PRELUDE SOCIAL STORY 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 Emily Meredith Julie Tiemann Mike Tiemann John Tillman Dana Wilkerson Editors Molly Boylan Elloa Davis Dana Wilkerson 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. 2015 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.
SOCIAL GROUPS PRELUDE STORY WORSHIP HOME BIBLE STORY Whose Line Is It Carefully? (Choose your words carefully) Proverbs 12:18 BOTTOM LINE If you want to be wise, think before you speak. MEMORY VERSE Choose my teaching instead of silver. Choose knowledge rather than fine gold. Proverbs 8:10, NIrV LIFE APP 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 Whachoo Say? STORY: Communicating God s truth in engaging ways Opener Worship Bible Story Prayer Closer WORSHIP: Inviting people to respond to God Our God from Jesus Music Box* Know You Better from Jump* GROUPS: Creating a safe place to connect Cut Down vs. Build Up Funny Advice Words in My Head Prayer HOME: Prompting action beyond the experience GodTime Parent Cue Wisdom finding out what you should do and doing it. BASIC TRUTH I need to make the wise choice. PAGE 2
PRELUDE SOCIAL STORY WORSHIP GROUPS HOME BIBLE STORY Whose Line Is It Carefully? (Choose your words carefully) Proverbs 12:18 BOTTOM LINE If you want to be wise, think before you speak. MEMORY VERSE Choose my teaching instead of silver. Choose knowledge rather than fine gold. Proverbs 8:10, NIrV LIFE APP Wisdom finding out what you should do and doing it. BASIC TRUTH I need to make the wise choice. GETTING READY SOCIAL: PROVIDING TIME FOR FUN INTERACTION (Choose one or both of these activities.) Early Arriver An offering container Whachoo Say? Print the Homophones Activity Page; 1 copy for each Small Group Paper Pencils GROUPS: CREATING A SAFE PLACE TO CONNECT (Choose as many of these activities as you like.) * If you don t have time to do all these activities, be sure to do activity #2. 1. Cut Down vs. Build Up (application activity / review the Bible story) Print the Cut Down or Build Up Cards Activity Pages and cut apart; 1 set for each Small Group 2 sets of blocks *2. Funny Advice (application activity) Print the Situation Cards Activity Page and cut apart; 1 set for each Small Group Print the Advice Cards Activity Page and cut apart; 1 set for each Small Group Pencils 3. Words in My Head (memory verse activity) Bible 2 large sheets of paper or poster board; in large print, write your preferred translation of the memory verse on each Note: Reuse the posters from last week, if you still have them. Prayer No supplies needed PAGE 3
PRELUDE SOCIAL STORY WORSHIP GROUPS HOME Additional Resources: Make copies on cardstock of this week s GodTime and Parent Cue cards. Tell parents about our additional family resources: Studio252.tv, CUE Box, and the Parent Cue app. To find out more about these great resources, go to http://www.studio252.tv/leaders. PAGE 4
PRELUDE STORY WORSHIP GROUPS HOME SOCIAL SOCIAL: PROVIDING TIME FOR FUN INTERACTION Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today s story. Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Pray that today s Bottom Line would really hit home with the kids (and maybe even with your own heart!). Pray that the kids would begin to really think about how their words can cut others hearts. Ask God to help them understand the power of what they say has over their friends and families. Pray that once the kids understand this power, they are encouraged to use it to build others up instead of tearing them down. 1. EARLY ARRIVER IDEA WHAT YOU NEED: An offering container As kids arrive, let them put their offerings in the offering container. Ask kids about times when they ve accidentally hurt someone with their words. Has anyone ever been misunderstood and hurt someone s feelings? [Make It Personal] (Talk about a time when you unintentionally hurt someone s feelings by what you said.) 2. WHACHOO SAY? WHAT YOU NEED: Paper, pencils, Homophones Activity Page Ask if anyone knows the definition of a homophone. Tell kids it s when some words sound the same as other words. For instance, you can RING a bell by hitting it, but you can squeeze a rag to WRING all of the water out of it. They are spelled differently and have different meanings, but they sound the same. Ask if the kids can think of any homophones themselves. Write down the pairs that they come up with. (Refer to the list on the Activity Page if they either can t think of enough or can t think of any. Pick a few from the list and write it on your group s list.) Once you have a list of 10-12 homophones, divide the kids into two different teams. Let one member of each team come up to you so you can whisper a pair of homophones to him. Let that kid get his team to guess the word pair. The clue giver cannot say the words or say which words sound like the word pair. To get the clue correct, the team has to give a definition for both words. The team with more correct answers will be the winner. Note: You can leave the homophones list you made someplace where the kids can see it during the game. PAGE 5
