10 MINUTES. ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES God reveals Himself to us through the Bible, and it is 100% accurate, reliable, and authoritative.

Transcription

1 PRELUDE SOCIAL WORSHIP GROUPS HOME Chief Executive Officer Reggie Joiner Creative Team Kristen Ivy Mike Clear Molly Boylan Elloa Davis Elizabeth Hansen Jessica McKee Brandon O Dell Greg Payne Phil Pierce Dan Scott Jon Williams Contributing Writers Sharon Carey Holly Crawshaw Emily Meredith Becky Jarrett Nicole Jones Julie Tiemann Rachael Sibcy Editors Molly Boylan Elloa Davis Illustrations & Graphic Design Brian Bascle Mike Davis Joe Goode Technical & Web Support Hadley Brandt Orange Specialists Amy Grisham Joy Bowen Abbey Carr Amy Fenton Leslie Galema Misty Phillips Stephanie Porter Courtney Templeton Statement of Faith ABOUT GOD God is the one and only true God, yet He exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God is the Creator, so everything belongs to Him and is under His control. God is holy, so He is righteous, majestic, and loving. God is all knowing and purposeful, so He s at work to bring about His will. No person, thing, or idea compares to God. ABOUT THE SCRIPTURES God reveals Himself to us through the Bible, and it is 100% accurate, reliable, and authoritative. ABOUT PEOPLE People are made in God s image and for His pleasure. But everybody falls short of God s intention, or ideal, for people. In other words, everyone has sinned. As a result, we are all separated from Him, even though He wants an intimate relationship with each of us. ABOUT SALVATION That s why Jesus God s Son came and lived on this earth, died, and rose again. God offers His free gift of salvation to all who believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior the only way to be forgiven and reconciled to God. Anyone who accepts this gift is adopted as a son or daughter into God s family and will live with Him forever in heaven. User Agreement Orange gladly grants permission to churches, schools, and other licensees to tailor 252 Basics materials to fit their unique leadership requirements, locale and format preferences, and physical environment needs. However, if you wish to edit the content substantively, including Bible stories, learning activities, scripts, and any other content in which biblical principles and concepts are presented, you are obligated to do so within the doctrinal guidelines we ve expressed in our Statement of Faith. These resources are intended to be downloaded and printed for use by the subscribing entity only and may not be electronically transferred to or duplicated by other non-subscribing entities. Any unauthorized reproduction of this material or incorporation into a new work is a direct violation of US copyright laws The rethink Group. All rights reserved. 252 Basics and the 252 Basics logo are trademarks of Orange and the rethink Group. Scripture marked NIrV is taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL READER S VERSION. Copyright 1996, 1998, 2014 Biblica. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of Biblica. Scripture marked NIV is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

2 PRELUDE SOCIAL WORSHIP GROUPS HOME BIBLE Foretweeting God Promises a Savior Isaiah 9:6-7 BOTTOM LINE I can have joy because God keeps His promises. MEMORY VERSE Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful! Philippians 4:4, NIrV LIFE APP Joy finding a way to be happy even when things don t go your way BASIC TRUTH 15 MINUTES 25 MINUTES 10 MINUTES 25 MINUTES PRELUDE: Setting the tone for the experience For Leaders Only Create the Environment SOCIAL: Providing time for fun interaction Ideas for Early Arrivers Big Picture Puzzle (kindergarten and 1st grade) Put a Bow on It (2nd and 3rd grade) : Communicating God s truth in engaging ways Opener Worship Bible Story Prayer Closer WORSHIP: Inviting people to respond to God Frosty the Snowman from Jingle Jam: Wrapped Up Joy to the World from Jingle Jam GROUPS: Creating a safe place to connect For kindergarten and 1st grade: Searching for God s Promises; Pass the Present; Jump for Joy Verse For 2nd and 3rd grade: Pass that Box; God s Promises Flip Book; Unwrap a Verse Prayer HOME: Prompting action beyond the experience GodTime Parent Cue I can trust God no matter what. PAGE 2

