How to Navigate the New Testament

How to Navigate the New Testament Lesson 2: Love God s Church TM.com

How to Navigate the New Testament Lesson 2 Love God s Church TM Unit Summary For many kids, the Bible seems so big and complex that they feel overwhelmed. They don t know how to start mining the riches in the New Testament. In this unit, you will take children on a tour that will unlock the mysteries of God s Word and give them confidence to navigate through the New Testament. Your kids will learn how the New Testament fits together. You will show that the 27 New Testament books fall into three groups: History, Living Letters, and Prophecy. In addition, they will meet some key authors of the New Testament. Finally, you will guide children to apply Bible truths to their lives. Lesson Summary Our New Testament tour continues with the first group of letters that help teach about God and what Christians believe. When children want to know what we believe as Christians, they can find answers in these letters from Paul, who wrote them primarily to answer questions being asked by believers in the Church. Kids today have questions and need to learn that the Bible has the answers they seek. Paul s Power Principle: The apostle Paul sent letters to encourage churches. Disciple Targets In this lesson, your children will... Know Nine Living Letters show churches how to be strong Feel Glad that God wants churches to grow and flourish Do Pray for all the churches in their community 1

SUpplies General Supplies Bibles, puppets, video projection (optional) Pencils, pens, paper Spark Interest WELCOME!: writing supplies LET S PLAY!: baseball items (optional) CONNECT WITH YOUR KIDS: good friend Explore Scripture KEYVERSE: none Inspire Action DRAMATIZE THE POINT: Bible-times clothes, pen and ink, parchment, old table PowerPoint Presentation As you plan your lesson, select PowerPoint slides that correspond to the lesson elements you choose. In the Slide Sorter View, you can rearrange and/or delete the slides as necessary. For descriptions of the included slides and tips on their use, see the notes accompanying each slide. SPARK INTEREST Choose from the following activities and ideas to engage kids and grab their attention. How to Navigate the NT Lesson 2 2011, DiscipleLand. All rights reserved. Karl Bastian / Kidology.org Welcome! Letters of Encouragement As the children arrive early, have letter-writing stations set up with paper, stickers, rubber stamps, crayons, markers, etc. Encourage the children to write letters of encouragement to missionaries that the church supports. Have pre-addressed envelopes ready so that all you need to do is seal them and give them to the church office to mail. Optional: Have the kids write letters to people they know or love but to whom they haven t written in a while. Have envelopes ready as well. Have them put the letter in the envelope and address with the name but not seal them. (Parents will want to approve the letters before they are mailed; they will also have to address the envelopes and add postage.) Let s Meet-n-Greet! Invite the kids to turn and give a compliment to two kids sitting around them. Leaders, be sure to stop whatever you are doing to move through the audience and greet the children, especially those you do not recognize. Announce any birthdays for the week. (See the How to Use Disciple- Town guide for quick and easy ways to acknowledge visitors and birthdays.) 2

Let s Worship! Recommended Song: Freckle, from God Rocks, Cry Out!, available on Kidology.org God loves every part of you freckles, bad breath, and all! Just as this song tells you that God loves you just the way you are, Living Letters were written to encourage Christians during tough times. Puppet Intro Leader & puppet introduce today s lesson. You will find a scripted version of this intro at the end of the lesson. Puppet has a giant Valentine s Day card that he has made. Leader is curious because it isn t Valentine s Day. Puppet explains that he noticed the lesson is about loving God s Church, so he made a valentine for the church. He reads the card. It describes his love for the church with phrases about how he loves the doors, the windows, the steeple, and so on (describe your church building) and how beautiful the colors are. Leader finally interrupts him and breaks it to him that when we talk about loving the Church, we aren t talking about the building; we are talking about the people. Puppet says, Uh-oh. Leader asks, Why is that an uh-oh? Puppet replies, Because people aren t as easy to love! Leader laughs and says, True, but God wants us to love people the way He does. And the Church is God s people. Puppet says, But how do I learn to love God s people? Leader says, Well, you can start by reading the letters that the apostle Paul wrote to the first churches they were filled with advice on just that subject! Puppet asks, Were they like valentines for the churches? Leader says, Not exactly. They were more like letters from a friend answering the people s questions and explaining to them what Christians believed and how to live as a Christian after Jesus went back to heaven. Puppet is really excited. Wow, I need to read those letters! I always knew the Bible was a big book from God, but I never thought of the books in the Bible as letters to me from someone to help me understand God better. I can t wait to take a closer look. I gotta go! I wanna dive deeper into my Bible. Later! Let s Play! Bible Book Baseball: Living Letters to Churches Series! Note: Use the New Testament Tour found in the Additional Resources download to motivate kids to learn more about the New Testament. Use questions from the tour as you lead the children in a Bible Baseball game. Set up: Create a baseball infield around the outer edge of your room. The bases can be made of poster board, or you may simply mark out areas on the floor with tape. Contestants begin on the stage, which is home plate. Label first base History, second base Living Letters, and third base Prophecy. Two Options: You can divide into two teams (such as sides of the room or boys vs. girls) or simply have children compete as individuals. (Individual play is more likely to encourage personal study during the week.) You may be able to combine the two so that you have fun competition during the service for team points, but reward those who make it around the bases as well. Rules of Play: The leader calls out questions from the New Testament Tour Guide. (See sample questions below.) Use only questions from the Living Letters to Churches for today s game. Children race to raise their hands and provide the correct answer. The first child to answer correctly gets to come to home plate to begin working his or her way around the bases. Once a child has made it around all four bases, he or she returns to the audience; the child still can compete to do the bases again if time allows. 3

