Romans 15.4 (ESV) For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Activity: scripture swap Give everyone in the congregation a blank postcard and a pen or crayon. While this is happening, tell a personal story (or invite someone in advance to tell theirs) of how a particular bible story or verse has encouraged you. Ask everyone to write down or draw a bible story or verse that has encouraged them or given them hope. Then get everyone to move around and find someone to swap cards with. Ideally the should swap with someone they don t know so well it s an interesting way to start a conversation with someone that can help a congregation get to know one another better. As they make the swap, they can tell the other person why the story or verse means so much to them. At the end of the swap, invite anyone who wishes to do so, to tell the congregation about what they wrote or drew, or what they received from the person they swapped with. Tips: In case you have visitors or people who are very new to church, and can t think of a bible story or verse, have some spare cards available for them to collect. You could also provide some simple picture cards for very small children to colour. These are easy to find online and print out. As with any activity that involves moving around, be sensitive to those who find this difficult, such as those with reduced mobility. Also be sensitive to those who are hard of hearing and might struggle to hear in a noisy environment as the stories are being shared. Optional extension activities: Invite people to place the cards in the offertory plate, so they can be brought forward to the altar and offered to God. The cards could then be stuck into a scrap book, which can be displayed in church or used as a conversation starter in children s groups or home groups later. Or, you could make the cards into a display for the church notice board, or scan some of them for an article on the church website. You could also look at whether particular verses or stories are especially popular, and plan a sermon series or bible study series on them.
Simple Children s Prayer (may be added to regular intercessions) Heavenly Father, Thank you for the gift of the Bible, for the stories passed down through hundreds and thousands of years. Thank you for everyone who told the stories wrote them down or and translated them so that we could hear them, read them, learn to love them, and share your good news with others. If the leader of the prayers is confident to do so, they could improvise an additional prayer reflecting what took place during the scripture swap, e.g.: Thank you for the story of which reminds us Help us to
Luke 4.16-21 (ESV) 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Activity: words into actions When Jesus read the scroll of Isaiah, he told the people that the scripture had been fulfilled that he was the one who was going to show what those words of prophecy looked like in real life. Without being lived out, words are just words, and if we are the body of Christ, then we are the ones who now need to work out what the words of scripture look like in real life in the communities and schools and workplaces and neighbourhoods where we spend our time. Start with a set of blank cards, and a pen, and ask the congregation to think back to the gospel reading and remember what Jesus said he was going to fulfil. Write each item on a separate card, e.g.: Recovery Proclamation Freedom Good news You may need to unpack the meaning of some of the words, such as proclamation (meaning telling people, announcing things ) Then, expand the question to think more broadly about what sort of instructions or blueprints or manifestoes there are in scripture write them down on cards, too. You may get suggestions including: Any of the ten commandments! The summary of the law (love God, and love your neighbour as yourself) The beatitudes Tags to the parables (e.g. Go out and do likewise from the end of the Good Samaritan)
It may be worth you having a few ideas of your own to add to the suggestions, if the congregation don t come up with very many! Once you have plenty of cards, shuffle the pack and invite anyone who wants to, to come and pick one out. Reflect on the chosen card together, and try to work out what it looks like in real life. Ask a range of different people what it means to them, how they have lived it out (or struggled to do so), and how they might live it out this week, this month etc. Celebrate all the suggestions, emphasising the different ways that the same bit of scripture can be lived out in different contexts and by different people. Repeat the process with a different card, and keep doing it for as long as you want the activity to last! As a conclusion, give everyone a blank card and a pen, and invite them to write down or draw one thing based on scripture that they want to live out. It might be something they will do individually, or as a family, or something that they might enable the whole church might do together. Your closing prayer might be based on the famous words of Teresa of Avila. Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the earth, yours are the feet by which he is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now. St Teresa Variation: Children may prefer to draw what their ideas look like on a large piece of paper, such as flipchart paper or wallpaper liner. You could draw the outline of a book in which the scriptural ideas are written, with the live it out actions written around the edge of the paper. The question for the children (or for the adults!) might be: how do these words escape from the book and get out into the world? Connections & extensions: The congregation may wish to connect their scripture-based action with what they have done (or will do) using Love Life Live Advent, or Love Life Live Lent. If you make your congregational cards bookmark shaped, people might like to use them as a bookmark for their bible; if you make them credit card shaped, you could invite them to keep them in the photo section of their wallet, so they will see the frequently; if you stick a small piece of magnetic tape to the back of each card people can stick them to the fridge. How would your congregation most like to keep what they ve pledged at the forefront of their minds? To remind people that we don t act in our own strength, you might like to print the words of Teresa of Avila on the back of the card.
Simple Children s Prayer (may be added to regular intercessions) Heavenly Father, show us how to turn good news and freedom from words on a page into actions in the world, so that we can bring your gospel to life for the poor, the oppressed, and the prisoners and all who are in need.
