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
Worship God
Welcome to the wacky worship workshop...where we learn about building our relationship with Jesus.
The set: set up the room like a workshop with all kind of wacky inventions. The weirder it looks the better. Try obtaining some old science equipment or old computer components that can be taken apart to make the room look like a crazy inventor inhabits the room.
This week: We will discover that the first thing that must go into our relationship with Christ is worship. The crazy inventor will try to create an invention that doesn't have any use or purpose...(the purpose of our existence is to worship and glorify God. If we don't recognize and acknowledge who God is our relationship is hollow and empty and useless)
To teach the children that:
Characters needed: The crazy inventor, his faithful assistant, smudge (who always tries to wreck stuff) one or two workshop workers and Einstein the puppet and Bobo the puppet.
It sometimes seems to get old to review the rules week after week, but it is very important to do it anyways. Maintaining control is crucial to effective teaching.
Remember to spend time in prayer this week for the children in our service. God is able to do great and powerful things when we seek his face. God has great things in store for us this week. Have you been faithful to seek his anointing and leading?
The crazy inventor comes in with his arms loaded with junk and is going to build something wonderful (but he doesn't know what). He proceeds to build adding cranks that don't crank anything and buttons that don't work. He can carry on about how wonderful this invention is until he is done and then can't figure out what it is for. The leader who is dressed as a worker in the workshop can explain that everything needs a purpose or intended use. She can go on to explain that God created boys and girls to worship him.
(Psalm 96: 9 Worship the Lord because he is Holy. NCV)
Einstein can be heard in the puppet stage mimicking what is being said by the leader.
Leader: Who is that? What is going on back there. Wait a minute, that sounds like Einstein .
Einstein (comes up) Hello everyone. I am Einstein the elephant and I never forget. Why I am so smart I even amaze myself. I am so smart I don't need to come to church. I am so smart I know everything. Did you hear me back there? I knew all that stuff.
Leader: It sounded to me like you were repeating everything I said.
Einstein: (sounding indignant) I most certainly was not. I AM THE SMARTEST ELEPHANT IN THE WORLD!!!
Leader: I am glad to hear that. Maybe you could help me teach the kids a memory verse today then.
Einstein: (sounding a bit scared now) a memory verse???
Leader: yeah, you can do that can't you?
Einstein: Of course I can! What is the memory verse?
Leader: It is a real simple one today. Listen closely. Worship the Lord because he is Holy. Psalm 96:9
Einstein: Oh that is easy. Which ship did the lord make holes in? Psalm 96:9 See I told you I was sooooo smart.
Leader: Einstein, You got it all wrong.
Einstein: I did? Well, I just didn't hear good. Tell me one more time and I will get it this time for sure.
Leader: Ok, maybe the kids can help me out this time. Ready? Worship the Lord because he is holy. Psalm 96:9
Einstein: Oh I got it this time. Worship the sword because it can make you holy. Psalm 96:9 There you have it. You have just witnessed the most intelligent elephant recite a memory verse.
Leader: Well, you recited something but it wasn't the memory verse.
Einstein: It wasn't? Are you sure? I just know that I am super smart. Leader: How about we say it for you one more time? Third times a charm. Ready kids? Worship the Lord because he is holy. Psalm 96:9
Einstein: Ohhhhh I have it now. Worship the Lord because he has holes all over. How was that?
Leader: Terrible!! Just terrible. It is Worship the Lord because he is Holy. Psalm 96:9
Einstein: Well don't get your long johns in an uproar. I can do it now. Worship the Lord because he is holy. Psalm 96:9. There! Did I do it?
Leader: Einstein, you did it! You finally did it! That was great!
Einstein: Really? Of course it was. After all I am the smartest elephant in the world.
Leader: Naturally, I am glad you helped us out today.
Einstein: I have to go now. Thanks for letting me come today.
Leader: Thanks for coming Einstein. See you later.
The lunch bell rings and all the workers run and grab their lunch boxes. Smudge pulls an orange out of his lunch box and is trying to decide how to get it cut open. The other workers offer suggestions such as cutting it with a comb, using a fingernail clipper, and finally using a hammer at which time the orange is smashed beyond recognition. The leader can interject at this point and call attention to the fact that a hammer was not created to open an orange. It was created to pound nails. When it is used for other things it loses its value. God created people to worship him..often times we choose to worship other things like money or material possessions. We need to remember what we were created to do. God created us to glorify God.
Bobo comes up yelling
Bobo: War ship? Help!! Save me! Where did it go? Was it a big war ship? Were there lots of soldiers on it? Oh what am I going to do? I am tooo young to die. I hate wars. OH help me please help me.
Leader: What in the world are you talking about? Nobody said anything about a ship.
Bobo: Oh yes they did. I heard them with my very own super sonic ears. I distinctly heard the kids yelling about a war ship. They were afraid it was going to make them holy all over. Hey, they don't look like they have holes all over to me. What's the big idea? Haven't you heard it is not nice to scare people like that?
Leader: Oh Bobo, you just didn't listen carefully. The kids were just saying the memory verse. They said worship not war ship. The verse is Worship the Lord because he is holy. We are learning how important it is to worship the Lord and tell him how awesome he is.
Bobo: Oh, I get it. I knew that. We worship the Lord because he is holy. We worship him because he is so cool and so radical. And because he is the greatest and most incredible and because he is bigger than the whole universe.
Leader: That is great Bobo. You do know a lot about worshiping the Lord.
Bobo: I tell him all those things when I pray every day.
Leader: That is fantastic! The most important thing we can do is worship God.
Bobo: Right on Dude!
Leader: Well, bobo, We need to get on with our lesson.
Bobo: Ok. I will listen from my lounge chair back here while I sip soda and eat my 14 candy bars.
Crazy uses... you will need two bags with common household items. The object of the game will be for the teams to come up with as many wacky but possible uses for an object other than its intended use. One team will pull an item out of a bag. (Have a white board and a leader to write all of the uses down) The team will then call out uses as the leader writes them down. Set a timer for 2 minutes. When the two min. are done the next team selects an item and does the same thing. Teams get one thousand points for each use.
Smudge comes in with a pile of pictures of things you are sure the kids will get excited about such as Brett Farve, Green Bay Packer players, footballs, Nintendo, etc. He asks the children to show their level of excitement about these things and cheer if they really like them. Then the inventor comes in with a picture of Jesus to hold up. He explains to the kids that God created us to worship him above all else and yet we often choose to cheer about worldly things more than about Jesus and how awesome he is. What we cheer the loudest for is most important. If you have the supplies you could build some kind of a "computer" that spits out the pictures for you as you push buttons'.
Tell the story of Jesus riding in on a donkey and the people waving palm branches and shouting hosanna.
(you will need a small cup of water and a paper towel) Tell the children the empty cup represents them. Fill it with water and explain that the water represents our praise. Then continue by showing the paper towel and explaining that the paper towel represents God. We can fill our lives with praise, but it doesn't do God any good unless we give it to him. God is wanting and waiting for us to give him our praise. When we give him our praise he soaks it up (put paper towel in the cup to soak up some water). Then God blesses us with wonderful things (squeeze the water from the paper towel onto the cup) We were created to worship God. God is waiting for us to worship him. We can't keep it to ourselves.
Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats
