Children's Ministry Blog

SpringTown & Treehouse (Preschool)

Need to Know: I Worship God When I Help Others!
Bible Story:  The Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37, The Beginner’s Bible
Memory Verse: Jesus, let what I think, say and do show that I love you.—Adapted from Psalm 19:14
Motions:  Jesus, let what I think (point to head) say (point to mouth) and do (move arms in running motion) show that I love (cross arms over chest) you (point to God).

Review
It shows God that we love Him when we help others—that’s another way we worship! This week we learned about many different ways we can help others. We worship God by helping inside our house and in the yard, carrying something for someone, praying and sharing what we have to help others. 

This week, Sally Singer needed help packing her microphone for a visit to grandma’s house. When Didi was too busy to help, Sally shared a show-stopping story from God’s word with her. The story was about a man who was really hurt on the side of the road. Two people passed by the hurt man and did not offer to help him, but finally a good Samaritan man stopped. The good Samaritan helped the hurt man by bandaging him up and taking him to a nice place where he could rest. After hearing this story, Didi realized that helping Sally would show God that she loves Him, so that’s what she did!

This Week At Home
Your child picked one thing he or she would do this week to help others (help with the trash, laundry, dishes, gardening, cooking, cleaning or carrying, or by giving money, praying, or sharing a snack). Ask your child what he or she picked and make sure he or she does that to help others. 

ImagiNation, Jump Street & Shockwave (Elementary School)

Need to Know:  I Worship God When I Serve Him
Bible Story: A Sinful Woman Pours Perfume on Jesus (Luke 7:36-50)
Memory Verse: “Shout to the Lord with joy, everyone on earth! Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come to Him with songs of joy.  I want you to realize that the Lord is God.” Psalm 100:1-2 (Italicized verses continued for 4th-5th graders.  To be continued.)

Review
In a band, roadies serve by setting up all of the concert equipment. There are lots of ways we can be like roadies every day by serving and helping people. Since God made all the people we see, when we serve them, we are actually serving God. This week we talked about how Jesus served us by dying on the cross to forgive us for all the wrong things we do. Serving in that way was not easy, but He did it anyways. One way we can tell Jesus “Thank You” for serving us is by serve others.

In Large Group, Nate and the band decided to use their day off while in Orlando to play a benefit concert for a local children’s hospital. Kate, however, wanted to take the day off in Disney World. Nate described to Kate that when we serve others, we also serve God. Nate pointed out that we are all given different talents and abilities that we can use to serve! In the end, Kate made the right choice and decided to help the band with the concert!

This Week At Home
Praying is one way we can serve people without them even knowing it! Encourage your child to continue writing in his or her prayer journal while praying for others. You can also help your child find ways to serve others this week!

Be a rock star in your child’s life by setting a contagious example of worship. Worship is a lifestyle that shows God you love Him more than anything else. Reward and praise your child when he or she applies what they’ve learned. See you back on Center Stage next week!

SpringTown & Treehouse (Preschool)

Need to Know: I Worship God When I Pray to Him!
Bible Story:  Hannah’s Prayer, 1 Samuel 1:1-20 The Beginner’s Bible
Memory Verse: Jesus, let what I think, say and do show that I love you.—Adapted from Psalm 19:14
Motions:  Jesus, let what I think (point to head) say (point to mouth) and do (move arms in running motion) show that I love (cross arms over chest) you (point to God).

Review
We can always talk to God! When we talk to God, we are praying, and praying is another way we worship God. This week as we learned I Worship God When I Pray to Him, we talked about how we can pray no matter how we are feeling: happy, sad, angry, scared or lonely.

During today’s show Didi wanted to play a song for us on her guitar, but when she reached in her pocket for her guitar pick, it was missing! When they couldn’t figure out where it was, Sally knew exactly what to do—pray! When Didi didn’t like that idea Sally shared a story with her from God’s word about Hannah who really wanted to have a child. Hannah told God exactly how she was feeling and asked Him for help. We followed Hannah’s example and asked God for help finding Didi’s guitar pick.  Just like God helped Hannah, God helped us—all we have to do is pray and ask!

This Week At Home
Remind your child that he or she can pray to God anytime, anywhere, about anything, no matter how he ore she is feeling. Stop and pray with your child in each situation he or she faces this week.

ImagiNation, Jump Street & Shockwave (Elementary School)

Need to Know: I Worship God When I Pray to Him
Bible Story: Elijah Hears a Quiet Voice (1 Kings 19)
Memory Verse: “Shout to the Lord with joy, everyone on earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come to Him with songs of joy.” Psalm 100:1-2 (to be continued for 4th-5th graders)

Review
In Large Group, Nate called the band together to have a time of prayer. Kate decided that the prayer meeting was actually a great place for taking a nap. Nate taught Kate that they do not only worship God when they sing, but also when they pray. He helped Kate understand that praying is just as much a part of worship as singing.