3 PRELUDE SOCIAL WORSHIP GROUPS HOME BIBLE Foretweeting God Promises a Savior Isaiah 9:6-7 BOTTOM LINE I can have joy because God keeps His promises. MEMORY VERSE Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful! Philippians 4:4, NIrV LIFE APP Joy finding a way to be happy even when things don t go your way BASIC TRUTH I can trust God no matter what. GETTING READY 1. OPENER/CLOSER WHAT YOU NEED: Host 2 pre-selected Small Group Leaders 2 bags of gift bows 2 drinking straws 4 gift bags Small prize for the entire winning small group 90-second countdown timer (see What You Do below) Music and Sound Effects (SFX): Upbeat music to use as kids enter and exit the room Fun Christmas music to play during the game Buzzer SFX Large Group Visuals (downloadable from the website): Put a Bow on It Theme Slide Joy Slide Bottom Line Slide WHAT YOU DO: Download the slides and have them ready to use. If you do not have CG capabilities, you have Orange s permission to enlarge and print the slides on paper. Download the music from a resource such as itunes and have it ready to play. Note: Legally a song belongs to the songwriter/composer who created it and the publisher who markets it. Performance rights organizations (PROs) license public performances (live or recorded) of their members music. Usually, but not always, PROs give general permission for performances in worship services. We recommend you obtain permission from the PRO representing the song or the publisher of the song you wish to play. PROs in the U.S. are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. For a list of PROs in your part of the world: Look at the copyright on the CD or sheet music to discover the PRO or publisher of the song. It is up to you to make sure your church has permission to perform or play a recording of a song. Download the weekly SFX from the download page under the Large Group for K_3 and 4_5 panel. Preset the stage with two gift bags filled with an equal number of bows. Place them at the starting line. (Wherever you choose on your stage.) Place the two empty bags about 10 feet away from the bags with bows. Two preselected PAGE 3

4 Small Group leaders will have to move as many bows as possible from one gift bag to the other in 90 seconds. The catch: They can only move the bows by sucking them up with a straw. Preselect two Small Group Leaders who are willing to play the game on stage. Find a 90-second countdown timer online and have it ready to play when the game starts. If you can find a Christmasthemed countdown, that s even better! 2. BIBLE WHAT YOU NEED: Storyteller 6 medium-sized cardboard boxes Solid-colored wrapping paper Spray-on adhesive (or glue or tape) Huge gift bow Bible Large Group Visuals (downloadable from the website): World Puzzle Pieces Cross Puzzle Pieces Isaiah 9:6-7 Slide Bottom Line Slide WHAT YOU DO: Download the slides and have them ready to use. If you do not have CG capabilities, you have Orange s permission to enlarge and print the slides on paper. Gift-wrap all of the boxes. Measure the size of the face of your cardboard boxes. Adhere the World Puzzle Pieces to one side. On the opposite side, adhere the Cross Puzzle Pieces. Set up the stage by placing the boxes WRAPPING PAPER SIDE OUT. The boxes should be stacked on top of one another, three wide and two high. 3. WORSHIP WHAT YOU NEED: Worship Leader(s) Music and Sound Effects (SFX): Frosty the Snowman from Jingle Jam: Wrapped Up* Joy to the World from Jingle Jam* *Live lyrics video available from WHAT YOU DO: Download all songs (available on AmberSkyRecords.com) and have them ready to use. Note: Make sure your church has obtained licensing rights to play or perform music. You can obtain a license to perform worship music from Christian Copyright Licensing PAGE 4

