Free Children's Ministry Curriculum Written by Sheryl Coats
Bugs Bugs and More Bugs
Hillbilly Days
Wonderfair
The Wacky Worship Workshop
The Celebration Medical Centre
The Celebration City Courthouse
Growing in God's Garden
The Armour of God
The Wild Wild West
Welcome to the Celebration City Municipal Court System.
The set: set up the room like a court room.
This week: We will discover that lying is a sin regardless of how big of a lie it is.
To teach the kids that:
Write up the rules on parchment paper to look like a legal document. Have the bailiff read the rules at the beginning of the session.
Prayer is the key to effective ministry!!!!
Characters needed: a judge, a defendant, witnesses (could use puppets for this), lawyers, bailiff (the kids will serve as the jury)
Kids will participate if they see the leaders participating. Be sure to worship the Lord and actively participate in worship...the kids will be watching you.
(In this case, Jenny is accused of misleading and lying to her parents. She went to the library to write a paper for school. While she was out she spent about five minutes on her homework at the library and the rest of the time she spent at MacDonald's with her friends talking. When she arrived home she told her parents she had been at the library doing her homework. She was grounded from spending time with friends so she made it sound like she was only at the library and didn't mention that she had been at MacDonald's too. The question here is "Is Jenny guilty of lying to her parents? Did she deliberately deceive them?")
The bailiff will welcome the members of the jury and explain to them what they will be doing and then ask all to rise as the judge enters. The judge will then announce the case and ask the defendant to stand. Then the attorneys will begin trying their case with opening statements, calling of witnesses, etc. The members of the jury will then be asked to go into deliberations and come back with a verdict.
Members needed for this case are the Judge, Bailiff, one attorney who changes his hat to play the role of both attorneys, Jenny the defendant, and three witnesses (her brother, her best friend-this is Jeanne, and her mother--two of whom will be puppets and can be worked by the bailiff if necessary). Jenny should lie on the stand and make the lie grow and grow until it is unbelievable.
Questions to ask the witnesses:
Witnesses should be ready to adlib and answer any other questions the lawyer asks.
Once the witnesses have been called and the attorney makes closing statements, allow the children to gather and decide on a verdict.
You will need a package of yeast, some frozen bread rolls and some rolls that have risen already. Ask the kids if they know what yeast is. Explain what yeast does. Show the kids the rolls which haven't risen yet and the rolls that have risen already. Note the difference. Explain that yeast makes the dough get bigger. Begin talking about lies. Explain that lies tend to grow. Just like yeast causes bread dough to rise...one little lie can grow from something small and insignificant into a great big lie!!!
You will need a large piece of poster board. Write the word lie on one side with a marker. On the other side write the word lie many times (do not allow the kids to see this side). Begin by showing them the one lie. Then cut the poster board into lots of smaller pieces. When you do this it will create many pieces that say "lie". Explain that one little lie can lead to a lot of lies in order to hide the first lie.
Play a game similar to balderdash. Allow one leader to represent each team. Read an unusual word. Each contestant must give a definition (real or made up and try to bluff that it is real). The kids must then decide who is telling the truth. For each guess they get right they score a point. The team with the most points wins 5000 Pts. (The team with the greatest number of points is dismissed first at the end of service)
Proverbs 12:22 The Lord hates those who tell lies. Use a rebus to teach the verse.
Puppet show: Bobo will help tell the Bible story of Ananias and Saphira.
Bobo: Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!!!
Leader: Why, hello Bobo. I was just getting ready to tell the kids a story.
Bobo: No kidding?!?!?
Leader: You bet! I have a really terrific story.
Bobo: Well, I'll bet it's a Bible story then.
Leader: You're right. It sure is.
Bobo: The best ones always are. So, what will it be today? The story of Moses and his big bark? Or maybe the story of Daniel in the bears den? Or my favourite one where Peter water-skis on water?
Leader: Well, I have never heard any of THOSE stories in the Bible. But I am going to tell you about Ananias and Saphira today.
Bobo: Who'd you say?
Leader: I said Ananias and Saphira, they were people who are told about in the bible.
