Not for sale!
Children's Activity
Object:
Teachers or Parents: Being saved by grace goes against the
grain of what we learn from our youngest years. Especially in
our materialistic culture, we learn that money can purchase
everything from possessions to power and friendships. It is hard
for us to believe that heaven cannot be purchased.
* Learn the words to "Amazing Grace."
* Attempt to de-mythologize money and material possessions by focusing on character issues that cannot be purchased with money: trustworthiness, honesty, loyalty, faithfulness, generosity, forgiveness, love.
* Make a model of the tablet of stone which contained the Ten Commandments. An effective model can be made of Styrofoam. Cut the tablets and then mark the commandments on the them. Put the model on the wall for the class.
* Memorize the commandments. Explain them with practical, everyday illustrations of their usefulness. Put the commandments in their proper context for Christians: they do not save us but they do provide a guide for behavior and a law for living.
* Make designs for a money brochure. One side can look like money (perhaps you can make copies of a bill-like border) and the other side can be an invitation to believe in Jesus who gives us what money cannot buy. (Again, you can write this portion and have it photocopied before class.)
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Sing "Amazing Grace."
* Read today's Gospel from a contemporary translation or paraphrase of the Bible.
* Have the children act out the scene.
* Instead of taking a collection, distribute the "grace notes" that you made (facsimiles of dollar bills with the words "Grace alone" or something similar).
* Learn the words to "Amazing Grace."
* Attempt to de-mythologize money and material possessions by focusing on character issues that cannot be purchased with money: trustworthiness, honesty, loyalty, faithfulness, generosity, forgiveness, love.
* Make a model of the tablet of stone which contained the Ten Commandments. An effective model can be made of Styrofoam. Cut the tablets and then mark the commandments on the them. Put the model on the wall for the class.
* Memorize the commandments. Explain them with practical, everyday illustrations of their usefulness. Put the commandments in their proper context for Christians: they do not save us but they do provide a guide for behavior and a law for living.
* Make designs for a money brochure. One side can look like money (perhaps you can make copies of a bill-like border) and the other side can be an invitation to believe in Jesus who gives us what money cannot buy. (Again, you can write this portion and have it photocopied before class.)
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Sing "Amazing Grace."
* Read today's Gospel from a contemporary translation or paraphrase of the Bible.
* Have the children act out the scene.
* Instead of taking a collection, distribute the "grace notes" that you made (facsimiles of dollar bills with the words "Grace alone" or something similar).
