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
BLAST OFF: A SERIES ON SPIRITUAL HABITS
If you’re a grown-up and you’ve been following Jesus for a while, you’ve probably figured out a few ways to grow spiritually. The kids you’re parenting or leading, on the other hand, aren’t grown-ups, so they might need a little help from you to figure out how, exactly, to grow spiritually. So what should spiritual growth look like for a kid? We like to think about it in terms of four spiritual habits. To help a kid grow spiritually, teach them to spend time with God, spend time with others, use their gifts, and share their story.
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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: Jesus Visits Mary and Martha: Luke 10:38-42
BIG IDEA: We can spend time with God.
INSTRUCTIONS: Look up the story in your Bible and read it to your preschoolers.
Mary and her sister Martha were excited that Jesus was coming to their house for dinner!
What would you do if someone really important and famous was coming to your house?
What would you want to do with your special guest? Play with your toys? Eat your favorite meal? Watch a movie?
Mary and Martha wanted to make Jesus and His friends feel welcome. There was so much they needed to do to prepare!
Martha got busy with the cooking and cleaning, but she got annoyed when she realized Mary wasn’t helping at all.
Have you ever been annoyed at someone, maybe a brother, sister, or friend, because they didn't help you when they were supposed to?
If you have, then you might understand how Martha felt when she complained that Mary wasn’t helping her!
But did Jesus get angry with Mary? Why not?
What did Jesus say was the most important thing to do?
Jesus said Mary was doing the best thing: spending time with Him and learning about God from Him!
Does that mean we should forget about helping our parents at home, like cleaning up our toys? No!
But Jesus tells us we need to make time for God. We can spend time with God by going to church, praying, singing worship songs, and having Bible time with our families.
Additional SCRIPTURE| Colossians 4:2
INSTRUCTIONS: Read Hosea 13:14; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57
A man named Paul (who we call the Apostle Paul) once wrote a letter to help some followers of Jesus figure out how to spend time with God. Here's one thing he wrote . . .
When you're "devoted" to something, that means you want to do it a lot! Prayer is one of the ways we spend time with God.
But just like Martha, we sometimes get distracted by things that aren't as important as spending time with Jesus. So instead of talking to Him, praising Him, or learning more about Him, we do other things with our time.
ACTIVITY | Asteroid Launch
Does anyone know what an asteroid is? Let's launch some together!
INSTRUCTIONS: Make a bunch of aluminum foil wads and gather some toy blocks. Use blocks to build different-sized towers. Then let kids take turns standing a few feet away from the towers and launching the asteroids to knock the towers down.
Just like we launched these asteroids, we are going to launch our faith in God! We do that by spending time with God!
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.
Dear God, we love to spend time with you. Help us to spend time with you wherever we are.