5 International ( It covers over 200,000 worship songs for congregational singing. You are responsible for including the copyright information on all songs reproduced under the Church Copyright License (including song lyrics projected onscreen). This includes the song title, writer credit(s), copyright notice, and your church s CCLI license number. You can include this information on one of the lyric slides, or you can create a separate slide detailing this information, but the copyright information must appear at least once for each song you play or perform. For example: Hallelujah words and music by John Doe 2000 Good Music Co. CCLI License # 0000 Download and print this week s tech sheet for everyone helping with Large Group. 4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES GET REEL: This month with Get Reel 2.0, kids will discover how they can have joy even when things don t go their way. This week, we recommend playing the Discovery video to inspire the key faith skill of Navigate the Bible. Our Host literally jumps into the Bible to help us discover how God wants us to learn what He says and apply it to our lives. Also on Get Reel 2.0, you can enhance your environment with an M.C. Haggis video. M.C. Haggis and his sidekick Shamus McFamus tell us all about this month s widget. FEATURE PRESENTATION: We know that sometimes you want to mix things up to keep kids engaged with the most important thing you do every week in your Large Group: tell the Bible story. You also like having a back-up plan in case your Host or Storyteller cancels at the last minute. This is why our Large Group script is interchangeable with the Feature Presentation DVDs so you can plug and play the way you need to each week. Similar to the flow we create with our Large Group script, Feature Presentation also has weekly Intro and Outro videos with a Host. The Intros set up the Bible story and Life App, while the Outros smoothly transition from Large Group to Small Group. For the K-3 age group, we recommend playing 252 Story, which brings you the Bible story in a simple and direct way through a professional Leader accompanied by illustrations. Widget*: The 252 Collection: Joy * widg et [wij-it] noun 1. Something unspecific whose name is either forgotten or not known. 2. A device that is very useful for a particular job Origin: ; perhaps an alternative form of gadget Joy runs deeper than a phase but this particular Christmas is just a phase for the families of kids in your ministry. Help families mark the unique ways they have been able to explore Joy together with their 5- or 7- or 10-year-old with a fun collectible Christmas tree ornament inscribed with Luke 2:10-11 and marked with the year. 252 Basics will create a new ornament each year to help families build their 252 Collection and trace their journey over the course of a child s years in your ministry. PAGE 5

6 SFX: Play high-energy music as kids enter. Host welcomes kids as they enter. HOST: Hello, hello, hello! My name is [Host s name], and I am so pumped that you re here with me today. I m excited that you re here in [your environment s name], because this is where all the fun happens. Look at your neighbor and give them a thumbs up and say, Let the fun begin! HOST AND KIDS: (Point to the audience.) Let the fun begin! HOST: Speaking of fun, we re in the MOST fun month of the year! It s the month with a VERY fun holiday. What do we celebrate on December 25th? (Hold hand to ear. Pause for audience to respond.) Christmas! That s right, four weeks from today is Christmas, when we celebrate the day Jesus was born. And birthdays can be super fun, right? But you know what else is fun? Our BRAND NEW Life App for this month. CG: Joy Slide It s JOY. Raise your hand if you think you know what joy means. (Scan the audience.) Good, good! How about this: Show me with your face what joy looks like. (Smile big.) Yes! You guys are so smart! Now, let s look at OUR definition of joy finding a way to be happy even when things don t go your way. Can you say that with me? HOST AND KIDS: Joy is finding a way to be happy even when things don t go your way. HOST: Great job! You know, one thing that brings me lots of joy is a good, silly, and exciting game. Who wants watch a couple of your Small Group Leaders play a good, silly, AND exciting game? All right, my pre-selected Small Group Leaders, please come up on stage! SFX: Upbeat game music Today s game is called Put a Bow on It! (To the SGLs) Let s meet our contestants! (Introduce contestants.) Each of you will have 90 seconds to move the bows from this bag (point to the full bag) to the other bag (point to the empty bag). Sounds easy, right? Sorry. It wouldn t be an exciting game without a little catch! You can t use your hands! (Reveal drinking straws) You ll have to use these straws to suck up the bows, like this! (Demonstrate.) Now, you re competing for a prize for your ENTIRE small group. So everybody make sure to cheer your leaders on loud and proud! Okay, Small Group Leaders, are you ready? Aaaaaaaaand GO! SFX: Fun Christmas music CG: 90-second countdown timer SFX: Cut music Cheer during game. Encourage the crowd to participate. PAGE 6