Prayer is a lot like talking with your best friend—sometimes you talk and sometimes you listen. Our fingers can remind us of what to pray for:

• Praise (Thumb) - In many ways your thumb is the most important part of your hand. Without your thumb it’s hard to pick things up. So our thumb reminds us that before we pray for anything else, we need to praise God, telling Him how amazing and wonderful He is. Praise Him by telling Him how important He is in your life.
• Thanks (Pointer Finger) - It’s important to thank God for the things He does for us. If you ever have a hard time thinking of something to thank God for, just point to anything around you. Everything around you, from the air you are breathing, to the clothes you are wearing is given to you by God and you can thank Him for it.
• Others (Middle Finger) - Our middle finger is our longest finger and we need to be willing to reach out really far to others and pray for them.
• Ask (Ring Finger) - Your ring finger is not your longest or shortest finger.  It reminds us that God cares for the big things and the little things in our lives and everything in between.  No problem is too big or too small to ask for God’s help.
• Me (Pinkie Finger) - Your pinkie is your smallest finger.  It reminds us to pray for ourselves, and since God knows exactly what we need, we don’t need to spend a lot of time praying for ourselves.

This Week At Home
Encourage your child to write or draw in the prayer journal he or she made this week. A prayer journal is a place where you can write down the things you are praying for & the things you learned or thought about while you prayed. You can look back through it and see how God answered your prayers.

Be a rock star in your child’s life by setting a contagious example of worship. Worship is a lifestyle that shows God you love Him more than anything else. Reward and praise your child when he or she applies what they’ve learned. See you back on Center Stage next week!

SpringTown & Treehouse (Preschool)

Need to Know: I Worship God When I Sing to Him!
Bible Story:  Sing to God, Psalms 8:3, 23:1, 24:1, 68:32
Memory Verse: Jesus, let what I think, say and do show that I love you.—Adapted from Psalm 19:14
Motions:  Jesus, let what I think (point to head) say (point to mouth) and do (move arms in running motion) show that I love (cross arms over chest) you (point to God).

Review
Singing is one way we can worship God! Remember, that when we worship, we show God that we love Him. Today we talked about all the times and places we can sing to God: at church & at home, in the car, while playing outside, with our friends and in bed. David told us in the Psalms we read that we should sing to God with all our heart. That means we should really mean what we say when we are singing. 

This week Sally Singer was super excited to be singing for some famous people coming to watch their show. Didi Drummer shared a show-stopping story with her about David, who loved to worship God by singing. David enjoyed singing & playing instruments, but his most favorite person to sing to was God. After hearing about who David loved singing to, Sally became excited to sing for God instead of all the important people coming to the show.

This Week At Home
Download a playlist for your preschooler(s), and ROCK OUT to some cool worship tunes everywhere you go this week!

Suggested resources: HERE and HERE.  Other great artists such as Yancy and Vineyard UK are available on iTunes

ImagiNation, Jump Street & Shockwave (Elementary School)

Need to Know:  I Worship God When I Sing to Him
Bible Story:  Mary’s Song, Luke 1:26-55 (K-3 & 4th-5th Girls), Song of Moses, Exodus 14-15:21 (4th-5th Boys)
Memory Verse: “Shout to the Lord with joy, everyone on earth! Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come to Him with songs of joy.” Psalm 100:1-2 (to be continued for 4th-5th graders)

Review
Music is fun, and singing is another way we can worship God! This week we talked about all the different songs we like and if those songs honor God or not.  We learned that songs that do not worship God are not always bad, but that we have to be sure that we love singing to God more than we love singing about other things. When all we do is sing songs about other people and cool stuff we are worshiping those things rather than God. Since we found out last week that only God is worthy of our worship, then we should be singing to Him the most!

In Large Group, Kate, Nate’s sister and the fill-in bass player, wanted to get the audience to stop singing with the band. She wanted to take down the lyrics and only let the audience sing when they were asked. Nate helped Kate understand that the people were actually worshiping God by singing and that we should sing to worship God too. We also heard from Road Pastor Stephen about times in the Bible when people sang to God.

This Week At Home
Download the latest iTunes playlist for elementary school-age kids developed just for you by KidSpring. ROCK OUT to some cool worship songs.

Be a rock star in your child’s life by setting a contagious example of worship. Worship is a lifestyle that shows God you love Him more than anything else. Reward and praise your child when he or she applies what they’ve learned. See you back on Center Stage next week!

