Tag Archive for: Children’s Church

Children’s Church – 29 January

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Scripture teaches us how important the cornerstone is when building. A building can stand strong or straight with a solid cornerstone set in place. As scripture teaches us (Psalm 118), the same applies to Jesus. He is our cornerstone and without him in our lives, we will be weak and will struggle. Our focus on Sunday was on Jesus, our cornerstone, and how we need to know who he truly is.

Our Part
One key focus was looking at some of the titles given to Jesus. Is he just a carpenter, a Nazarene, a wise teacher, a prophet? Or is he the Son of God, the Messiah, the promised Saviour of all mankind? It can be easy to answer this question, but do we live with such conviction? We wanted to teach your children that Jesus is more than just a nice man, or a smart one, or a charismatic leader. Jesus is our King, our Saviour, our Cornerstone… and he wants to be with us and we should want to be with him.

Your Part
Read or re-tell Matthew 16:13-17 to your children. It is the story where Jesus asks his disciples who they think he is. Ask your children the same question and see what they say, and more importantly why they say it. Saying the right thing doesn’t mean one believes it. Our hope is that you get to spend time, many times, talking to your children about who Jesus is. Our teachers really enjoy it but you should enjoy it more, and try it more. And let them know who Jesus is to you and why you believe so.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s church reflection for 22 January 2017

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People love the idea of belonging to something. There is satisfaction found in belonging to a club or a team, be it the Chelsea supporters’ club, a local book club, a social justice group, etc. To belong makes us feel accepted and gives us purpose. This Sunday we looked at the greatest sense of belonging we could ever experience, and that is belonging to God’s kingdom.

OUR PART

We looked at what we are building, continuing with the theme of “Building God’s Kingdom”. In order to be a good builder, you need to know what it is you are actually building, so we explored God’s Kingdom. Scripture describes to us how beautiful God’s kingdom is, how the very look of it is beautiful, how in it we are free from sin and won’t suffer from sickness, hurt, or sadness.

There is so much incredible promise in this kingdom. But the greatest promise is that we get to be with the King. God is the greatest King of all, the King of kings, and we get to spend eternity with Him. We looked at the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) and the dream revealed how God’s kingdom is the greatest kingdom to ever exist. And the great news is that we belong to this Kingdom because of Jesus. What an amazing truth we got to share with your children. They belong, but not just to anything: they belong to the greatest kingdom of all led by the greatest King of all.

YOUR PART

Don’t be afraid to speak about heaven or about eternity and what God promises. Many questions are hard to explain or simply cannot be answered yet, but this news of the kingdom we belong to needs to be known. Explain to your children how we belong to that kingdom now and how we play a part in its advancing now. Our children are already ambassadors for God’s kingdom. Help them know how to show their belonging: talk about Jesus, worship Him, be involved in a church, pray.

Because of Jesus, we have freedom in God’s kingdom, we belong and we can approach our King always. Spend time with your children meeting the King.

Download this term’s curriculum here.

– The Children’s Church team

Welcome to Children’s Church 2017!

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The Church is compared to many things in scripture to help us understand who the Church is in God’s eyes. We are called an army, a bride, a body, a building and more. In all of these images there is such a need to grasp the unity needed within the Church, the beauty the Church carries, the force it portrays and the great leader, Jesus, who leads it.

This term, our focus is on God’s kingdom and the Church. The lessons teach what God’s kingdom is, how He is building His kingdom and how we are called to be a part of this kingdom and see it advance.

Encourage your children to fully understand that they are as much a part, and an important part, of the body as anyone else. Teach them to know their worth and the value they add to the Church. Let them know that they are called and equipped by God to be a part of His kingdom and play a role in it. How amazing is that? The Greatest King looks at our children and says, “I have an important part for you to play.”

Please note that Children’s Church never feels like it is simply baby-sitting so that you can attend church. No, your children are also at church and are the church already. They are also being envisioned and equipped for the incredible call God has on their life. We count it such a privilege to see them grow in God’s call and purpose for them.

Please spend time each week reminding them of the content we cover, the stories we share, the crafts we do and the lessons learnt. Click here for the curriculum for this term.

We are looking forward to another incredible leg of this journey.

– Children’s Church Team

Children’s Church Reflection (29 Nov)

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When slavery was an accepted practice within societies, the only way for a slave to ever find freedom would be to be bought at a price, and then given freedom by their owner. Can you imagine that moment when a lifelong slave was told that they have freedom? They were free to live and do as they wished. Can you imagine the joy that slave must have felt?

