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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. 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. Lesson 4 Aug 27/28 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. - 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! Aug 27/28 - 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 : Same but different. 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 (5:00) Booger Remix: Part 2 (4:00) Message (9:00) Wrap Up (3:00) 15:00-52:00 Game Time (8:00) 52:00-60:00 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, give as many thumbs up as you possibly can! Do This: Go into the audience and give a bunch of thumbs up to kids. (Auto advance) Elevate Slide and Underscore Welcome 3:00 Welcome to Elevate everyone! My name is, and it is awesome to have you here today. Whether it is your first time here, or you come on a regular basis, we are so excited that you would join us! Here's the plan for the day: we ll sing a couple songs, learn some things together, and we will have as much fun doing that as possible. How does that sound? Great? Before we do that though, we like to have a question of the day, so lets get to that right now. Check out the side screens! 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 10:00 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 together worshipping God. When we talk about worship, we are talking about showing love. Worship is a way to show God how much we love Him. Did you know there are so many ways we can show worship to God? We can worship God by serving Him. You can serve God in big or small ways. Maybe one of the ways you can serve is by opening a door and letting others go through it. Or maybe you can serve by asking your mom or dad to volunteer with you in Kid-O-Deo. Those are just a couple ways you can serve, and serving is one of the ways we can worship God! Right now, we are going to spend some time worshipping God by singing and dancing. Let s have you all stand up! If you know the song and motions, please join me where you are standing! We ll kick it off with a song that talks about how God shines in our lives. Song 1: Brighter (Auto advance) Worship Slide That song is fun. The words are really neat. It talks about God shining through us. That means that people can tell that we love God because of the way we treat other people. When the song says, I m dancing cause your love has set me free, it is saying how excited we are for what God has done in our lives. Let s keep singing and worshipping God right now with another song that talks about how awesome God is, that sometimes you just have to jump! Song 2: Jump 7
! (Auto advance) Worship Slide Have you ever been so excited that you don't know what to do? That s what that song is all about. Sometimes you just have to get your excitement out, so you just have to jump around. That s so great. You can all sit down as we settle down from that song. We are going to pray, and when we pray, we are talking to God. You don't have to use special language, you can just talk. I m going to talk out loud, but would you pray with me right now? Dear God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for letting us just jump around when we are so excited about you. 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 a 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 means to make something appear larger than it is AND it means to glorify or praise. If you have ever used a magnifying glass, then you know when you put it up to 8
something, it looks bigger. You can see it better and understand it better. 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 2 (2:55) (Auto advance) How fun! Did anyone get stuck on some of those? 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. Do any of you like gifts? We asked this last week, but what are some of your favorite gifts that you have ever received? Do This: Have a few kids raise their hand and answer. Be sure to repeat what they said so others can hear what the answer was. Those are some great gifts! One of my favorite gifts was. I think it was my favorite because it. Did you know that God gives special gifts to those of us that have made Jesus the Leader of our lives? We are going to be learning about these gifts together over the next few weeks. Is anyone curious about this gift? Before this is opened, does anyone want to guess what is inside this week? Good guesses! Let s open it up and discover what is inside, shall we? Do This: Open up the box and remove one bag of M&Ms from inside. Know This: There will be several variety of M&Ms in the box. Take one out at a time. 9
WHOA! Who likes M&Ms? You do? Me too! Wait a second, there is something else in there Do This: Take out another bag of M&Ms and show the kids what kind they are. I think there is another kind! Do This: Take out each bag and reveal the flavor. Have some fun with this part! These are just some of the many flavors of M&Ms out there! How many of you like M&Ms? You do? Each one of these bags shows us a different kind of M&M. Each one of these are M&Ms but they all have different flavors. A milk chocolate kind has a different taste than the dark chocolate. The peanut filled is a little different than peanut butter. And the mint flavor has of course a mint filling which is different than pretzel. We know that each of these M&Ms are different, but they are all still M&Ms, right? What do you think is the best kind of M&Ms? Turn to the person next to you and tell them what your favorite M&M flavor is! Do This: Let kids tell their neighbor. Feel free to have a few kids tell their favorite to the group. You might like the plain M&Ms and think they are the best, but maybe I think that the peanut ones are the best. Which one of us are right? What if someone likes peanut butter filled or mint filled M&Ms the most and think THOSE are the best? Who is right? When it comes to M&Ms, it all depends on what flavor we prefer. You are right when you say that your flavor is the best, because you think it is the best. That is your opinion, but it doesn t make the other people wrong. This is just a fun example, but what we can learn from this is that we need to be respectful of each other s opinion and preference. When we show respect, we show love towards each other. In just a little bit, we are going to be learning more about Spiritual Gifts. Last week, we talked about what the word Spiritual means. Let s look at it again. Spiritual - not of this world, comes from God Spiritual means not of this world, it comes from God. That means, these are not gifts you can buy at the store or anything like that. These gifts are not things we can have or hold 10
