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Series at a Glance for Elevate ABOUT THIS SERIES There is something exciting about creating something new! Whenever we build, paint, sing, or write, we are creating. Creating is the first thing we see God do in the Bible, and he put that ability in every one of us. He gave us a love of making things, from drawings to graphs and from music to stories. Through the things we design, we can learn about each other, but we can also learn about how God sees us. If God was asked to describe you, what do you think he would say? God crafted you to be you, so come to this series and find out: What does God think of his work? MEMORY VERSE Psalm 139:14 How you made me is amazing and wonderful. I praise you for that. WEEKLY OVERVIEW Lesson Topic Big Idea Lesson 1 April 29/30 Clay: I am known. Creation; Psalm 139; Isaiah 64:8. I am known by God. Lesson 2 May 6/7 Paint: I am worthwhile. Exodus 2-4. I am worth God s time. Lesson 3 May 13/14* Music: I am unique. Exodus 4:13-17, 35:30-37:9, Joshua 1. I am an important part of God s plan. Lesson 4 May 20/21 Photography: I am loved. Luke 5:1-11, John 1:35-51, Acts 2. I am loved by God. Animation: I am made alive. Acts 9. Jesus gives me life. Lesson 6 June 3/4 Sculpture: I am designed. Esther 2-7. I am being designed by God. 2
Series at a Glance for Elevate (continued) April 29/30 Clay: I am known. Have you ever watched someone throw a lump of clay? Potters put clay on a fast spinning wheel, and then use their hands, arms, and whatever else they need to turn this lump of clay into a beautiful work of art. No matter what they are making, however, everyone starts the same, with a lump of clay and an idea. God knows exactly who he is crafting you to be. Just like the first books of the Bible remind us, God knew us from the very beginning, the moment when he created the world! May 6/7 Paint: I am worthwhile. Painting takes a lot of time. People devote years of their lives to creating a single painting, crafting and recreating every detail until it is complete. Until it is finished, a painting usually just looks messy. Moses saw himself as messy, incomplete, and not worth God s time. Fortunately, God looked at him and saw someone who was worth taking a lifetime to work on and build a relationship with. Just like he did for Moses, God sees through our mess to an amazing completed picture. May 13/14 Music: I am unique. Everyone can make music! People use their voices, hands, and just about anything else they can to create sound. Not everyone can make the same music, however. If you are playing a tuba, you will never sound like a flute. Like Moses found out, that s a good thing! We remember him, but God worked through many people to make Moses story happen, and each of them were unique. Just like each of those people, God has designed and chosen you for a purpose. May 20/21 Photography: I am loved. Taking pictures seems simple, but it takes a lot of skill. A great photographer turns an ordinary moment into something beautiful. Not by making something up or changing things, but by seeing the beauty that is already all around. Through the stories of Jesus choosing his disciple Peter, we will think about how God sees us. We may feel ordinary or worthless, but God sees something amazing that has been there the whole time. Animation: I am made alive. God created every person uniquely and incredibly! Every person reflects who God is. The problem is that even though we are designed by God, something called sin keeps us from having the life God means us to have. We do wrong things, disobey God, and hurt others. How can we have a life that is close to God? This week, hear how a man named Saul discovered God s plan for him in an amazing way. Just like Saul, each of us can have a new life with God! June 3/4 Sculpture: I am designed. Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Maybe if God had made some different choices, like making you stronger, taller, or less freckly, life would be way better? The truth is, God is designing you down to the last detail. Everything that happens to you is for an amazing purpose. Esther discovered that God s plans for her weren t over after she became a queen. In fact, God had a purpose for her that no one else could do. Even if you aren t sure what his plan is, God is designing you with a purpose, too. 3
What You Need to DO and KNOW Each Week Opening Do This: Encourage everyone to gather near the stage, and have FUN! Give high-fives, welcome the kids by name, dance to the music, and let kids know we re going to have fun today! Interact with the crowd! Create a buzz about what is going to happen. Know This: This is intended to be a fun time! You as the leader need to set that standard so kids can feel comfortable. If you re not willing to open up and be silly, they won t either. It s ok if some kids are shy or stand-offish, but YOU should model what we d like to see! Welcome Do This: Greet the kids with enthusiasm without being overwhelming. Know This: During this time you are working to gain the kids trust. Something as simple as telling them what is going to happen during the hour can help relieve some anxiety that they may have. We will also gain their trust by showing them that this is a place that is not weird or different from what they see in other places. Worship Do This: Perform the provided actions to the songs and demonstrate enthusiastic worship for kids. Encourage kids to join in, but don t force them to participate. Read aloud any verses that are on the screen (unless the song features a voice over). Direct the kids attention towards God. Call out upcoming lyrics when appropriate and help the kids engage in singing. Know This: It s okay if