Well… we too were once slaves: slaves to our sin. And we had no freedom.

But then Jesus came and wanted to set us free. He paid a price and bought us to be His. In purchasing us, he removed us from being slaves and instead we find new life and freedom in Jesus. Because of this amazing free gift we should respond in worship to God.

Our Part

The message for this past Sunday was to explain the amazing gift of forgiveness and freedom that Jesus paid for us. We have been forgiven and because of this we have a reason to celebrate. Those who are forgiven much will love much. When we consider the forgiveness given to us because of Jesus paying our price, and then experience the subsequent freedom in what Jesus did, the desire to sing his praises and live a life that honours Him becomes an easy response.

Our hope was to remind our children of the beautiful Gospel and teach them that because of the Gospel, we have a reason to worship God.

Your Part

Your part is the best part of parenting. You get to share the beautiful news of the Gospel to your children. Help them understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Help them to learn about their freedom and forgiveness in Him. Let them know that they were so important to God that He chose to pay a massive price to buy them and give them freedom. And out of this, worship with them because our God is worthy.

– Greg, Nicole & the Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (20 November)

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In society today, to meet someone with regards to business, or to see a doctor, or even to meet a friend socially, you generally need to make an appointment. People are so busy that we never feel able to just meet them. Sadly, we sometimes apply this same belief to how we meet with God. We often think that we need to make appointments with God in order to meet with Him. Sometimes we think God is too busy to meet with us and therefore we don’t make the effort to be with Him.

It was therefore important for us to learn this Sunday that God is always available and we can meet with Him at any time, in any place.

Our Part

We looked at how God is always available for us to speak to Him and call on Him. He is never too busy for us. But sometimes we get too busy for God. We looked at the story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha. As the story teaches, sometimes we act like Martha where we believe that our busyness is a way to worship God whereas Jesus reminds us that He prefers us to respond more like Mary, where we sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Him.

We looked at the busy life our children live and encouraged them to make time with God more important that their busy lives. Living in a busy city, our children need to learn to worship God above all else and seeing their time with God more valuable than their busy lives.

Your Part

Again, the best part you can play is to be an example. Our children need to see us as parents prioritise our time with God. And make this time family time too. Help your children manage their busy lives and arrange their priorities. Remind them that God is available always. What an incredible truth to live with.

– Greg, Nicole & the Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (13 Nov 2016)

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All around our city there are signs that are put up for us to obey. Some tell us to stop or slow down or beware of something and more. These signs exist to keep us safe and to keep others safe too. But in order for these signs to fulfil their role, they require us to obey them. Obedience is an important lesson for us to learn. God says the same for His instructions. He says we must obey Him. In fact, He even says that if we truly love Him then we should obey His instructions. Obedience to God is therefore an act of worship. This was our focus this Sunday at Children’s Church.

Our Part
We helped the children see how obedience is required with so many things in life. It is needed when we are driving, needed at school, needed when we play sports or games. We then looked at how God calls us to be obedient towards Him. We looked at His commands and the great commandment of the call to love one another. We also emphasised how just to know what to obey is not enough. If we know what to obey then it requires action. Knowledge alone is not enough. Act out obedience. When we obey God, we glorify Him and honour Him and that is a beautiful expression of worship.

Your Part
You as parents would know the importance of obedience and teaching your children about it. Help them to see that God has given us instructions too: love others, be kind, be generous, and so on. Help them see this and practice obedience. Knowing the need to be obedient and then not acting on is disobedience. Help your children understand this great way of worshipping God.

– Greg, Nicole and the Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (6 Nov)

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It was quite a shock this week to hear some of our children walk around and say they “had a weapon”. With a hesitant laugh I asked, “What kind of weapon do you have?” To my relief the reply was: “My tongue.” This Sunday, our children were taught how we worship God with our words and how our tongue can be used for good or bad, similar to a weapon. It is a relief to know that their “weapon” is only a tongue but yet it actually can be far more destructive if not controlled and used with love.

Our Part

The message was how we can use our tongues for good and bad. If it has the ability for good we must use it for good. We are even called to use it in praise. With the power of our tongue, we can declare God’s praises and glory. And so we should. The challenge is how can we praise God with our mouth one moment, and then use the same tongue to speak harshly to others at another moment. The one example used this weekend explained it quite well. Speaking is like squeezing out toothpaste. Once it is out, you cannot put it back in. The same applies to our words: when we speak, we cannot take those words back. So we should speak with love and life, and those words can stay out.