Bible pictures The Bible can seem overwhelming one big book, or lots of shorter ones, it s a lot of pages, and most regular churchgoers haven t read the whole thing. This activity enables an all age congregation to get a sense of how the small stories create a big story and to work out our own place in it. For this activity you will need a length of washing line or string and some paperclips or pegs, and set of pictures illustrating bible stories. There are a few options for creating this picture collection it may take you a little time, but it s a resource that you can use again and again with different groups, especially if you laminate the pictures so they last longer. Here are some ideas: The simplest option is to buy a few children s Bibles from a charity shop and cut out the pictures I know it seems wrong to cut up a bible, but this activity will give an old dogeared Bible a new lease of life. Stick the pictures to card before you laminate them. Or, you can search online for images. Jot down a list of stories of episodes in the Bible that you want to illustrate (the more, the better) and do an image search for a range of pictures to match your list. You might like to try and find a variety of different styles, from cartoons to old masters. NB many images are subject to copyright, but may be used for non-commercial purposes, while others are in the public domain. You can start here https://search.creativecommons.org or search via a regular search engine specifically for artworks that are in the public domain. If you want to make things a little more interesting, you could include some pictures that could refer to more than one story, or relate to a biblical theme that occurs again and again in scripture. Examples might include: water, a loaf of bread, a woman with a baby, a mountain, fire, etc. Once you have your images, here s how to use them: Either give them out as people arrive at church, or leave them around the church on seats, or hand them out at the start of the talk. Invite people to look at their picture can they work out what the story is? Explain that we are going to create a picture bible. Get two volunteers to hold the ends of the washing line, and tell the congregation which end is Genesis, and which is Revelation.
Invite everyone to get up and peg their picture to the washing line, in roughly Bible order. This is harder than it looks if you have a lot of images, or more abstract images, or if you used some of the more thematic ideas: is the woman with the baby Mary, or Hannah, or Moses mother? Is the bread from the story of Elijah and the widow, or last supper, the feeding of the five thousand? Is the water from the crossing of the Red Sea, from the baptism of Jesus, or the healing pool at Bethesda? Are the stones from the crossing of the Jordan, or from David s slingshot, or are they the stones that Jesus refused to turn to bread? Hopefully, the process of arranging the pictures in order will be slightly chaotic, lots of fun, and help different members of the congregation to talk to each other about their understanding of the Bible. Encourage people to help each other, ask questions, and wonder together. Once the picture timeline is done, look at it and reflect together on what you learned ask people what surprised them, or what was new to them, whether there were any disagreements about what the pictures meant. Did any common themes emerge? Suggest to the congregation that the individual stories of the Bible are a bit like the verses of a long song. Each verse is different, but it s the same song. If these are the verses, how would the chorus go? Ask the congregation to think of some key words or images that might go in the chorus. They may come up with love, promise, sin, forgiveness, purposes, creation, salvation You might like to write these down on little cards and add them to the washing line. If you have a church building that lends itself to this, you could try and attach your washing line along one wall, so that it can be kept for a while as a display. Remember to keep your laminated images carefully so that you can use them again another time. They make a great discussion starter for a bible study group or an enquirers group, or children s group.
Miscellaneous Ideas & Resources Involving children in worship Readings Even if children don t usually read the readings at your church, today might be a good opportunity to change that. Could you dramatise one of the day s readings, or have more than one voice involved? The gospel reading, from Luke 4, has scope for a narrator, Jesus, and Isaiah, at least! Procession Many churches read the gospel reading from the middle of the church, perhaps with a procession. Even if this isn t usually your tradition, on Bible Sunday you could try it you could even have the gospel-reader leading the children around the church on a longer procession, while you sing a song such as Seek ye first the kingdom of God. As the gospel reading is read, the children could gather around the reader, like the crowds in the synagogue gathered around Jesus in Luke chapter 4. If you prefer, you could invite the children to gather around the lectern, or wherever the reader will be standing while they read. Bring a Bible Invite everyone in the congregation to bring their own bible with them to church, including children s Bibles. Encourage them to find the readings for the day (NB these may not be in every children s Bible it s a good opportunity for children to look at what an adult Bible is like) and follow along. You could invite people to hold their bibles in their hands during a prayer of thanksgiving, or during the collect of the day, or during a prayer for the work of the Bible Society. You could also give out bookmarks to everyone for them to take home and use in their Bible, or even create some book-plate stickers to give out! You could also invite people who have a particularly special Bible at home to bring it in for a display. This might be an old family Bible, a Bible in a different language, or one that was given on a special occasion (such as ordination) or that was used at a significant time (e.g. a Bible carried by someone who fought in WW1 or WW2). You could have a display of different translations of the Bible if you have a Greek or Hebrew copy, this will be fascinating to children and adults alike!
Proper Prefaces for Additional Eucharistic Prayer Two (Church of England) You give us the wonderful story of your love to help us learn that we are your people, and that you will always be our God. Or You give us stories to encourage us, inspire us, challenge us, and comfort us, and teach us how to live. Or You give us your word, to hear and to read, to love and to share, and to live out in our lives. Intercessions God of Love, The Bible tells us that you made the world and everything in it. Help us to take care of all that you have made. The Bible tells us stories of mistakes and forgiveness. Help us to see ourselves and others as you see us. The Bible tells us of judges, kings, queens and heroes. Give wisdom to the rulers of this and every nation. The Bible tells us of fighting, and injustice. Give peace to your broken world. The Bible tells us that you love your people. Help us to love you, too. The Bible tells us that you are always with us, to the end of time. Help us to work with you to build your kingdom. The Bible tells us to love one another. Help us to be kind, and to stand up for all those who cannot stand up for themselves. The Bible tells us that you have a purpose for each of us. Help us to be all that you created us to be.
A concluding prayer Father God, you spoke your word to make the world, you spoke your word to your prophets to guide us, you spoke your word in scripture, to tell the story of your love, and you gave us your living word, Jesus Christ. Bless us in our hearing and reading, bless us in our writing and drawing, bless us in our telling and sharing, and may our time together today be a blessing to ourselves, to one another, and to all we meet. Amen. Written by: Ally Barrett, tutor at Westcott House, a Church of England college training people for ministry. Ally also describes herself on Twitter as a Singing priest, hymn writer, Sci-fi fan, mum, marmite-eater, intermittent blogger.