Sample Questions: 1) Which book wants us to choose to live in harmony? 2) Which book s theme is to be strong? 3) Which book wants us to reflect Jesus joy? 4) 2 Thessalonians wants us to do our... what?) Multi-play Option: The purpose of this game is less about the game and more about the repetition of the content and the children learning the biblical content of the books. Therefore, the more who are participating the better. In order to speed the game play and allow more children to advance, though only one leader may be reading the questions, you can have multiple leaders choosing children to compete. You can have as many children chosen to answer and advance as you have leaders to pick and listen to answers! In other words, if you have six leaders, after the question is read, it can be the first six kids to raise their hands and give the correct answer to the nearest leader who advance. Each of those six leaders will look for the nearest child who raises a hand first, walk over to the child, and listen to the answer. You can post a leader at each base to determine who on the base was the first to raise a hand to advance off that base and move forward to the next base. Continue the game week to week if you wish. Keep track of what base kids were on, and let them pick up where they left off the week before. This way you can set a time limit for the game, such as ten minutes, and even use a timer and play until time is up. The leaders at each base can write down who was on that base before the kids sit down. Connect with Your Kids The best way to communicate that loving God s Church means loving God s people is to demonstrate that truth in a tangible way. Children are concrete relational; that means they do not naturally understand abstract concepts; they need examples. Consider inviting someone from the church who is a really good friend you have helped or who has helped you in a time of need. Together, share that story with the children. Explain that this is what God means when He talks about loving God s Church. It is the body of Christ pulling together and helping each other. It is one thing to tell children the Church should help each other; it is another to give them concrete examples they can see and hear from people they know. 4

DiscipleTown Visitor [Your State] Jones* (Indiana-Jones-type character for example, Colorado Jones or Wisconsin Ted or Virginia Virginia. ) Dressed as an adventurer and with a parchment rolled with a wax seal, Jones comes onstage, looking confused. This time he has a bag or backpack with scrolls and a Bible peeking out the top. He s carrying a parchment letter with a wax seal on it. Jones: This just keeps getting more complicated! Leader: Did you find out everything you needed to know about Jesus? Jones: [Looks up suddenly.] Huh? Oh. Yeah. Those books are amazing! I learned so much about Jesus. Did you know that He was God s Son, and that His execution on the cross was really so that all mankind could be saved? Did you know He had twelve close friends, but one betrayed Him? It was amazing! It makes those historical documents make so much sense! Leader: That s right! So, what are you researching now? Jones: History is such a bizarre thing. I mean, I have been reading the Bible, and it talks about the Church, and this guy Paul seems to be writing letters to all sorts of churches, but here [Shows the sealed parchment.] is a letter signed by the Roman emperor Nero declaring that the Church was outlawed! So if that is true, there wouldn t have been any churches to write to, would there? Leader: Ah, yes, you re talking about the epistles those are letters in the New Testament to help the Church grow. Jones: I don t understand. If there is no Church, how can it grow? Leader: The Church isn t a building; the Church is people! All those people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah became known as Christians. Wherever there is a group of Christians, that could be called a church! Jones: Wait a minute, all these letters were sent to groups of Christians in an age when it was illegal to be a Christian? Leader: Yes, many of them in fact were written when the authors were in prison! Jones: Nero said zero! He wanted the Church gone! Hah! Little did he know the Church was made up of people! I guess Nero was the real zero! Leader: Ha, ha! That s right! In fact the Bible records those letters in the New Testament books like Romans and Corinthians! [Turns to kids.] Do you know any other books that might have been sent to churches to help them grow? [Answers include: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians.] Jones: Well... that explains things! The Bible really does help me understand a lot! *CHARACTERS: These are suggested characters and names. Please feel free to change or adjust according to the actors and props you have available. 5