some kids don t sing or do actions to the songs. They may worship by just reflecting on the lyrics and listening. Our music set is generally made of high-energy songs to help kids get engaged in worship. Media Do This: Sit or stand to the side of the screen(s). Watch the media and appear engaged using appropriate non-verbals. Know This: Although this is a good time to catch your breath and gather your thoughts, you are still technically on. Kids may be looking at you to see if you are watching the videos, and if you don t look engaged, they may not choose to engage either. Prayer Do This: Ask the kids to be respectful and quiet; you will pray out loud, while they pray quietly in their hearts and heads. Sit or crouch down and engage the kids as you pray. Know This: We want the kids to learn how to pray by seeing you model this. Feel free to say your own prayer this one is simply a suggestion, but do keep it short. Bible Verses & Memory Verse Do This: Read any verses from the side screen aloud. Make the memory verse fun! After you ve read it, do something silly like challenge the boys to be louder than the girls, jump up and down, add actions, or have the kids recite the verse using different voices. 4
Lesson Outline for Elevate : I am Made Alive Lesson Segment Total Running Time Opening Song (2:00) Welcome (4:00) Song 1: Brighter (4:00) 0:00-10:00 Bumper Video (1:00) Lesson Intro (1:00) Group Activity (7:00) Spark Plugs: Part 1 (4:00) Share Your Story (2:00) Memory Verse (2:00) Spark Plugs: Part 2 (5:00) Message (6:00) Song 2: Remind Me (5:00) Spark Plugs: Challenge (1:00) Wrap-Up (1:00) 10:00-45:00 Group Time (15:00) 45:00-60:00 Video Cue Slide Cue Audio Cue Tech Notes 5
Opening Song 2:00 (Roll when directed) Elevate Opener Hello everyone, and welcome to Elevate! Let s get started. Throw away your popcorn and come up to the front! While you are getting up here, turn to one person around you and learn their name. Got it? When I say Go, yell their name out to me. Ready, set, go! JUMBLED NAMES! (Auto advance) Elevate Slide and Underscore Welcome 4:00 My name is. It is so awesome that you are here today! We ll get to worship God with some music, hear an amazing true story from the Bible, and have some fun activities on the way. Before all of that, let s get started with a question of the day! Question of the Day Video (Auto Advance) QOTD Slide: What is your favorite animated movie? What is your favorite animated movie? A movie is animated when the characters aren t real people. Instead they are pictures that can move around and talk. The Lego Batman Movie, Moana, and the Smurfs are all examples of animated movies. I am telling you all this because is a really important word in our lesson today, so I want you to know what it means. Turn to two people around you and tell them your answer to the question of the day! Do This: Emcee as the kids are sharing their answers. Encourage them to share with those around them. If time allows, you can ask a couple of kids to share their answers with the larger group. We ll hear a lot more about animation today. Animation is a lot like what God did when he created this world. He made everything that we can see, everything we can t see, and He is 6
the one who created everything that is alive, like plants, animals, you, and me. God s amazing power and awesome love are two reasons we worship him. Worship Worship 4:00 Worship is what we call it when we show God that we love him. Serving others, sharing God s love with them, coming to church, and singing songs about God are all ways we can worship. Let s stand and sing this song about God together. Song 1: Brighter. (Auto advance) Worship Singing with you is great! You can sit, but let s take a moment to worship God by praying, too. God, thank you for telling us who you made us to be. Thank you for showing us how much you love us through Jesus. Help us to trust the things you say about us. Amen. Run the Bumper Video as the prayer ends. Lesson Intro 1:00 Elevate Bumper Video (Auto-Advance) This series is titled. It s all about art and design, and how God has created you and me. For the past few weeks, we have been talking about our Identities, or who we are. We ve learned that the best place to find your identity is to believe what God says about you. He says that you are worth His time, that you are being designed into something 7
amazing, and that you are loved. No matter what happens, or where you are, you can trust that what God says about you is true. Today, we are asking an important question. How can I be the person God made me to be? God made you amazing and wonderful, but no one is amazing and wonderful all the time. How can you and I be all that God says we can be? We can, and I ll tell you how in a few minutes. First, I ve got an activity for your groups! Group Activity 7:00 Today we are talking about how we can be who God made us to be, so this activity is going to help you practice following someone else. It s called Matching Animation! Matching Animation This activity is like the game Telephone, except instead of words, you will be using actions! Everyone in your group will stand in a line facing the stage. Your group leader will choose one of the options on their card, and act it out for the person in the back of the line. No one else can look, only the person in the back. Then she or he will try to act out the exact same thing for the person in front of them, and so on until your action gets to the front of the line. The person in front gets to guess what everyone else was acting out! Do This: Help kids get into their groups. Ensure each leader has a card with options for what to act out. Encourage and interact with them as they play. If there is time, they may play more than once. Fun Game Music! That was a lot of fun to watch! Did anyone guess one of their cards correctly? None of us can be exactly like someone else, that s what makes that game hard. The good news is, God didn t make you to be anyone else, he made you to be you! You are made exactly the way you are supposed to be. Video One 4:00 This is a great time to check in with the Spark family. Let s see what they are learning about who God made them to be. 8