PRELUDE STORY WORSHIP GROUPS HOME SOCIAL Wow. Words can be tricky. It s easy to get confused when so many words sound alike. But there are more important reasons to be careful with our words than just getting a few homophones mixed up. [Transition] Let s go to Large Group and learn more about being careful with our words. Lead your group to the Large Group area. PAGE 6
PRELUDE SOCIAL STORY WORSHIP HOME GROUPS GROUPS: CREATING A SAFE PLACE TO CONNECT Create a safe place to connect and learn how the Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions. 1. CUT DOWN VS. BUILD UP (application activity / review the Bible story) WHAT YOU NEED: Cut Down Or Build Up Cards Activity Pages, 2 sets of blocks Remind kids that in the Story, we heard that the words of thoughtless people cut like swords, but the tongue of wise people brings healing. Divide kids into two teams and give each team a set of blocks. Mix up the cards and have each team draw a card. If it is a building remark, they get to add one block to their tower. If it is a cutting remark, they have to knock down half of the blocks in their tower. In this game you didn t get to choose what words you drew, did you? They were just random, mixed-up words. And it was very difficult to make any progress in building your towers because your words kept cutting it down. In life, we sometimes act the same way. When we speak without thinking carefully first, we will sometimes thoughtlessly hurt or cut down those around us. And just like in this game, it takes many more kind words to build up someone then it does to cut them down. We need to wisely consider what we say before we say it. That way we can be sure that we aren t tossing out cutting words that will carelessly hurt those around us. When we do hurt someone, or anytime we meet someone who has been hurt, we need to remember to speak words that are true, kind, and helpful. If we think about our words before we say them and make sure that they are true, kind, and helpful, we will be speaking wise words of healing and not careless words that cut people down. Remember, [Bottom Line] if you want to be wise, think before you speak. 2. FUNNY ADVICE (application activity) WHAT YOU NEED: Situation Cards Activity Page, Advice Cards Activity Page, pencils Go through the Advice Cards and read off the types of words that you are looking for to fill in the blanks. Have the kids give you the silliest words and phrases that they can think of as you write each on the appropriate card. Then have the kids draw a situation card and read it. Have another kid draw one of the finished advice cards and read it aloud, as advice to the kid who has the situation. We put words in these advice cards without thinking and we came up with some pretty ridiculous, funny advice. None of the things we said would be considered wise or helpful. But in life, when we speak without thinking ahead of time, the results aren t usually funny. In fact, they can be very harmful. If we want to avoid hurting people, we need to think carefully before we speak to make sure our words are true, kind, and helpful. Remember, [Bottom Line] if you want to be wise, think before you speak. PAGE 7
PRELUDE SOCIAL STORY WORSHIP HOME GROUPS 3. WORDS IN MY HEAD (memory verse activity) WHAT YOU NEED: 2 posters with memory verse text, Bible Look up the verse in the Bible and read it with your kids. Show the kids the text of the Memory Verse on the poster and have them read the verse out loud together. Help them to read together in a predictable pace and rhythm. After they are used to the rhythm, have them clap instead of saying one of the words, similar to the song B-I-N-G-O. Let them get used to that, and then have them clap for a second word, then a third, then a fourth. Continue as long as the kids can continue without making a mistake. Sometimes in this game, we clapped instead of saying a word. When we clapped instead of saying the word, the word was still in our head, but we didn t say it out loud. In life, sometimes we need to say our words to ourselves in our heads before saying them out loud. That way we can try them out, think about them, and make sure they are wise and kind words to say. This week, practice saying things in your head before saying them out loud to make sure you are saying things that are true, kind, and helpful. Remember, [Bottom Line] if you want to be wise, think before you speak. PRAY AND DISMISS WHAT YOU NEED: No supplies needed Take prayer requests. Pray for the prayer requests and about what was learned today. Let s pray now for our requests and also to ask God to help us be wise with our words so that we will never hurt others by what we say, but will help them instead. Lord thank You for these requests and for giving us Your wisdom when we ask for it. Lord, we ask for Your wisdom now in how we speak. Help us to think about what we say before we say it so that everything we say will be full of Your wisdom and grace so that everyone will be helped by hearing it. Give each child a GodTime card. Pass out Parent Cue cards as adults arrive to pick up. PAGE 8