EXPLORE SCRIPTURE Seize on the children s interest and direct them into God s Word. Let s Search! Bible Dash Supplies: Bibles Ask all kids with Bibles to participate, or invite a few volunteers to come to the front. As children hold Bibles closed with hands on covers, state the Bible reference twice, then on the command SEARCH! have the students race to locate the verse. Once they have a finger on the verse, they can stand and call out, FOUND IT! Have the first child read the verse aloud while you project the verse on a screen via PowerPoint. See suggestions below for comments on each verse. Keep your comments brief and to the point of the lesson. John 13:34 Colossians 3:13 Ephesians 4:2 1 Thessalonians 5:11 1 John 3:11 1 John 4:7 1 John 4:11 1 John 4:12 2 John 1:5 As Jesus has loved, we should love each other. Bear with each other and forgive each other. Bear with each other in love. Encourage each other and build each other up. The message from the beginning has been to love one another. Let us love one another because love is from God. Since God loves us, we should love one another. God lives in us when we love one another. A command from the beginning: Love one another. Click here to change text Paul s Power Principle: The apostle Paul sent letters to encourage churches. Suggested Bible Narrative The Early Church Acts 2:42 47 All the believers shared with each other, and the Church grew. These verses are a wonderful example of how the Church is supposed to function. If your Bible translation supports it, here is a fun joke associated with these verses: Q: What car did the early church leaders like best? A: The Honda Accord, because all the believers were in one accord. Let s Learn! Love God s Church This is the Church: Remember the old game kids did with their hands? Here is the church, here is the steeple... Demonstrate it to the kids and then ask them what is theologically wrong with that. (Allow for responses.) The answer is that the line Here is the church, here is the steeple suggests that the Church is a building. It isn t! It is people! Because of the physical contact, play the following game as boys vs. girls. Choose eight to twelve boys and girls (depending on the size of your group and stage) and have them come on the stage and form with their bodies a church. They can lie down, stand, use their arms outstretched any creative idea they can think of to form a church building. If any props are used (such as a person standing on a chair in the center to form a steeple) they can only do so if a duplicate prop is available for the other team; though the other team is not obligated to use 6

the prop, it must be available for fairness. Afterward, take pictures of the churches to post on a bulletin board or the church website for fun. Let the audience vote by applause which church building is the best. Encourage the kids not just to vote for their own gender. The Point: Let this fun activity be a reminder that the Church is not the building we meet in, but the people of God. In fact, some Christians don t meet in regular church buildings. Some meet in homes, storefronts, warehouses, rented rooms in a school, park district buildings, or hotels. Some even meet in secret where it isn t legal to have a church! That is why Paul wrote letters to many of the early churches to encourage them to stay faithful to Jesus, even when they were going through hard times. They didn t have nice Braids: A single strand is strong, but three strands woven together are almost unbreakable (Ecclesiastes 4:12). God loves the Church, and He knew the best way for the Church to grow and be strong is for its people to love one another, work together, and help each other. God desires for His truth to be told to everyone, and His Church, when we work together, remains strong. We must love one another and work together just as the letters to churches instruct us to do. Scrambled Game: Beforehand, write one letter each on notecards to complete the following: All the believers shared with each other and the Church grew. Write the entire phrase on a final card. Scatter the cards on the floor. Pick up one card and ask the children what the message is. Repeat with other cards. Ask the kids why they can t tell you what the message is by looking at the individual cards; discuss. Pick up three or four cards and make up silly, random words like rebel, hair, or chug) and ask the kids if this seems to be the message in the cards. Pick a team to see if they can assemble the message without help (it s from today s Bible narrative). If they need a clue, give them the cue card and let them assemble it. God chose to use all the individuals in His Church to share the message of Christ. We need to love each other, work together, and be unified in order to spread the right message. God gave us these books of the New Testament so that we would know how to work together to share the true message of God s love for the world. BONUS POWERPOINT: For those wanting to dig deeper, the Supplemental Resources download folder contains a bonus PowerPoint with slides outlining the New Testament books and highlighting each book s theme, theme verse, and action step. Customize a presentation to teach kids the Living Letters to Churches. Dee s Disciple Tip: Go Eat Pop Corn! A fun way to remember the order of the books Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians is to remember the saying, Go Eat Pop Corn. 7

KeyVerse Topic: The New Testament s Purpose Reference: John 20:30-31 Memorization Activity: Review what you worked on last week and add to it this week, focusing on the purpose of God s Word so that we may believe that Jesus truly is the Son of God, and that by believing in Him, we may have life in His name. Point out that a lot of people say the Bible is a good book filled with wisdom and is worthy of study. That is true, but it is so much more. It has the power to change the lives of those who will obey it and meet the One who wrote it! 8

INSPIRE ACTION Encourage kids to apply the Bible truth to their lives. Dramatize the Point Meet the Author Every week during this unit a different biblical author will visit DiscipleTown to talk about the book (or books) of the Bible he wrote and why and how he wrote them. The author will read one of his favorite passages and then do a book signing at the end of the service. (If you have a time machine, that would be a fun addition to this activity!) This week Paul is here to talk to the children about the books that he wrote. A basic summary of the dialogue appears below however, the actor is encouraged to build on this and ad-lib. This is only a suggested text. It is not intended to be memorized. Paul is dressed in torn, ragged, prison garments with chains or shackles. If possible, have an old table with a feather quill and parchment. He enters, a little embarrassed that he is underdressed for his guests. He is rubbing his hands from the writing he just finished. Please forgive me, I have been writing for some time. I have so much that I want to tell the new churches in Ephesus and Galatia. He pauses and turns to the children. Oh! The churches are full of believers just like you. Every day I write more to them. I am stuck here in prison because I was preaching about Jesus in the temple square. I can no longer be with my beloved friends in the churches, so I can only write. I hope my writings will help them know how much God loves them, how forgiveness and grace work, and how they should be with one another so that they will grow to be mature believers. I have just finished this letter. Would you please take it with you and give it to the church in Philippi? I don t know how long I will be here. I have to go; there is so much more to write. Don t forget that those who have never heard of Jesus, God s Son, will believe that what you say is true if they see the love that you have for the Church for one another. Now hurry, take this letter. I must get back to my writing. Object Talks inavigate the New Testament LETTERS to CHURCHES Supplies: video projection The videos in this unit feature a fun character named ireed Dabook who helps kids learn how to navigate the New Testament by using his GPS device (God s Powerful Scripture device). He explain the sections of the Bible and gives a brief overview of the books of the Bible in each featured section covered in this video. Featured NT books: Letters to Churches 9

on presented by month day year Let s Talk! Small Group Discussion Small Group Activity: Have the kids in your group work together to locate the various churches in your city on a map and mark their locations with stickers. Let s Talk Option: Instead of each group having a map, have one giant map on a wall and give each small group slips of paper with addresses of area churches (include cross streets). Have them go to the map and stick up a sticky note with the name of the church where it is located on the map. Discussion Questions: 1. Is our church the only good church in our city? 2. How can we know if another church truly serves Jesus? 3. If God s Church is really people, how should we as Christians treat other Christians from different churches? 4. Do you think it is possible to work with other churches to see our city saved? Why or why not? 5. How can we allow God to change our hearts so that our city can see God s love in us as we love each other? Awarded to for Good Role-Modeling award DiscipleTown Super Citizen Choose a child who brought a friend to church today and award him or her with the certificate. Let s Pray! Dear Jesus, thank You for showing us in the Living Letters that you care about the Church. Forgive us for not caring about the Church, especially the other churches in our city. Help us to desire unity and to love each other as You have taught us. We pray that You would help us make people more important than buildings so that Your kingdom can come to our city. In Your holy name, amen. Cy s Challenge: Write a message of encouragement to someone this week. Let s Review! If you have extra time, use these review questions to keep the kids focused on the lesson until time to dismiss. A handful of candy will help you keep their attention. After each question, take a minute to reiterate the lesson point related to the question. 1) The first letters of the New Testament are the. 2) How many Living Letters to Churches are there? 3) Who wrote most of the New Testament letters? 4) T/F The Church is the building we meet in. 5) Who was the emperor who persecuted Christians? (Nero) 6) Go Eat Pop Corn reminds us of what? 7) What was the early Church known for? 8) T/F The Bible records everything Jesus did. 10