7 SFX: Buzzer Let s see who the winner is! (Dump out transferred bows and count them.) Let s hear it for [winning SGL s name]! Their entire small group will get [prize]! Sorry, [losing SGL s name], I know things didn t go your way, but you can still have... what s our Life App this month? (Hold hand to ear so audience responds.) Joy! Yes! Great job. You guys can go back to your seats. That was a ton of fun! You know what else is fun? It s also something that brings me so much joy: singing. Yup. It s that time again. Go ahead and stand up and sing together! Worship Leaders enter as Host exits. WORSHIP WORSHIP LEADER: Yes, stand to your feet. I am excited to kick off the month of December and the Christmas season with some... drum roll, please... Christmas music! Woo-hoo! We have a fun one to sing today that I bet a lot of you know. It s about the most famous snowman I ve ever heard of, and no, it s not Olaf! Ha. Let s sing and have some fun with Frosty the Snowman. C mon! SFX: Frosty the Snowman / track 4 from Jingle Jam: Wrapped Up Yes, that was super. The Christmas season is really about one thing: the gift of Jesus. He came and brought hope and joy to this world. Romans 15:13 says: May the God who gives hope fill you with great joy. May you have perfect peace as you trust in him (NIrV). Let s sing His praises today and celebrate Him with joy. SFX: Joy to the World / track 3 from Jingle Jam Storyteller enters as Worship Leaders exit. SETTING UP THE TELLER: Hey, everybody! My name is [Storyteller s name] and I m so excited to hang out with you guys today, especially since joy is our Life App this month. It s our first week talking about joy, so let s look at it again. Let s read this one more time, but this time I want you to read it in a (squeaky, high voice) JOYFUL voice. On three: one, two, three. CG: Joy Slide TELLER AND KIDS: (Squeaky, high voice) Joy is finding a way to be happy even when things don t go your way. TELLER: Great job! So, the Bible tells us about a great, amazing gift that would bring us JOY. Only the gift wasn t a thing it was a person. Check out what the Bible says about this. It s found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. (Open Bible.) PAGE 7

8 CG: Isaiah 9:6-7 Slide A child will be born to us. A son will be given to us. He will rule over us. And he will be called Wonderful Adviser and Mighty God. He will also be called Father Who Lives Forever and Prince Who Brings Peace. There will be no limit to how great his authority is. The peace he brings will never end. He will rule on David s throne and over his kingdom. He will make the kingdom strong and secure. His rule will be based on what is fair and right. It will last forever. The LORD s great love will make sure that happens. He rules over all. (Isaiah 9:6-7 NIrV). CREATION AND THE FALL Walk to the boxes and begin turning them around to create a picture of the world. Continue to turn the boxes around slowly until the end of this section. TELLER: So, the Bible says a child will be born to us a special child. But why? Why would we need a special child? To answer that question, we need to rewind our story... and rewind some more... and some more... and some more... to the very beginning of time. The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and EVERYTHING in it. Now, who can tell me the names of the very first people God created? (Hold hand to ear.) That s right Adam and Eve. And in the beginning, everything was perfect. Adam and Eve were best friends with God. There was no sadness. There was no pain. It was REALLY easy to have joy in this perfect world. But then something happened; Adam and Eve messed up. They disobeyed God, which is a sin. And when sin entered the world, it broke the world. Sin also meant that Adam and Eve were no longer perfect either. God couldn t be close to them anymore because He is perfect and not-perfect people can t be with a perfect God. Adam and Eve s sin became everyone s sin even ours which means God couldn t be close to us anymore either. And that made God so, so sad. So God came up with a plan. He decided to send His one and only Son to this world (point to finished puzzle of the world) so that through His Son, He could be close to us again. GOD S CHOSEN PEOPLE TELLER: Now let s fast-forward a little bit. There was a man named Abraham who loved God very much. And God made a promise to Abraham. God promised that Abraham s family would become a great nation and live in a land that God had picked out just for them. Abraham s family did grow into a great nation; they were called the Israelites. Can you say Israelites? (Pause for response.) And because of Abraham s obedience and love, the Israelites were God s chosen people. But there was a problem: just like Adam and Eve, the Israelites disobeyed God. In fact, they disobeyed God a lot. They complained, they fought with each other, and they even begin to say that maybe God wasn t real. Because of their disobedience, the Israelites had to wander around in a desert for FORTY years! Can you imagine? PAGE 8

