Tag Archive for: Cornerstone Kids

Children’s Church Reflection for 29 May 2016

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In our lives we are constantly fighting against temptation. The world is tolerating more and more the things that God says isn’t acceptable. Our children face a difficult world with so many voices telling them what is right and what is wrong. With the desire to pursue what is of God, Jesus teaches us that we can ask our Father to help us not to fall into temptation and avoid what is evil.

Our Part

We spent some time this week looking at temptation. The reality is that temptation is all around us. We all have weaknesses which constantly get challenged. A key point we taught is that temptation is not the sin, but giving in to temptation is. We looked at the example when Jesus was in the desert and he was tempted by the devil three times. Jesus was tempted but he never sinned. From this story we also taught our children that, with God’s Word, we can overcome temptation. So when temptation comes, as it will, we can face it head on by remembering God’s Word that gives us strength and understanding, and this helps us to overcome the temptation and not fall into sin.

We taught the kids the reality that temptation will often come, the opportunity to sin is often on our doorstep, but God is with us in those moments and He wants to help us stay strong and not fall into temptation and the sin.

Your Part

This is a serious topic to discuss with your children. They need to understand the presence of temptation and the consequence of falling and sinning. It is our sin that separates us from our loving Father. Discuss with your children what temptations they face and how they deal with it. Help them understand what temptation is and how it is deceiving and leads to sin. Discuss with your children the consequences of sin.

But here is the exciting part: Tell your children the Gospel. Tell them how Jesus died for us so that when we sin we can be forgiven. Tell them that when he becomes our Saviour, all of our sins are forgiven, the ones from our past and the ones we will unfortunately commit in the future. Tell them how God has restored relationship with them so that we can call Him Father and how now, by allowing Him into our life, He helps us not fall into temptation and sin. If your child grasps this good news, the Gospel, pray for them to receive Jesus into their lives. What a privilege. If your children are still too young or not quite grasping the Gospel then that’s okay. Keep teaching them such truths and one day the revelation will be enough for them to personally want to follow Jesus.

Some classes made shields to remind them how using God’s Word can help them overcome temptation. This emphasises the importance of the memory verse each week and the Bible stories we share. We are truly loving this journey with your children.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (22 May)

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One of the most powerful actions God displays to us, His children, is that He chooses to forgive us of our sins. God loves people so much that He chose to give His son Jesus to be a sacrifice to die for us so that our sins could be removed from us. If a righteous God was willing to forgive us of our sins, He commands that we should therefore forgive people when they wrong us.

This was the line in the Lord’s Prayer we focused on this week with our children: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Our Part

The first point we wanted the children to grasp was the severity of sin. Sin is a real problem that has real consequences and should not be seen as something like “naughty fun”. Some of the Cornerstone sites attempted to make brownies using all of the right ingredients, except also added a little bit of cat food. The children were horrified. We suggested that just a little bit of cat food shouldn’t be a problem. They were adamant that cat food, no matter how little, would ruin the whole brownie batch. With that revelation we told them how sin is the same. Just a little sin ruins our lives, and whether it was a little sin or a lot of sin, sin is still sin and ruins us and requires forgiveness.

We also taught how Jesus taught the disciples to forgive all of the time. God constantly forgives us. We should learn to forgive repeatedly as well. We also focused on the story where a king was willing to forgive his servant for a large amount of money owed, but how the servant, although forgiven, refused to forgive a friend for a little amount of money owed (Matthew 18:21-35). There is such an important message in this: we need to learn to forgive and ask God to help us to forgive others, simply because we have been forgiven by Him despite our many wrongs.

Your Part

Speak to your children about the action of forgiveness. It is an action, not only a verbal practice. Learn to speak forgiveness but also show forgiveness by not reminding someone of their faults or constantly holding it against them. Imagine how sad life would be if God constantly reminded us of our faults and used them as a guilt trip against us. No, He forgives us and leads us to move on in life. Ask your children if they are carrying unforgiveness against someone. If yes then try to work it through with them to come to a place to forgive that person.

For you, mom and dad, it is important that you learn to show forgiveness. Children learn so much from their parents. If your children have done something wrong (which, being children, will happen quite frequently), after you have challenged them or disciplined them in some way, be quick to express that you have also forgiven them for what they did. Let your children see forgiveness and grace come from you first, especially against their wrongs. This will help them understand God’s grace and forgiveness and help them learn to show forgiveness to others too.

We would suggest that you do not make any brownies this week. Your children may question the ingredients you used and check the bin for cat food tins!

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (15 May 2016)

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We are all aware of the difficult situations faced across the world when it comes to finance, provision, possessions and security. As a church, we have recently addressed the idea that fear must fall, especially around financial fear. This has led us to the current series titled, Rich Towards God. As we are addressing such ideas with the adults, how fitting and timeous it was to teach our children what Jesus means when He prays, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11).

Our Part

We wanted our children to grasp the truth that God knows all of our needs and that God is our provider. We shared a few stories that Jesus taught. Jesus teaches that if a father on earth can give good gifts, how much more will our Holy Father give to us in need. We also looked at the time Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus saw the need, had faith that our Father can provide, and performed a miracle, one that we cannot take for granted today. I believe that many of us have witnessed such a miracle in our own lives, be in a small or great provision provided by our loving God.

But, with this idea of God’s provision, we also emphasised that God provides our needs as He knows what we need and not according to our desires. So sorry, but praying for the provision of a Playstation 4 because it will benefit your life and your friends is not a provision God means. He actually means that He will provide so that we can fulfil all that He (God) has called us to do.

Your Part

This is a great topic to pray with our children. Ask your children what they feel they need, the family needs, and even what others may need. Ask them what they feel God feels we need. Do we need every toy, every desire, or can we trust God to provide what we need knowing that He knows our needs?

Encourage your children this week to be generous in some way. Learning to give and bless others is such a privilege and a lifestyle we should learn as it is a characteristic of God our Father.

Share your own stories with your children about how God has provided. Share stories from scripture. All of these will build faith and how exciting it will be when our children learn to not depend on this world and its currencies for security, but rather learn to depend completely on our generous and loving Father God.

– The Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (8 May 2016)

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Many times in prayer we may have asked our Father, “Lord, let your will be done”. We can often say that without actually thinking about the consequence of this prayer and the response it needs from us. Are we willing to lay down our agenda, our method, our wishes, no matter how good they sound, if God says we ought to do things differently – His way?

This was the focus for Children’s Church this Sunday. Matthew 6:10 says, “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

Our Part

Our children were taught how we, as people, feel so proud and successful when we get things right, e.g. win a game, answer correctly, fix a problem etc. We are happy that our efforts were right. But many times we are also wrong. What then? Well, we know that God’s will, His effort and plans are always right and He is always successful.

Jesus taught us to ask the Father to let His plans happen and that we would seek His plan and that we would obey, no matter how we may disagree or how strange God’s plan may sound. We looked at the example of Joshua and how God told him to march around the city of Jericho, blow their trumpet, and then the walls would fall down. Surely no person would have come up with that idea, but that was God’s plan, and Joshua asked that God’s will be done, obeyed, and the walls fell down.

So we explained that we need to speak to God, constantly seeking His plans, His thoughts, His advice and His leadership, for He will never fail.

Your Part

As you continue to pray with your children, this week begin asking God to share His will for us personally, for your family and for the Church. I believe that God will give incredible ideas to our children and to your mom and dad on how every day in our different environments, be it school or work, we can live out God’s plans.

Ask your children what they think God wants to do in different situations. Let’s all learn to seek His will first. Also, speak to your children about the faith that God gives us to obey Him, like to obey and march around the city wall.

We cannot wait to hear and see the amazing decisions that our children will make in obeying God that will impact our city with such life. Different crafts were made to remember the story of Joshua. They looked wonderful.

– Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection (1 May 2016)

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As a parent, I (Greg) am sadly aware of how often my children need to call my name repeatedly to get my attention: “Dad…dad…dad…DAD!” Too often as parents we can be so distracted or busy with something that our children need to nag us for attention or repeat their requests because we were not listening.

How wonderful it is that God does not respond the way we do. God is listening to us all of the time, and He always has a response. This was the awesome truth we aimed to teach our children this weekend. God is listening to us, always. He is never too busy for us and He is never distracted that He doesn’t hear our call. He is always available to us. How comforting.

Our Part

Focusing on prayer this term, we taught the children how we pray to God, we get to call Him Father, and in this intimate relationship He is always there to listen to us. We taught how we need to be aware of what we say because God is always listening. We taught that when we pray, we are not just saying fancy words, or repeating a magical spell, but are rather speaking to our Father God who loves to listen to us because of His desire for relationship with us.

We looked at the story in Luke 11 where Jesus teaches how even a grumbling neighbour, when persisted, will respond to a request. Our Father is far more willing to hear and respond to our requests. We explained how God’s answer can be “Yes”, “No” or “Not right now” but God desires us to persist in prayer. We can trust Him and rely on Him.

Your Part

Please continue to pray with your children. This week remind them that God will always listen. Even when He seems far, He is actually near and listening. With some of their prayer requests, help them to persist in prayer. Pray for a person every day, not just once. It has been so encouraging to see the children report back on how many of their prayers have been answered by our awesome God.

Some of the classes did a craft which emphasised the idea of keeping on knocking by praying to God and knowing He will respond.

We hope you are enjoying this term as much as we are!

– Children’s Church team

Children’s Church Reflection for 24 April

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One of the biggest struggles today for our children is their exposure to media and the voice of the world. In watching cartoons and most television shows, it’s sad to hear how often our Lord’s name is used in vain. With that in mind, and as Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer, we focused this last Sunday on understanding the brilliance of God and how His name is to be praised.