For the Home DiscipleTown Table Talker: Give each child a copy of this week s DiscipleTown Table Talker. Be sure to show the kids how to put it together and encourage them to ask their parents to lead family devotions three times this week. Parent Email: Copy and send the email below to help your parents connect with their kids during the week. Send them early in the week, but not on Sunday. As a courtesy, be sure parents have opted to receive these emails. Review and edit as necessary to reflect the lesson elements you have used. You can also find this email as a Microsoft Word document in your download bundle. Dear Mom and Dad, This lesson we explored how much God loves the Church not the building, but the people! We learned how important it is that we love each other. We were challenged to consider the other churches that love Jesus in our city and how we can work together in unity so that more people in our city can be saved. As you eat and share this week, be sure to use the DiscipleTown Table Talkers as conversation starters. Perhaps there are families within your own church who you do not know very well, that you could begin developing a friendship with. Take some time to encourage your leaders and pastors with the help of your child(ren) so that they can practice what it means to love the Church. As we go through this series, we want to encourage you to ask your child(ren) what they are learning. Ask them questions and share the exploration with them. You may even find that your own knowledge and understanding of the New Testament deepens as you share these explorations with your child(ren). If there is anything we can do to help or encourage you, please let us know! Building young disciples, [Your Name] 11

BONUS MATERIALS Use these options to extend your time or as substitutes for the ideas above. Chip s Snack Time! Supplies: stick pretzels, mini marshmallows (or grapes), fruit roll-up Guide the children to make a church frame using the marshmallows (or grapes). Punch the pretzel in to build a cube on the bottom and a triangular roof. Lay the fruit roll-up over the frame to form the roof. God loves the Church so much that He gave Living Letters to us so that we would know how to build the Church. The teachings in these books give us a framework to build our faith on just as a building needs a framework to hold up the walls and roof. Additional Ideas Paper Weave Place Mat Supplies: construction paper (cut into strips), tape or glue 1. Cut 9 strips that are 12 long. 2. Cut 12 strips that are 9 long. 3. Place the long strips horizontally and weave the short strips vertically. 4. Glue or tape the ends of the horizontal strips to one of the vertical strips, alternating top and bottom attachments. 5. Weave the remaining vertical strips, securing their ends to the top and bottom horizontal strips. 6. Trim the edges. 7. Laminate if desired. Each strip represents someone who lives in the body of Christ. The whole mat represents the Church. If the Church is to function well, we must all work together, give and take, love and care for one another, and be willing to work and live beside one another just like the New Testament letters teach us. 12

Puppet Intro Church Valentine DIRECTOR S NOTES The words in italics are notes for you and your puppeteers; they are not to be read aloud. Puppet has a giant Valentine s Day card that it has made. Leader: It isn t Valentine s Day. What are you doing with that card? Puppet: I heard the lesson today was about loving God s Church, so I made our church a valentine. Leader: That s sweet. Would you read the card? Puppet: Why sure. Ahem. [Puppet describes its love for the church with phrases about how it loves the doors, the windows, the steeple, and so on (describe your church building) and how beautiful the colors are.] Leader: [Interrupting:] [Puppet name], I hate to break it to you, but we aren t learning about our church building today. Puppet: We aren t? Leader: The Church isn t a building. It s the people. Puppet: Uh oh. Leader: Why is that an uh-oh? Puppet: Because people aren t as easy to love! Leader: [Laughs.] True, but God wants us to love people the way He does. And the Church is God s people. Puppet: But how do I learn to love God s people? Leader: Well, you can start by reading the letters that the apostle Paul wrote to the first churches they were filled with advice on just that subject! Puppet: Were they like valentines for the churches? Leader: Not exactly. They were more like letters from a friend answering the people s questions and explaining to them what Christians believed and how to live as a Christian after Jesus went back to heaven. Puppet: Wow, I need to read those letters! I always knew the Bible was a big book from God, but I never thought of the books in the Bible as letters to me from someone to help me understand God better. I can t wait to take a closer look. I gotta go! I wanna dive deeper into my Bible. Later! *PUPPET: Develop a puppet character to use regularly. The children will get to know the personality and enjoy these regular visits. Dee, Cy, and Paul puppets are available at DiscipleLand.com How to Navigate the NT Lesson 2 2011, DiscipleLand. Permission granted to reproduce for volunteers.

Curriculum Map (DiscipleTown Units in no particular order*) How to Worship God How to Use My Bible How to Show Respect How to Pray How to Be Faithful Workers How to Love God How to Memorize God s Word How to Be Global Christians How to Grow Spiritual Fruit How to Make Good Friends How to Walk in the Spirit How to Be Jesus Disciple How to Build Character How to Navigate the New Testament How to Explain My Faith How to Earn Eternal Rewards How to Follow God s Plan How to Make Good Choices How to Navigate the Old Testament How to Study My Bible How to Know the Truth How to Discover Gifts and Talents How to Walk Victoriously How to Meet with God Each DiscipleTown Unit will teach your kids an essential how to skill to become victorious disciples of Jesus! *DiscipleTown Units are still in production. Please visit DiscipleTown.com for availability. TM.com