Your Part

Listen to what your children say and how they say it. Remind them that the words they say have a great impact, either good or bad. Remind them of the weapons they carry and to use their tongue for good. But the same applies to you parents. Be the example. Watch what you say and how you say it. And remember that God calls us to praise Him with our words. We can make our praises loud and use our words to exalt who God is.

Our tongues truly are incredible weapons that God entrusts to us to use as we will. When we think of all the good we can do with our tongues, we should see it as such a privilege. So let’s use our tongues to declare God’s love and speak love to others too.

– Greg, Nicole and the Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (1 Nov 2016)

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As we continue to discuss and learn how to truly worship God, this Sunday our focus was on worshipping God with our bodies. It is amazing to see how children use their bodies to display their thoughts and emotions. If a child is angry, they stamp on the floor or roll on the ground. If a child is excited, they might spin around or literally jump for joy. Children use their bodies to express themselves and they use their bodies in worship too. Children love the opportunity to learn actions to worship God or to remember a verse from the Bible. Witnessing this made this lesson really fun to teach.

Our Part
The message was simply that we can use all of who we are to worship God. We can jump, clap, dance, spin or run to worship God. We can worship God in our everyday actions that are part of our daily routines. We can also worship God in sitting silently and thinking about God and His wonder. But in all of these ways, we still emphasised that above the many actions or use of our body, we must make sure our hearts are worshipping God. If our hearts are not in a place of worship before God, then our actions can turn out to be just simple exercise.

We looked at some of the Hebrew terms from the Bible that teach us different ways of worshipping God too. You can view these in our curriculum if you like.

Your part
Your part stays the same: enjoy worship with your children. Be the example and also learn from your children. See them dance and move and sing freely – and enjoy it.

Some children created their own songs that are simply amazing. Their lyrics are so honest and heartfelt towards God. Ask your child to sing their song if they made one. Some children made some instruments. Listen beyond the noise and see a heart in worship.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection – 23 October

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We continued this week with our series, A Heart of Worship. Our focus was on how everything that has breath is called to worship God. We checked and yes, our children and teachers do have breath – and so they are called to worship God. Why? We worship God because He deserves it.

Our Part
As mentioned, our hope this week was to show what scripture teaches us about worship, and one of the key lessons is that everything that has breath must praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6). We have approximately 23,040 breaths a day. To apply this scripture another way, we are called to worship God with every breath we have and that means that we can worship Him all of the time. Our children learnt that they can worship God from morning to evening, whether they are eating or doing homework, when they are on the sports field or about to go to sleep. They can worship God all of the time.

Your part
Do your children see you as a worshipper or is that only seen on Sunday mornings at Church? Have your children ever seen you worshipping God? Be the best example to your children, not because it benefits your children but rather because it benefits you to worship God. Your relationship with God will grow and that is our emphasis too with our children – to see that their relationship with Jesus grows. Create times and ways for you to worship with your children. Allow God to be acknowledged in all that you do. Find joy in worshipping God and let that be seen by your family so that they can want it too.

Don’t forget the memory verses each week and to keep collecting your medical sticker.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church – Term 4 begins

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This Sunday, you may have arrived at Cornerstone thinking you somehow landed up at a casualty ward with all of the doctors and nurses roaming around. Well, you were at the right place, and those incredible doctors and nurses were our Children’s Church teachers prepared to teach on this term’s topic, The Heart of Worship. The idea is that we need to check our heart and body to see how with everything, we can worship God.

Our Part
This week we started off looking at why we worship God. We looked at who He is, what He has done, and we realised that He is worthy of our worship. As the term unfolds, we will look at how we can worship God with a true, real worship that scripture teaches us and that God deserves.

Your Part
Firstly, try to download the curriculum to use at home. We only see your children for two hours a week, and so you need to continue with the lesson throughout the week. Speak to your children about worship, about why we do it and why we worship God. Look at scripture in the Bible. Try to read a Psalm together as a family and talk about it. And don’t forget to remember the memory verse.

This term each child will receive an “immunisation chart” and each week they will receive a sticker to check off what they have learnt. Even our Grade 7s are excited about the idea of collecting stickers.

Enjoy the term. There are some new teachers leading this term. Try to meet them.

We are looking forward to the journey!

– The Children’s Church team