9 If I were God, I would have gotten tired of forgiving the Israelites over and over and over again. But God had made a promise to Abraham. And God kept His promise to Abraham and led the Israelites to the land He had promised them as their home. ISAIAH S PROPHESY Walk to the boxes and begin turning them around again to reveal the picture of the cross. Continue turning boxes until the end of the section. TELLER: Our verses today came from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet, which means God gave him special messages to tell the people. So, in our verses, God told Isaiah to write about the special baby who would come to be our Savior. God had promised to save His people to save US. God promised to send a Savior. The baby would not be any baby, but a baby who would be wonderful the Prince who brings peace. And people would know He was the chosen Savior because He would be related to David. Remember David? He was the great king we talked about last month. So, 1,000 years after David lived that s right, 1,000 years later Jesus was born, related to David through His earthly father, Joseph. God kept His promise by giving us (put bow on cross) the greatest gift of all time. WRAPPING UP THE TELLER: Jesus lived a perfect life. He performed many miracles, healing people, calming storms, and never sinning not even once. But then something sad happened, right? Jesus died on a cross. He took on all of the sin that was staining our hearts and gave His life to pay for them. Then He rose back to life and offered us brand new, clean hearts! And with new, clean hearts, we could be close to God again. And He s coming back again to fix our broken world, just like God promised. And God always keeps His promises. It s like our Bottom Line for today. Check it out: CG: Bottom Line Slide [Bottom Line] I can have joy because God keeps His promises. Can you say that with me? TELLER AND KIDS: [Bottom Line] I can have joy because God keeps His promises. TELLER: That s right! God promised a Savior, and this whole month we celebrate how God kept His promise through Jesus! Let s pray and thank God for always keeping His promises to us. PRAY TELLER: God, You have never broken a promise not one single time. Thank You for being such a good and loving Father to us. Thank You for sending us a Savior. Thank You for sending Jesus. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, we can be in Your family forever. Thank You. We love You and pray this in Jesus name, amen! Storyteller exits as Host enters. PAGE 9

10 CLOSER HOST: Wow. What an amazing reminder of all the promises God has kept to everyone. He does. He keeps His promises. So when you re sad, or you feel left out, or you don t get what you want, you can always think about God s promise to you. He promised you could be in His family forever. He promised to forgive you no matter what. And on top of that, He promised to always be with you. Let s be honest; sometimes the situations we face in life seem pretty difficult. You may feel like everything is wrong and there s nothing you can do to fix it. It could be that you re having a hard time in school with your teacher or your friends. Or it could be that your mom or dad is working extra hours and you re missing out on some of the Christmas spirit like you re used to feeling. And here s the thing: God doesn t promise that everything will be easy or that He ll fix everything that s wrong right away. BUT God does promise He ll always be with us and that He ll always provide what we need for the moment. That s why it s important to remember our Bottom Line for today. Let s say that one more time. CG: Bottom Line Slide HOST AND KIDS: [Bottom Line] I can have joy because God keeps His promises. HOST: Exactly! How about this week, pay attention to your attitude when you re having a bad day or a bad afternoon. Think about God s promises and choose joy! Now it s time to head to Small Group, where you ll talk all about how you can have joy because God keeps His promises. Have a great week, everyone! Dismiss children to their small groups. SFX: Play high-energy music as the kids exit. PAGE 10