Our Part

We focused this week on how there is incredible power and life in God’s name, and so instead of using it in vain we should use His name to speak life into all areas of life. We taught the children that praying in Jesus’ name carries power and the miraculous can happen in His name. The encouragement is that in our words and actions, God’s name should be honoured.

Your Part

Please spend time this week reminding your children about how awesome God is and how His name should be honoured and praised. Please be cautious about what children are watching on television, as using God’s name in vain is becoming more and more prevalent. Explain to your children how and why using God’s name incorrectly is harmful and dishonouring to God. Jesus taught us to praise God because of who He is and what He has done – let us use His name in respect and awe.

Some classes made musical instruments to praise God with. Please see past the noise and enjoy their efforts to worship!

We are loving this term with your children. Please contact us if you would like further conversation.

– The Cornerstone Kids team

Cornerstone Church reflection for 17 April 2016

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It was so exciting to see the children recall memory verses and recite the Lord’s Prayer. Well done mom and dad on following up in the week!

This week our focus was on “Our Father, who is in heaven”. What an incredible truth. God wants us to believe that we are His children, and that is what we are (1 John 3:1). Along with explaining the concept of God being our Father, we also emphasised how prayer is just like breathing. We should aim to pray constantly and understand that prayer helps our spiritual life.

Our Part

This weekend we looked at the idea of God as our Father. Some classes saw how God is such a perfect example of a father, how wonderful and perfect His love is for us and how we can always speak to Him. Our memory verse this week is 1 John 3:1, emphasising the Father’s love for us.

We looked at the story Jesus teaches on the Pharisee and tax collector praying (Luke 18:9-14). We explained how prayer is not a way to show off or impress people. It does not need to be shouted out for all to hear. Rather, prayer is to be honest between you and the Father. Prayer can take place silently in your heart, whispered in your room or even out loud, humbly, with friends and family.

Your Part

We encourage you, mom and dad, to continue to encourage your children to pray. Ask them what they feel like praying for and pray along with them. Praying with someone definitely helps build confidence to pray. We know your children will love the idea of praying with you.

Please remind them of the memory verse (and don’t forget the actions). As mentioned, the idea of God wanting to be known as a loving Father is vital. Spend some time this week to explain this truth.

A craft may have been done to help the children remember some of the key ideas from Sunday. They look beautiful, so put them somewhere for all to see.

Again, thank you for this privilege!

– Children’s Ministry Team

Children’s Church reflection for 10 April 2016

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It was so exciting to kick off the new Children’s Church term this weekend across our sites. We truly count it a privilege to walk this journey with your children.

This term we are focusing on understanding the Lord’s Prayer. We are looking at what Jesus teaches us to pray for through the verses found in the prayer.

Our Part

This past weekend, we looked at how Jesus is our teacher. Our children heard how God sent His Son, Jesus, to come to earth and teach us His ways. Our children heard how Jesus would often spend time praying and how He prayed. They were taught that prayer is not complicated language but rather talking to God. As Jesus pursued constant prayer (communicating) with the Father, so should we.

Your Part

Spend time this week looking at the Lord’s Prayer with your children. Replace the difficult words (e.g. art= is, hallowed= praise to, thou= your). Using some of the points to pray for, pray with your children and encourage them to pray.

Remember: God longs to hear us speak to Him. It doesn’t have to be eloquent, poetic or in depth. Start with a simple prayer if need be, e.g. “Father, thank you for a wonderful day and keeping my family safe. Amen.”

Also, emphasise to your children how Jesus is a teacher and that we are to look at how He lived and follow his teachings.

Your child may have created a prayer rock. The rock is there to encourage your children to remember to pray. Keep the rock on their bed so that they can pray at night. Place it on the floor so that in the morning they can pick it up and pray again. Let’s see how this goes.

We thank you for trusting us with your children, and look forward to partnering with you this term!

– Children’s Church team

Hungry: Junior Youth Camp 2013

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Please note: REGISTRATION FOR HUNGRY: Junior Youth Camp 2013 is CLOSED

We’re looking forward to this year’s Junior Youth Camp! The theme? “Hungry”. It’s going to be three days of endless fun, enjoying God’s presence and learning all about Jesus!

The theme is based off Matthew 5:5 which says, “Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.”

The Junior Youth Camp is for Grade 3’s to Grade 7’s and will be taking place at Cyara YFC in the Magaliesberg. See the rest of the details below. Last year’s camp was fantastic – read about it here.

Interested? Download the application form. We have limited space available but encourage your kids to bring a friend!

Hungry: Junior Youth Camp 2012

Venue: Cyara YFC, Magaliesberg/ Bekker School Road, Hekpoort (see map on application form)
Date: 22-24 February 2013
Leaving Friday at 4:30pm from Cornerstone Church Bedfordview
Returning Sunday at +/- 4.00pm to Cornerstone Church Bedfordview
Ages: Grade 3 to Grade 7 – Please encourage your child to bring a friend.
Cost: REGISTRATION IS CLOSED