Spark Plugs: Part 1 (Auto advance) Share Your Story 2:00 It s never fun to fail, but all of us do it. Do This: Share a personal, relevant, age-appropriate story about a time when you didn t meet expectations. Maybe you did something wrong and got a talking to, or failed at something you were supposed to be great at. What happened? How did you feel? How did you respond to failure? All of us have failed, even though none of us want to. Sometimes we fail because we made a mistake, but sometimes it is because we ve made a bad choice or have done something we weren t supposed to. In this series, we have learned that God loves us, he has made us unique, and is designing us into exactly who he wants us to be. Being who God made us to be is a big deal. It means we tell the truth, even when it s hard. It means we love other people, even when we don t want to. It means we obey what God says, even when it s not the popular thing to do. There s only one way we can live up to that expectation. Memory Verse 2:00 Let s look at a couple more things God says about us. Our memory verse is from a part of the Bible called Psalms. These words are actually part of a song that someone named David wrote several thousand years ago. He s singing these words to God. Memory Verse: Psalm 139:14 How you made me is amazing and wonderful. I praise you for that. Do This: Have kids recite the verse with you 3-4 times. Make this time fun by splitting the kids up into three groups, and having each group sing part of the verse. They can sing however they would like, but when you point at their group, everyone has to sing whatever part of the verse you are on. God made you amazing and wonderful. No matter what you ve done, God still thinks you are amazing and wonderful, but our question today is how do I start acting like that? 9
Video 2 5:00 I think checking in with the Sparks again will help us learn more about how we can be the amazing and wonderful people God made us to be. Spark Plugs: Part 2 (Auto advance) Message 6:00 Joey just made an awesome choice! Asking Jesus to be our leader is the most important decision we can ever make. That s the choice Saul made in the story we heard, too. At first, Saul thought that being who God made him to be meant obeying every rule carefully. He thought that God s love for him was based on things he did. Sadly, this made him so afraid and angry about people who didn t follow those rules that he tried to hurt them. Saul tried to show that he was better and obeyed God more than other people. That was his identity. Where have you put your identity? Do you want people to notice the good things that you do? What about a sport, a subject at school, or an art that you are really good at? It s easy to put our worth and identity into those things, but it s also dangerous. Let me show you why. Do This: Bring out several bricks, and begin to build a corner, like the corner of a house. Do this by placing one brick, then another at a right angle to it. Build up from there. The brick in the bottom corner is the cornerstone. The weight of the corner should be focused on that one brick. All of these bricks represent your identity. These are the things you believe about yourself. Some of these are true, some of them might not be true. Some of these are things that have happened to you. Some of them are nice things people have said, like You re really great at spelling, or Nice goal! Those things can build your identity up, and that is awesome. I ve got a pretty good identity started up here. There is one problem. Do This: Point at the cornerstone. This brick is the most important one of all. It is called the cornerstone, because it holds up this whole corner. This represents the one biggest thing you want to put all your value, your worth, and your identity on. Some people put their worth in having a lot of money, and then they lose their wealth. Some people put it in sports, then they get an injury, or just get older, and can t play anymore. Some people think they are valuable because they are the best at something, but then someone comes along who is better. For Saul, his identity was in always doing the right thing, until he realized he was making very bad choices. 10
Do This: Pull out the cornerstone, so that the whole structure collapses. Carry the brick around for the next part of the lesson. So many of the things we think are important won t be around very long. The good news is, you don t have to build your identity on those things. There is one cornerstone for your identity, one thing that will never leave or fail you. Look at the side screens to find out what that is. Acts 4:11-12 Scripture says that Jesus is the stone you builders did not accept. But it has become the most important stone of all. You can t be saved by believing in anyone else. God has given us no other name under heaven that will save us. Scripture is another word for the Bible. Here, the Bible says Jesus is the stone the builders didn t accept. That s a quick story of Jesus. He did miracles, healed people, and showed people that God loves them. Jesus never did anything wrong, but he wasn t accepted. People laughed at Jesus, hurt him, and killed him by putting him on a cross. Even though he is God s son, Jesus let all this happen so he could