The Story || Why We Tell It || Amos 5:14–15
Sunday, January 31, 2021 — Worship@Home resources for FirstPres Hayward
As our congregation has made the decision to move to a digital online format for our Sunday Family Gathering due to COVID-19, FirstPresKids is here to provide resources that can help you create your own at-home family worship experience or supplement the one that will be streamed on Sunday mornings, 10PST from FirstPres Hayward.
NOTE: You can also go to the FPK YouTube Channel to view most (not all) of these materials on this week’s FirstPresKids YouTube Playlist.
Scriptural Focus: This week FPK Grownups will focus on one of FPCH’s top priorities (see bottom of this post): “The Story” — “Create shareable, powerful, impactful content on a regular basis. Create a prophetic imagination and a movement of “shalom” with our content.” Meanwhile, FPKs will explore the same foundational scripture (Amos 5:14–15) and what it means not only talk about Jesus but to live a life about Jesus and to do it in “the public square”
Lesson Objective: to understand that we all have a story to tell — God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit work through us — at some point we will be prophets, we will all have a message to deliver to the world and a responsibility to speak it
Parent/Caregiver Resources:
- “Kids Learning to Hear God’s Voice” — bear with me on this one… I don’t know, there’s something about this video that makes me squirm, but it makes me think: do I really believe (as I say I do) that God is speaking to us, our children? Or put differently: what is it about our society/understanding of God that makes us think kids can’t be in conversation with God? Were we as children? When did we stop and why?
Opening or Closing Prayer: Dear God, You made us. You are in all things. In the wind, in our pets, and in each one of us. You speak to us in as many different ways as there are people in the world. God, help us to hear you — to hear what is from you, from our Creator, mother and father of all, a God of love, peace and justice — and what is not from you. We all have a story to tell because we are your story. Help us to tell our story, your story, Jesus’s story in our lives. Help us to hear each other’s stories. Let your prophets speak and let us listen — as your word is not just spoken but lived on earth. Amen.
Scripture: Amos 5:14-15
Videos for Kids:
Discussion Questions:
- What is a prophet?
- What messages did the prophets in the Bible share from God?
- Before Jesus, people in the times of the Old Testament believed they could not speak directly to God. But after Jesus, when God became human, we now know that we can speak to God and God can speak to us. God is in all things and can speak through all things. God made you. God is in you and works through you. Even if you’re not paying attention. What are ways you can pay attention? What are ways God speaks to you whether you are paying attention or not?!
- Can you think back to a time that maybe you now realize God was speaking to you?
- How do you know if a message comes from God? (What do we know to be true about God? What if the message doesn’t line up with that, is it from God?)
- Maybe God hasn’t spoken to you yet (though I’m pretty sure God has) but God will one day. When you have received wisdom from God, what can you do with it?
- Everyone has a story. And God is somewhere in that story of you and the people you know. What are ways you can tell your story? What are ways you can tell your story, what you have learned about life, about Jesus, without words? Can you share God’s story in you through your actions?
Play/Do:
- God works through you in all you do! Your work, your play, your quiet, your imagination! Make a story bag to practice telling stories, your story, God’s story —
- Get silly and let the Holy Spirit play in YOU while you play “Poetry Ping Pong” (if you need to get active, use a ball or balloon to toss to the next person on their turn!)
Create:
- Write a Haiku with “Teaching Kids Haiku with Kwame Alexander”:
- Write a borrowed poem with “Teach Kids Poetry together with Kwame Alexander”:
Books:
- Think about how God speaks to us: God Speaks in Whispers by Mark Batterson and Summer Batterson
- Think about our responsibility to what God puts in us: What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Mae Besom
FPCH 2021 Priorities
- January 17th — Matthew 28:16–20 — “The Work”
“Continue to become a faith community that takes the work of discipleship seriously and makes it central to our life together with a focus on faithfulness and obedience to Jesus” - January 24th — Ephesians 6:12 — “The Struggle”
“Continue the struggle to become a multi-cultural anti-racist faith community” - January 31st — Amos 5:14–15 — “The Story”
“Create shareable, powerful, impactful content on a regular basis. Create a prophetic imagination and a movement of “shalom” with our content - February 7th — John 13:12–17 — “The Knee”
2021 Priority “Continue to create a faith family culture of service to one another and our community. - February 14th — Matthew 25:31–42 — “The House”
2021 Priority “Provide good humanizing housing for those in need within our community”