Bobo: Goodness sakes. Why'd their mama hate them?
Leader: who said anything about their mama hating them?
Bobo: Well, with names like that their mama must have hated them.
Leader: Oh Bobo!!! Ananias and Saphira were married; they were husband and wife.
Bobo: You mean they both had mamas that hated them? That's even worse.
Leader: NO, NO, No!!! That's just the way they named people back then.
Bobo: Well, I am sure glad my mama didn't know about that.
Leader: Alright Bobo, let's move on with our story.
Bobo: I ain't stopping you.
Leader: No, Bobo, I'm not stopping you.
Bobo: Well, then move on with it already.
Leader: You are really something else Bobo. Anyways, Ananias and Saphira owned some land. They had more than what they needed so they decided to sell some of it.
Bobo: Are you sure this is the story that you want to tell?
Leader: Of course it is. Why wouldn't I?
Bobo: Well, I must admit it is pretty boring so far. You are going to make all these kids fall asleep.
Leader: If you will just listen you'll discover how exciting it really is. It is full of suspense, confrontation and even death!
Bobo: On with it maestro!!!
Leader: Ok, we were at the part where they are about to sell their land. They planned to give all the money they made from the land to God.
Bobo: All of it? Every last penny?
Leader: yes, that's right.
Bobo: Who was mean enough to make them do that?
Leader: Nobody was making them. They decided to do that on their own.
Bobo: Woah!!
Leader: Anyways, they sold their land and got the money. Once they had all that money they decided together that they were going to keep some of it for themselves and still tell Peter it was all of the money from the land.
Bobo: Sounds a little dishonest to me.
Leader: It sure was. So Ananias went to the temple and gave the money to Peter and told him it was ALL of the money from the land. He lied to Peter without even a second thought.
Bobo: What did Peter do?
Leader: Peter rebuked Ananias and told him that because he had lied to God he would die and he fell down dead right there on the spot.
Bobo: You mean God punished him for lying by causing him to fall down dead right on the spot?
Leader: Oh and that's not the end of the story. His wife Saphira came in while the men were out burying her husband and Peter asked her if this was all the money from the sale of the land and she told him it was, just like Ananias did.
Bobo: And what happened to her?
Leader: She too fell down dead right there on the spot and the men came back and carried her away and buried her.
Bobo: Wow, that is some story. But why did they want to say they gave all of it? Couldn't they have told Peter they were giving some of it?
Leader: Well, you see Bobo, they could have told the truth but they wanted to hear people talk about how great they were to give all their money. They wanted all the warm fuzzies of people telling them thank you and telling them how generous they were.
Bobo: I guess it would feel good to hear all those people saying great things about you.
Leader: Yes, I guess it would, but it was very dishonest and the bible tells us that God detests lying. Don't you think they would have been better off by being honest?
Bobo: Well, I reckon so. Boy, after this story I am going to think twice, no three times before I lie again.
Leader: Maybe you should just decide that you aren't going to lie anymore.
Bobo: well, I reckon that would take care of the problem wouldn't it?
(you will need two rolls of crete paper; one red and one white) Call two volunteers forward. The leader reads a lie (or takes suggestions from volunteers) and the kids must decide if it is a BIG lie or a little lie.. (Highest vote wins) If it is a big lie then the kid with red paper gets wrapped, if it is a little lie then the kid with white paper is wrapped. Continue until both volunteers are significantly tied up in lies. Call attention to the fact that both kids are bound by their sin. Which lie is worse? Both are sin. Both tie us up in sin. Both are detested by God. Both will keep us out of heaven. Sin is sin regardless of size.
You will need a bucket of rocks or other hard objects that are bumpy and a blanket. Distribute rocks to the children. Spread out the blanket. Have several children try to hide their rocks under the blanket. Once they have hidden the rocks demonstrate how you can find them without taking the blanket off simply by trying to smooth out the blanket. The rocks cannot be concealed. (Even if you hide the rocks in a bunched up blanket, as soon as you smooth it out you discover the rocks without ever lifting it up) Lies are hard to hide. You can hide them for a while but eventually they are discovered.
Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats
