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Series at a Glance for Elevate ABOUT THIS SERIES Parents love to give their kids gifts, but did you know that our Heavenly Father loves to give us gifts even more? God made each of us unique and gives us unique gifts too! These special gifts God gives us are called Spiritual Gifts. In this series, we will help kids learn about what Spiritual Gifts are and their purpose. We will also teach them how to discover their unique gifts, as well as some next steps in applying them. MEMORY VERSE We all have gifts. They differ in keeping with the grace that God has given each of us. Romans 12:6 WEEKLY OVERVIEW Lesson Topic Big Idea Lesson 1 Aug 6/7 We are all unique. Romans 12:6-8 God gave us special gifts. Lesson 2 Aug 13/14 Same but different. 1 Corinthians 12:12 Our gifts are important! Lesson 3 Aug 20/21 Find your flow. Matthew 14:22-31 We can discover our gifts. Give it back. Luke 10:38-42 We can use our gifts to help others. Lesson 5 Sept 3/4 The next step. 1 Corinthians 13 We can use our gifts to show love. 2
Spiritual Gifts Series at a Glance for Elevate (cont.) Aug 6/7 - We are all unique. God created us uniquely. God did not make duplicates. Every single person is so incredibly special, there are no two fingerprints alike. We will learn how God has given each Christ follower a Spiritual Gift. We will learn about some of the Spiritual Gifts that God gives us, which will pave the way on what we are learning the rest of the series. Aug 13/14 - Same but different. There are various Spiritual Gifts, but they work best when they work together. In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 we learn a great metaphor of the Spiritual Gifts working together as one body with many parts. Just like there are different flavors of M&Ms, every gift is important, but no one gift is better than the other. Our focus will be on when we use our Spiritual Gifts together, we can do big things for God. Aug 20/21 - Find your flow. Most people are not able pick up a yo-yo or paddle ball and be a master the first time they try it. To become good at something, it takes practice. God gives us Spiritual Gifts and wants us to take time to discover what they are. One of the ways we can discover our Spiritual Gifts is to try different areas of serving. Just like Peter jumped out of a boat and water, we need to step out and discover what our Spiritual Gift is too! - Give it back. God didn t give us Spiritual Gifts for our own success, but to dedicate them to His service. We will learn a Bible story through a new lens of Spiritual Gifts as well as help point kids toward next step in how they can use their Spiritual Gifts! Our focus will be on how to apply and use our Spiritual Gifts. Sept 3/4 - The next step. Learning about Spiritual Gifts, what they are, how and why we should use them is an important step after we have made Jesus the Leader of our lives. But the next step of all this information hinges on one of the most famous passages of Love, 1 Corinthians 13. The Bible tells us that we are to be Jesus for others, and we can use our Spiritual Gifts to do that. We will learn that Spiritual Gifts are gifts from God and that we can use them to show love. 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 with 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. 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 : We Can Use Our Gifts To Help Others! Lesson Segment Total Running Time Opening Song (2:00) Welcome (3:00) Worship (10:00) 0:00-15:00 Bumper Video (1:00) Lesson Intro (8:00) Booger Remix: Part 1 (4:00) Share Your Story (3:00) Memory Verse (4:00) Booger Remix: Part 2 (4:00) Message (11:00) Wrap Up (3:00) 15:00-53:00 Game Time (7:00) 53:00-60:00 Video Cue Slide Cue Audio Cue Tech Notes 5
Opening Song 2:00 (Roll when directed) Elevate Opener Hey everybody! It s time to get started, so please clean up your areas, turn off the games, and if you have popcorn, throw it away. Then come on over and join me by the stage! As you are heading over, shake 3 people s hands. Do This: Go into the audience and shake hands with kids. (Auto advance) Elevate Slide and Underscore Welcome 3:00 Welcome to Elevate everyone! My name is and it is fantastic to see you today! It is so fun to have you here today. If you have been here before you might know what is about to happen. But for those of you who might be here for the first time or if you need a little reminder, we are going to be singing some songs together, learning something new together, and of course having a TON of fun together. We like to start out the day with a question from one of our friends, so let s catch up with her right now and see what she has for us. Would You Rather Lindsey Question Slide Do This: Emcee as the kids are sharing their answers. If time allows, you can ask a couple of kids to share their examples with the larger group. 6
! Worship 5:00 Do This: If the worship team did not do the welcome, the teacher should invite them to the stage at this time. Worship Slide We are going to spend some time in what we call worship. Worship is a way that we say thanks to God for all that he has done. We can worship God for so many things and in so many different ways. Did you know that there are a ton of verses in the Bible that help us worship? Some verses in the Bible help us know why we should worship God. Let s read a verse together that expresses a deep love for God and what he has done. Sing to him. Sing praise to him. Tell about all of the wonderful things he has done. Praise him, because his name is holy. Let the hearts of those who trust in the Lord be glad. Look to the Lord and to his strength. Always go to him. I Chronicles 16:9-11 Isn t it great how the Bible helps us worship God by having great verses like this? If you are feeling like your week isn t going the way you want to, there are verses like this that help us know we can look to God and his strength. We can pray to God all the time and he hears us. I love that. Since this verse talks about singing, let's take some time to give our voices to God too. If you know the songs, sing it out with me! Song 1: Who I Wanna Be (Auto advance) Worship Slide 7
! That's a great song. I like that the song says, Listen up we got a reason that we re singing! It says that we are proud of being with Jesus. This next one is a favorite here in Elevate. If you don t know the actions, you can follow along with the video or watch those around you that might. Song 2: Boom (Auto advance) Worship Slide You all sing that song so great! I love seeing you jump up when the song says BOOM! Great job! Let s talk to God right now. Dear God, thank you for today. Thank you for the fact we get to be here today and learn more about you and have a great time doing that! We love you. Amen. Lesson Intro 8:00 Do This: During the bumper video, the teacher comes on stage as the worship team leaves. Bumper Video (Auto advance) Hi everyone! Welcome to Elevate! My name is and it is fantastic to see you here today. We are in week 4 of our series called. Does anyone know what the word means? Do This: Let kids answer. Wow, great answers! Let s look a definition together. - 1) Make something appear larger than it is, 2) glorify 8
means to make something appear larger than it is AND it means to glorify or praise. When we talk about making something appear larger, that is just a fancy way to say we are going to look at it like a magnifying glass would. In this series, we are going to take a look at some special gifts that the Bible talks about. What is cool is that we will find out that these gifts help us to praise or worship or glorify God! Since we are talking about taking a look at something and making it appear larger in this series, let s have a little fun and play a little game. We are going to see some close ups or magnified objects on the side screens. If you think you can figure it out before the answer pops up, give a shout out okay? Check out the side screens! Close Ups, Version 4 (2:55) (Auto advance) Those are really sweet. Did anyone have a tough time with some of those close ups? Me too! I mentioned a little earlier that we were going to be talking about some special gifts that we find in the Bible. Do This: If you don t already have it on stage, bring out or reference wrapped gift box. By a show of hands, how many of you like to get gifts? All of us, right? We get gifts for a lot of different reasons. Most of us get gifts on our birthday, or around Christmas. Sometimes we might get a gift because an adult wanted to do something special for us just because they care about us! Did you know that Jesus gives special gifts to us? For those of us that have made Jesus the Leader of our lives, Jesus gives us special gifts. If you have never heard about Jesus or maybe you have heard about Jesus but not yet made a decision about Him, that s okay! We are going to be learning about these gifts together. As we learn more in this series, you might even get to know more about Jesus through this series! 9
Would any of you like to know what is in this gift? Last week we opened up this box and there was a paddleball. Who wants to guess what it is this week? Let s open it up and discover what is inside, okay? Do This: Open up the box and remove the instruction manual. This is somewhat awkward, but does anyone know what this is? Do This: Open up the manual, and let kids answer. This looks like some kind of map. Do any of you know how to use this? Do This: Have kids answer. This is an instruction manual. It tells us how to use or put something together. It looks like it is to help someone build something. Instructions are good for telling you what the next steps are. If you didn't have these, you might mess up and not know your way through the building process, but you would probably end up having some extra screws, nuts, and bolts. In other words, you would be missing out! Last week, we learned what the Spiritual Gifts are that God gives those of us that follow Jesus. We learned that Spiritual means Spiritual - not of this world, comes from God Spiritual means not of this world, it comes from God. When we are talking about Spiritual gifts, they are not gifts you can buy at the store or anything like that. These gifts are not things we can have or hold or look at. Do This: Hold up the instructions Just like an instruction manual helps us know how to use something, there are some next steps we can take to know what our Spiritual Gifts are as well as how we can use them in the best way possible. 10
Video One 4:00 Right now, let s connect with our friends Booger and Lindsey. Booger Remix, Pt. 1 Share Your Story 3:00 (Auto advance) It seems like Lindsey can have fun wherever she is. I hope that she figures out that if she trades, things will be even better. We ll find out about that in a little bit. Let me ask you a question: have you ever tried something new that you weren t sure you would enjoy? I will never forget my journey getting to be a teacher here in Elevate Do This: Share a 2-minute version of how you were invited/called/interested to serve as a teacher in Elevate and why. I am so thankful that I stepped out and started to teach. I didn t know exactly what to expect, but am so glad I get to work alongside all the other awesome volunteers and be able to be here and talk to you about what God has done in my life. One of the cool things we get to do is learn a memory verse each series. Let s get to that right now! 11
Memory Verse 4:00 Each series we learn or review a memory verse. Before we get to our Bible verse, we have a fun quiz for you. Our Bible verse is found in Romans, which is in the New Testament. Here is the question: What are the first three books of the New Testament? A) Matthew, Mark, Luke B) Eeney, Meeney, Miney C) Bibbidy, Bobbidy, Boo The correct answer is, A) Matthew, Mark, Luke. Those are the first three books of the New Testament. By a show of hands, how many of you can t get that Cinderella song out of your head right now? As we talk more about Spiritual Gifts, we hope you understand that these are special gifts that come from God for those of us that have made Jesus the leader of our lives. Let s check out the memory verse for this week. I would like us all to read this together. (Memory Verse) Romans 12:6 We all have gifts. They differ in keeping with the grace that God has given each of us. Great job reading, everyone! Let s read it one more time but this time we will clap while we say it. Ready? Here goes! Do This: Have fun with this. That was a little nuts, but great job. Let s take a look at what this verse is talking about. It starts out saying that we all have gifts. God tells us in the Bible that for those of us that have made Jesus the leader of our lives, we get gifts which are a lot like abilities. We will learn more about what some of these gifts, or Spiritual Gifts, are through this series. The next part of this verse tells us that they differ. Each of us are given a gift, but each gift is different. The fact that these gifts are different is important and will get to that in a different lesson this series. The next phrase is, in keeping with the grace that God has given each of us. 12
Grace means getting something we don t deserve. You see, we didn t do anything to earn these gifts that God gives us. He gives them to those of us that have decided to follow Jesus as the leader of our lives. But we don t earn them. He loves us and wants us to have these gifts. Let s see that verse again. Everyone has a gift if they have made Jesus their leader. Each of these gifts are different, and they are given to us because God loves us. That is the simple version of this verse. Video 2 4:00 Let s get back to Booger and Lindsey. Booger Remix, Pt. 2 Message 11:00 (Auto advance) It is so great that Lindsey and Booger get to go to that Bowler Bonanza together. They sure have come a long way and are great friends now. Over the last few weeks here at church, we have been learning about Spiritual Gifts. We have learned that God gives gifts to those of us that have made Jesus the leader of our lives. God tells us about these Spiritual Gifts in the Bible. Let s read these together. Do This: Open your Kids Quest Bible to page 1470 and read. 13
We all have gifts. They differ according to the grace God has given to each of us. Do you have the gift of prophecy? Then use it in keeping with the faith you have. Is your gift to serve? Then serve. Is it teaching? Then teach. Is it telling others how they should live? Then tell them. Is it giving to those who are in need? Then give freely. Is it being a leader? Then work hard at it. Is it showing mercy? Then do it cheerfully. Romans 12:6-8 We learned that from this verse, some of the Spiritual Gifts are Prophecy, Serving, and Teaching. We learned that telling others how they should live was really a different way to say that we should encourage others. Then we having Giving, Leadership, and Mercy. Mercy could also be compassion which is when you have a heart to help others that need it. This is not a list of all of the Spiritual Gifts, but just some of