Iggy takes Center Stage!

Center Stage Opener from Justin Beam on Vimeo.

This week we welcomed kids starting 5K into ImagiNation! Don’t forget that kids entering 6th grade will attend Fuse for the first time this Wednesday! ROCK ON!

Speaking of ROCK we started a new series this Sunday called Center Stage. Over the next eight weeks we will discover many of the ways the Bible tells us to WORSHIP! Worship is showing God that we love Him, and there are lots of ways we can do that.

SpringTown & Treehouse (Preschool)

Need to Know: I Worship God When I Am Thankful!
Bible Story:  The Red Sea (Moses & Miriam’s Song), The Beginner’s Bible
Memory Verse: Jesus, let what I think, say and do show that I love you.—Adapted from Psalm 19:14
Motions:  Jesus, let what I think (point to head) say (point to mouth) and do (move arms in running motion) show that I love (cross arms over chest) you (point to God).

Review
Today we talked about all the things we can be thankful for: our house, friends, family, pets, toys and church. We also met Sally Singer and Didi Drummer, two kids with their own garage band. Sally is a great singer, but the only person she wanted to thank for her talent was herself! 

Didi told Sally a show-stopping story from God’s word about a girl named Miriam. Miriam was with the Israelties when they crossed the Red Sea. When they made it safely across, Miriam and the Israelites sang to God and told Him “Thank You” for all that He had done for them. Once Sally learned what today’s show was all about, I Worship God When I Am Thankful, she worshiped God by thanking Him for the beautiful voice He has given her, and for such a good friend like Didi.

This Week At Home
Like Miriam, we sang a song about the things we are thankful for. Try singing this song with your child a few times this week about the things your family is thankful for: (to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”) “Today, I am thankful for, thankful for, thankful for, today I am thankful for, thankful for my __________.”

ImagiNation, Jump Street & Shockwave (Elementary School)

Need to Know:  Only God is Worthy of My Worship
Bible Story:  The Rich Young Man (Mark10:17-27)
Memory Verse: “Shout to the Lord with joy, everyone on earth!” Psalm 100:1 (to be continued)

Review
This week we talked about all of the things we have that we love. We heard a story from the Bible about a rich young man who had a lot of nice stuff too.  Jesus instructed the man to give up his possessions so that he could follow Jesus, but the man went away sad because he refused - he loved his stuff more than he loved Jesus!

It’s okay to have things that we love because everything is a gift from God, but sometimes people, the things we have, or the things we love to do get in our way of following Jesus. When that happens we are worshiping someone or something more than God. We learned that only God is worthy of our worship because He loves us more than anyone or anything else—so much that He let His Son, Jesus, die to take the punishment for all the wrong things we do so that we can live in heaven with Him one day.

In Large Group, we met the Cloud 9 band and their Road Pastor, Stephen. The band’s lead singer, Nate invited his sister Kate to play bass guitar on the tour since their regular bass player was out.  Kate was thrilled about all the attention and fame and even tried to promote her own upcoming tour. But Kate quickly learned that the tour was NOT all about her.  Nate had to explain that God was the one worthy of their worship and that the show was about Him! In addition, the Road Pastor told us the story from Mark 10 about the rich young man. He helped us understand why it’s so important to put God first and not let anyone or anything become more important than Jesus! 

This Week At Home
Over the next few weeks we’ll be learning lots of ways we can worship God, but a good place to start is to spend quiet alone time with God every day—reading the Bible & praying. The temptation is to let other things fill that time, like playing outside with friends, playing games, or going to the pool.  This week help your child find time in his or her daily routine to spend with God!

Be a rock star in your child’s life by setting a contagious example of worship. Worship is a lifestyle that shows God you love Him more than anything else. Reward and praise your children when they applie what they’ve learned. See you back at Center Stage next week!

As we say goodbye to Tex and Cookie, we wanted to leave you with this…

Tex explains the final step in the Trail Boss’ bizarre list of instructions…the Prairie Dog Dance Of Doom. Little did she know that it would cause a massive prairie dog stampede that played into the Trail Boss’ grand plan to divert the rustlers so Cookie could move the cattle into the beautiful land!

Prairrie Dog Dance Of Doom from Sydney Haskett on Vimeo.

SpringTown & Treehouse (Preschool)

Need to Know: God Has Great Plans for Me!
Motions:  God (reach to heaven) Has Great (two thumbs up) Plans (walk in place) for Me (thumbs to chest).
Bible Story: The Fall of Jericho (Joshua 6), The Beginner’s Bible
Memory Verse: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Proverbs 3:5