or look at, but they are more like a talent or skill. One of the Spiritual Gifts is Serving. Some of our volunteers love to work with computers, so they are helping run the lights and sound in the tech booth and are serving in that way. One of the Spiritual Gifts we will talk about is Leadership, and some of the people that help out will be Group Leaders because that is the gift they have. Maybe you have someone in your life that always knows the right thing to say to you and you feel so good when they are around you because they have the Spiritual Gift of Encouragement. We will be learning more about Spiritual Gifts in just a little bit. But each of us have really cool Spiritual Gifts and when we use them we feel incredible! God gave us these special Spiritual Gifts so that we could use them to help more people know about Jesus and help more people know how to have a relationship with Him. God gave each of you really great ways you can use the gifts too! We ll talk more about that later. Video One 4:00 We are not going to be eating any of these M&Ms, but I do have a treat for you right now. We are going to catch up with our friends Booger and Lindsey! Check out the side screens. Booger Remix, Pt. 1 Share Your Story 3:00 (Auto advance) Lindsey had a hard time with that puzzle, but she sure did love having silly string sprayed on her. Do any of you like silly string? Do This: Let kids answer the question. 11
I have a question for you. Don t raise your hands, but just think about this question. Have you ever had a time that you felt like you were better than someone else? Have you ever felt like you could have done something better than someone else? I remember a time when Do This: Share a 2-minute appropriate, relevant personal story about a time that you were thought you were could do something better or were better than someone else, but realized everyone has something to contribute. It can sometimes be hard to appreciate other people and their skills. But I am so glad that I did. When we can learn to appreciate how each of us are created and gifted, we can learn to love each other even more. Memory Verse 5:00 Each series we learn or review a new memory verse. This week our Bible verse comes from a part of the Bible called, the New Testament. Before we get to our Bible verse, let s take a one-question quiz! What does the word Spiritual mean? A) Not of this world, comes from God B) Totally awesome dude C) Majestic and eco-friendly The correct answer is A) Not of this world, comes from God. 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 will read it first, then we ll go through it together. Let s all stand up and then I ll read it. (Memory Verse) Romans 12:6 We all have gifts. They differ in keeping with the grace that God has given each of us. 12
Great job reading, everyone! Let s read it one more time but this time we will plug our noses as we read it. Ready? Go! Do This: Have fun with this. Way to go! That was a little silly sounding. Sometimes when we have some fun or silliness, it helps to learn the verse even better! You can all have a seat now. So what does this verse mean? 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. Whew! That seems like a really complicated verse so let s really break that one down. Grace = getting something we don t deserve. 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. (Memory Verse) Romans 12:6 We all have gifts. They differ in keeping with the grace that God has given each of us. Everyone has a Spiritual 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. 13
Video 2 4:00 Let s get back to Booger and Lindsey and find out what happens next! Booger Remix, Pt. 2 Message 9:00 (Auto advance) Wasn t it great to see Lindsey and Booger work together? That is how we should use our Spiritual Gifts to work together too! I mentioned earlier that when you believe that Jesus is the leader of your life, God gives you a Spiritual Gift. In fact, God gives us everything we need to work together. God makes sure that each of us are able to work together to be able to do something GREAT for him. Last week, we read a verse that listed a few of the Spiritual Gifts found in the Bible. Let s read that again so we can remember what they were. Do This: Open your Kids Quest Bible to page 1470 and read the verse. 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 14