take the punishment we deserved for doing wrong things. Three days after he died, Jesus proved that he was God s son by coming back to life. That s the next part of this verse. Jesus has become the most important stone of all. We deserve to be punished for making bad choices. We can t be friends with God, because the wrong things we have done keep us separated from him. Jesus came to save us from that punishment. He died so that you and I could be friends with God, and live the way he made us to. Just like Saul found out, making bad choices and sinning means you are missing out on the life God created you to live. If you don t know Jesus, you are missing out on being who God made you to be. When we know how much God loves us and make the choice to follow and obey him, something incredible happens to our life. This verse was written by Saul himself, after his name was changed to Paul. 2 Corinthians 5:17- Anyone who believes in Christ (Jesus) is a new creation! The old is gone! The new has come! Believing in Jesus, making him the leader of your life, means that you are a new creation! He is the most important thing in your life, the cornerstone of your identity. That means you can do the things Jesus did. You can be God s friend, and share his love with everyone. You can forgive others, show people how to honor God in what you do, and defend people who are in trouble. It means that no matter where you go, what you do, or who you are, God will be with you. It means that when your life here on earth is done, your new life with God will keep on going, and you will live in heaven with him. That doesn t mean that you will never 11
do anything wrong. It means that even when you make mistakes, God will always be crafting you into the best possible version of you. That s an amazing transformation. How can we do that? How do I put Jesus in as the cornerstone of my life? All you have to do is ask God, and choose to follow him with your whole life. Some of you may have done that already, and that is awesome. For you, I want to remind you that whatever you are going through, Jesus is still your cornerstone. He is always with you, and will never fail. on following him! Some of you may have more questions, and that is great, too. This is a big decision, the most important decision of your life. I want you to feel totally ready when you make it. I, or any of your group leaders, would love to talk to you about any questions you have. For some of you, today is your day. You want to make Jesus your leader and savior, you want to live the way God made you to live. That doesn t happen all at once, it s an adventure that will take the rest of your life. You can take the first step right now. I m going to lead in a prayer. If you are ready to make Jesus the leader of your life, you can pray with me. I will give you time to repeat the words out loud or in your head. There isn t anything special about these words, we are talking to God. If you choose to pray this, you are telling God that you know you have done wrong things, and that you deserve to be punished. Then, you will say that you believe that Jesus died in your place, and came back to life. Finally, you are asking Jesus to be your leader and savior. Let s all bow our heads and close our eyes to show respect to God while we talk to him. God, I know that I have sinned. I ve made bad choices, and I am sorry. I believe that Jesus is your son. I believe that he died on the cross, took my punishment, and came back to life, so that I can be forgiven. Jesus, I ask you now to be my leader, Savior, and friend forever. I choose to follow you. Amen. 12
Worship 5:00 Congratulations! If you just asked Jesus to be your leader and Savior for the first time, congratulations! You have made the most important decision ever, the choice to follow God! If you just made that choice, we have some things to give you, so head to the back of the room, while the rest of us stand up and worship God, with a great song we ve been learning this series, called Remind Me. This song is about being who God says we are. Song 2: Remind Me. (Auto advance) Spark Plugs Challenge 1:00 I love singing with all of you. Let s find out what our challenge is for this week. Spark Plugs: Challenge Tell someone about what Jesus has done for you. (Auto advance) If you have decided to follow Jesus, he has changed your life, made a way for you to be God s friend, and taken the punishment you deserved for the wrong things you have done. Those are incredible things to share with others. You could even tell someone how Jesus is like a cornerstone for your life, how no matter what, you can always know that he loves you, and that he is with you. Wrap-Up 1:00 If you only remember one thing from today, remember this. Jesus gives me life. 13
Jesus gives me life. He can give you life, too! This kind of life means living the way God made you to live. Just like he did for Saul, God can take our old life, full of bad choices and sin, and turn it into something new, the life he made us to life. When we follow Jesus, he helps us live that way a little more every day. Group Time 15:00 One way we can follow God each day is by spending time with him, learning about him and talking to him. We call talking to God prayer. We don t have to do anything special to make him hear us, he will always just listen, even if you don t say your prayer out loud. Here in Elevate, we like to fold our hands and close our eyes, to keep from being distracted while we pray. Let s do that now. God, we love you. Thank you for sending Jesus for us. Help us to follow you, and be who you made us to be. Amen. I m so glad you were all here in Elevate, have fun in group time! Group Time Slide Group Time Music Elevate Slide 14