Family Service Ideas Box

Some simple materials and ideas which we have used in a weekly family service in Newcastle upon Tyne, to teach Bible stories to children. We offer them in case they are of use to others.

Our service is at 4pm on a Sunday and starts with a short time of singing and an introduction to the subject before the children go off to do their activities and the adults stay for a gospel message. At 4.50 we all come back together for some refreshments.

New Theme

400 years of the AV translation of the Bible into English - more details to follow

Christmas in a Departure Lounge near Jerusalem

This was performed by the 4 children who regularly attend and who now are aged 9-12. They were a bit too old to perform the traditional nativity play so all the action took place in the Airport. Lots of ideas flowed and the main point the children got out of it was that the wise men would have been the important visitors to look out for, not Mary and Joseph. But in the end the wise men came back to the airport with Mary and Joseph all in a hurry to leave. The wise men were able to point to whom Jesus was. The story of the shepherd was represented by cleaners at the airport who were shepherds during the night.

Resources:

The Script PDF 12k or .txt 5k
Four airport signs to put up. Arrivals, Departures, VIP lounge, Donkey Rank
promotional fliers, 3 wise men superimposed on a modern airport picture

One of several readings at the end was an adaption (shortening) of the story of the wise man in Adrian Plas's book "And Jesus must be born".

The concluding talk brought out three lessons from the experience of flying, follow the signs, trust and the arrival.

Malawi Village

More information and picture from Oxfam Australia

"And my God will supply all your needs out of the magnificence of his riches in Christ Jesus."
(Phillippians 4:19 REB)

Week Subject Introduction Children Adults

1 Water

Exodus 17:1-7
We ran this series to coincide with Norma, Joy and Karl visiting Malawi.

On a picture of a village with several houses and files, children stick on staws to plan a network of pipes to distribute water to the the houses and fields of vegetables
PlayPump We don't know whether these are in use in Malawi but the scheme gave us lots to talk with the children about the involvement of children in pumping water.
drainpipe or hose. Children empty a washing up bowl or water on the table using plastic or paper cups, down the pipe to the bowl below.

2 Shelter

John 12:1-3
Luke 7:36-50
What do we shelter from? weather, cold, noise, thieves
Compare the welcome Jesus received from Mary and Martha, with that received from Simon.
In whatever country we are, homes can be used to provide welcome.
Some really modern buildings in UK are now being built of earth. Urban expansion in Blantyre. Other housing needs come from HIV AIDS orphans, asyllum seeks from Mozambique, Floods

3 Food Genesis 41:41-49
Who is Zaphenath-Paneah?
Managing the food resources of a country. Cook Mbatata, a delicious potatoe cake made from sweet potatoe Food crisis 2002
Floods and Drought - to store water, irrigation, keep drainage channels clear from silting so that farm land does not get waterlogged
Seeds and Fertiliser - Seed banks set up with village head men to store seed safely from one season to the next. Composting to improve the soil quality.
Crop diversification - more root vegetables - cassava and sweet potatoe which can withstand drought better.

4 Health Proverbs 3:8 Healh and Good food closely linked, Health advice essential.
real mosquito net. How does it work?
Need a good diet and healthy farmers to work the land.
Not many doctors or nurses
Children design posters to tell people how to stay healthy
1 nurse for every 5,500 and 1 doctor for every 50,000.
Wages so low that nurses and doctors easily recruited to work in other countries, including UK.

5 Education

6 Power and Transport

All Aboard, Railway Theme

Railway terminology provides many ways to help explain the gospel message.

Week	Subject	Introduction	Children	Adults
1	Beginning the journey	Luggage and Umbrella	Where do you travel to? Draw people in carriages Jesus with us
2	Junctions	Matthew 7:13-14	Points, how does the train get to the other track?
3	Signals	Matthew 24:36-42	Make signal Green Double Yellow Yellow Red	Why should I slow down? Train Drivers have to watch and obey
4	Timetable	God's plan, God's will	Make station clock with Roman numerals	Romans 13:11
5	Tunnels	Box tunnel, Fear, John 12:46	Make a tunnel out of tables and imagine what you can see at the end
6	Destination	We can be sad when the journey is over, but excited if we have arrived in a special place	Match famous trains to their destinations	For me to live is Christ to die is gain, Phil 1:21

The Psalms

Week	Subject	Introduction	Children	Adults
1	Psalm 148	What are Psalms?	Make a collage
2	Psalm 139	God knows us	Make a pouch with verses for each day of the week
3	Psalm 23	Ups and downs in life	Create simple board game
4	Psalm 150	All the different ways to make sounds	Make a "Praise the Lord" trumpet

Other themes

still to be written up

Animals, Bold, Brave, Children, Egypt, Food, Go Tell, Healed, Houses, Jerusalem, Lost, New Life, New Testament stories, Prophets, Ships.

"Who is like unto the Lord?"

This is the meaning of Micaiah, of which Micah is a shortened form. The prophet Micah, perhaps in a word play on his name wrote:

18 Who [is] a God like thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his
heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever,
because he delighteth [in] mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us;
he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea.
(Micah 7:18—19 KJV)