of our neighbors from other countries. What kinds of needs do you think they have? And what can we do to show them love?
Remember — God loves everyone and God wants all of us to love everyone, too!
PRAYER
Toddler Tips: A toddler needs may have trouble understanding the concept of prayer because they cannot see God. Echo Prayer is a good strategy to encourage and teach kids how to talk to God. The teacher or parent speaks aloud a short segment of the prayer, and the children echo back the same sentence or phrase.
Ask the kids to stand up and do some motions with you as you pray together.
God, help me to love You with all my heart (draw a heart in the air)
with all my soul (put your hand on your chest)
with all my mind (put your hand on your temple)
and with all my strength (put your arms up and flex).
Help me to love others (have kids put arms around each other's shoulders).