them. As you read and study your Bible, you can learn more about them in a couple different places. There is another way that you can discover your gifts. I want to show you a book that your parents can read and help you understand more about what we are talking about. Do This: Hold up the book, Discovering Your Kids Spiritual Gifts This book called, Discovering Your Kids Spiritual Gifts is a great book for your mom or dad or parent to read. Together, you can help understand more about what Spiritual Gifts are and what your gift means to you and to others. If you don't remember about this book, there is also a reminder on the Family Connection Card. Do This: Hold up the Family Connection Card. Maybe you don t really understand why we are talking about Spiritual Gifts in the first place. As we talked about a bit ago, I think we can all agree that getting a free gift is pretty awesome. And getting a free gift from God, our Creator, is even more awesome. But maybe that still doesn't make sense. 14
Have any of you ever been excited to try something new? Maybe you love watching baseball, and always wanted to play. You got excited about getting your glove and bat and the day finally came where you were able to get out and play ball. But then you discovered something. You weren t great at it! Maybe you couldn t throw well or hit the ball like you thought. Baseball wasn t a great fit for you. But then one day, maybe you were out with friends and they started kicking a soccer ball around. You never thought about soccer before, but you were actually really good at soccer! It made sense to you, and you were kicking the ball exactly where you wanted to. Soccer clicked for you. Has something like that ever happened to you? Have you ever started some sport or activity and it just clicked for you? Do This: Let kids answer. Those are great answers. Thanks for sharing! When you do something that you feel good at, maybe time feels like it flies by! You might feel like you are lost in that moment because you are having so much fun and enjoying what you are doing so much that it makes you happy! That s what it is like when you discover what gift God has given you. How do we figure out what our Spiritual Gifts are? There isn t an instruction manual exactly like we talked about earlier, but there are some next steps we can take to figuring it out. One of the ways is for your parents to read the book we mentioned. There is a great test they can take to help them get a great idea on what your Spiritual Gifts are. You can for sure read more about Spiritual Gifts in the bible. You can ask an adult or leader in your life to see what they think your Spiritual Gift might be. And we can discover our Spiritual Gifts by trying new things and serving! There are three ways we can serve. Here they are: Three ways we can serve: Home, School, Community The three ways we can serve is at our Home, School, and Community. Let s look at a story in the Bible that shows us a couple of people who might have discovered their gift. 15
Jesus came to a village where his friends Martha and her sister Mary lived. Both Martha and Mary really cared about Jesus. When Jesus came into town, Martha had invited Jesus over and Mary sat at Jesus feet and just listened to the things Jesus was saying about what he had done. Meanwhile, Martha was running around the house getting things done. Maybe she was dusting or doing dishes. Whatever she was actually doing, the Bible tells us Martha was busy and Mary was sitting. Has that ever happened to you? Do any of you have a brother or sister, or maybe even a friend is over, and you were asked to clean something up? Maybe you felt like you did all the work, and they kept on playing or didn t help? Has anyone felt frustrated about something like that? Can you imagine if this very important friend came over, and you were cleaning and getting things ready, and then you find your sister just sitting there? That might make any of us upset. But Jesus let both of them know that it was okay. Let s find out what happened by reading from the Bible. Do This: Open Kids Quest Bible to page 1335 and read. She came to Jesus and said, Lord, my sister has left me to do the work by myself. Don t you care? Tell her to help me! Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better. And it will not be taken away from her. Luke 10:40-41 He told Martha that it was good that Mary was listening. We don t know for sure what their Spiritual Gifts were but maybe we can see that Martha has the gift of Hospitality. It could be that Martha s gift was so strong, she wanted to make sure everything was perfect. Maybe she loved hosting and having people over to her house so much that she was frustrated that Mary didn t also have the same gift as she did. But maybe Mary had the gift of Encouragement or Mercy. Maybe Mary was using her gift just like Martha was. If she was listening and let Jesus know that she cared about what he was saying by listening, that would be using her gift. 16