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. Those are just some of the Spiritual Gifts mentioned in the Bible. We are going to read more about what the Bible has to say about Spiritual Gifts in a really neat way. When the author Paul wrote this, he was using the idea of a body to help people understand about Spiritual Gifts. Let s read this together and get some more ideas about Spiritual Gifts, even if he is talking about a body in these verses. Do This: Open up Kids Quest Bible and read 1 Cor 12:14b - 20 page 1491 The body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts. Suppose the foot says, I am not a hand. So I don t belong to the body. It is still part of the body. And suppose the ear says, I am not an eye. So I don t belong to the body It is still part of the body 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell? God has placed each part in the body just as he wanted it to be. If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body? As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body. 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 Paul was trying to help everyone understand that we all have these Spiritual Gifts, and each one is special and there are different gifts. Our gifts are important. But one Spiritual Gift is not better than the other one. He used the idea of a body because we all have a body. But if your foot could talk, would it be jealous of the hand because it couldn t grab something? No! It has a job to do by being a foot. And lungs are important to breathe! Each part of our body was placed in just the right spot to do exactly what it is supposed to do! 15
Paul was trying to help with the idea that we have these gifts and each of our gifts are important. The Spiritual Gift of Serving is just as important as the gift of Teaching. And having the Spiritual Gift of Leadership is just as important as the gift of Mercy. Each gift is so important and we need to be respectful and treat each other with kindness. God gave us these special gifts so that we can work together and when we do, really awesome things come together. I need two of my volunteers to come up on stage Do This: Have two of your volunteers come up on stage that like M&Ms and can play along with the scenario. [To Volunteer #1] Thank you for coming up on stage with me. Would you tell me your name? Do This: Ask one of the volunteers, let them respond. [To Volunteer #2] And what is your name? Do This: Let them respond. We have been talking about gifts, and I want to give each of you a present. You don t have to do anything crazy for this present. This will be super simple. Ready? Okay, here you go! Do This: Give Volunteer #1 a bag of M&Ms. [To Volunteer #1] This is for you! Here is a bag of M&Ms! Do This: Have Volunteer #1 say, Yeah! I love this kind! These are the best! This kind beats all other flavors! Do This: Give Volunteer #2 a bag of M&Ms. [To Volunteer #2] And these are for you. A bag of M&Ms! Do This: Have Volunteer #2 look disappointed and say, But I like those better. Those are better than my M&Ms. Uh-Oh! This silly example using M&Ms is just the same as our Spiritual Gifts! We should be thankful for our gifts, but we shouldn t think ours is better than anyone else s gifts. And we should also not be jealous of another person s gift. This is what the Bible verse we just read meant. Think of it this way: if M&Ms were only milk chocolate, how fun 16
would that be? They are good, but only if you like milk chocolate. The variety of M&M flavors are good to a lot people. It is the same when we talk about a body. If we only had feet, we couldn t grab anything. Think about that for a minute. You d have to brush your teeth with your foot! Ewe. And if we only had eyes, we couldn t hear or eat anything. It doesn t work right? God created our body exactly with everything we need. It is the same with Spiritual Gifts. God gives us these gifts, and he created these gifts with YOU in mind. Volunteers, thanks for helping. You can take those M&Ms with you, but make sure to do something good with them okay? Do This: Have volunteers head back to their spots. Next week, we are going to learn even more about what Spiritual Gifts are, and how you can discover what gift you have! You will not want to miss next week for sure. But isn t it so incredible to know that God loves each of us so much that he gave us these gifts? Our gifts are important and He created these gifts with YOU in mind. Wrap Up 3:00 As you leave today, I want you to remember Our gifts are important! Our gifts are important! We are going to continue to learn more about these Spiritual Gifts over the next few weeks. 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 your family. As we learn what Spiritual Gifts are, use this special tent Family Connection Card! Do This: Show kids how to trifold the card. 17
This take-home actually can 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! There is one more thing you need to know about this Family Connection card. This Family Connection card talks about a book that we recommend them getting. They can pick it up in the bookstore if they want. Through this series, that book will REALLY help them understand what we are teaching and help you too! Check it out on the Family Connection card! Game Time 8:00 Let s have some fun as we end our time together. We have used the idea of M&Ms today. Wouldn t it be fun to us them as part of the game? Get it! This game is pretty simple. We will have our contestants come up on stage, and they will have one cup in red with a bunch of M&Ms, one cup that is clear, and a straw. The goal is to use the straw to pull up an M&M from the red cup, and place it in the white one. Whoever has the most M&Ms in the white cup in a minute, wins! Unfortunately, we you cannot play if you have any allergies to chocolate, food, or anything that has had any kind of nut allergy. If you do not have food allergies, raise your hand. Do This: Have kids raise hands. As you select kids, double-check they aren t allergic to anything by asking them. Game suggestion is to have 4 people at a time play this game, but modify as needed per your campus Know This: Open up and use whatever M&Ms you did not use for object lesson Know This: If you have extra time you may play extra rounds. Game music 18
Elevate Way to go everyone! You may take both cups of M&Ms and eat them later. Before we dismiss, let s take one more moment to talk to God and thank him for today. God, thank you for giving us gifts. Thank you for how important these gifts are. We love you. Amen. Do This: Dismiss however you like best. Know This: If you have enough M&Ms, more kids could try the Get it! Game. Know This: If you get done early, you could dismiss to games 19