We can learn from this story that it is important to try things out and use your gift so that you can know what your gift is. It is also important to remember that everyone has a special gift and that no gift is better than the other. It seemed that Martha loved to serve, and serving is one of the steps we can take just like an instruction manual to figure out what our gifts are. What are some ways that we can serve in or around our home? Do This: Let kids answer. Those are great examples. Maybe if you are at home and you love to vacuum or pick up because you know people are coming over, you might have the gift of Hospitality. Or if there are people over at your house and you are making sure to take their coat, or get people lemonade or drinks, then maybe your gift is serving. What are some ways we can help out around school? Do This: Let kids answer. Yes, those are awesome. When you are at school, maybe you find yourself really telling others how great they are doing so you learn you have encouragement as your gift. Or if you are praying during lunch or when someone is sad or if something happens to a friend, you might have the gift of prayer. How about you tell me some ways you can serve in the community? Do This: Let kids answer. Again, great answers! You re right, you can help out in the community all those ways. Have any of you ever been to Feed My Starving Children and helped bag meals with your family? If you have done that or wanted to, that could be a great way to discover if your gift is compassion. Maybe you have been to something like that where people follow you and your direction because you might have the gift of leadership. If we tried to go through all examples that we could think of with all of the Spiritual Gifts, we would be here for weeks! Here s the deal, we can use our gifts to help others. Once we have discovered our gifts, God wants us to use them! When you figure out your 17
gift, it will just click for you. It is just possible that you ll lose track of time and feel so much joy! Let s check out this sweet video of some kids from a different church that have been helping and serving around their church. Maybe it will get some ideas on how you can use your gifts to help others! Serving Kids (2:41) God gave us special gifts and he wants us to use them. Take the time you need to figure out your gift. Study what the Bible has to say. This book, Discover Your Kid s Spiritual Gifts is a great book that helps us with some more meaning of the Spiritual Gifts. Make sure you try different ways to serve! Serving is a great way to figure out your gift. Most of all, once you do figure out your gift, you can use it to help others! Make sure and use it! Wrap Up 3:00 As you leave today, I want you to remember We can use our gifts to help others. Our gifts are important! We are going to continue to learn more about these Spiritual Gifts in this series. Do This: Hold up the Family Connection Card On your way out, we want to make sure you have this special edition of the Family Connection Card. Normally, this would be just a regular paper that you would hand to 18
your family. This series, we want you to be able to learn what your Spiritual Gifts are, so we created a special tent Family Connection Card! Do This: Show kids how to trifold the card. This card can actually be folded on its three sides and you can place this at your table! We always love when you read the Family Connection card because it will help you remember what we learned and tell your family what you learned today. You can also practice the Bible verse we are learning! Finally, in TWO WEEKS we have a weekend called Fall Kickoff. You will NOT want to miss what we have going on in two weekends. Don t miss this special event here in Elevate! Game Time 7:00 Let s have some fun as we end our time together. Today, we have an awesome relay! Who is ready for a crazy and exciting game? Wrap/Unwrap! I am going to need a group of four boys and a group of four girls. You are going to have to work together to pull this off. You have two lifesaver candies. As a team, you must wrap all four of the lifesavers completely by the plastic wrap. When you have used up the entire roll, you need to call me to get the go-ahead to then unwrap the whole thing to set loose the lifesaver candies! Make sure that one you use all of the plastic wrap up, and you get my attention, or the attention of who is also going to help judge this with me. Do This:. Modify however you need to make this game fun and best for your space. We have planned for three rounds per service (6 plastic wrap, 12 life savers) Know This: Adjust the game as necessary. You could potentially do this with two players per team. Game music 19
That was fun to watch! Great job everyone. You can have a seat. Elevate Before we dismiss, let s take one more moment to talk to God and thank him for today. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for another great day together. We love you. Amen. Do This: Dismiss however you like best. Know This: If you get done early, you could dismiss to games. 20