This past weekend we kicked off a short, two week, Christmas series using a couple of popular Christmas movies as the launching pad for our lessons. Here is a quick re-cap of the weekend:
MUSIC: Music was lead by a combination of junior high and high schoolers this weekend. All but one song were Christmas songs. Personally, I don't love doing Christmas songs too far ahead of Christmas, but the students were totally engaged.
FUN & GAMES: We played a "nativity quiz" game that tested student's knowledge of the Christmas story...what is actually in the scriptural account and what is folklore. We also showed a fun, animated video that went along with the game. Jaime, who runs our weekend program, did a fun bit called "Jaime I help you?" in which he demonstrated how to make cheap and easy Christmas gifts and decor. This week he made a "toilet paper tree topper" which as an angel like tree topper made from toilet paper and his own version of fruit cake which was a cake with a ton of fresh fruit crammed into the top. Think food network meets really bad humor.
LESSON: We started the lesson by showing about 7-minutes worth of various scenes from "A Christmas Story"; specifically around Ralphie's pursuit of his perfect Christmas gift....The Red Rider BB Gun. I then taught a lesson called "The Perfect Gift" which focused on the fact that Christmas really is about a gift....A perfect gift. I then talked for a few minutes about God's gift of forgiveness of our sins through Christ etc.
If you want to use it next week before Christmas here are the two very simple points:
- The Perfect Gift is FREE. (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9)
I talked about how weird it would be to get a gift at Christmas and then be asked for partial payment or to do chores to earn it etc.
- The Perfect Gift LASTS FOREVER (John 3:16)
I asked students to think back to Christmas of their fourth grade year. What did they want? Can they even remember what they wanted? Do they still have it? etc.
ATTENDANCE, VOLUNTEER INVOLVEMENT ETC:
Our attendance was a little bit higher than usual for this time of year. Volunteer involvement was good, but we didn't utilize them in our program as much as I would have liked.
Over all, it was a really good weekend.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Blog Archive
- March (2)
- February (13)
- January (14)
- December (13)
- November (9)
- October (17)
- September (16)
- August (17)
- July (16)
- June (16)
- May (18)
- April (17)
- March (14)
- February (21)
- January (19)
- December (13)
- November (16)
- October (20)
- September (15)
- August (15)
- July (18)
- June (17)
- May (21)
- April (25)
- March (23)
- February (22)
- January (26)
- December (18)
- November (24)
- October (24)
- September (25)
- August (31)
- July (28)
- June (36)
- May (36)
- April (1)
6 comments:
Brilliant!!
Hey Kurt,
I noticed you mentioned "volunteers were used as much as you liked". I'm curious, how do you guys normally used volunteers in your program? I've been trying to find new ways to use our volunteers and since you mentioned it I figured I'd ask.
Kurt, you also mentioned attendance was a bit higher than usual for this time of year. Is it usually high or low around the holidays?
DC Curry,
We try to use our volunteers to run games, give announcements, teach a part of the lesson etc. we don't always use them to the extent we want, and this weekend was one of those times.
Nathaniel Dame,
Typically our attendance takes a pretty severe hit from Thanksgiving til the New Year, but so far attendance seem to be holding on.
sweet, thanks man for the reply.
i still have an "ornament" from christmas three years ago when you blew your nose in a tissue and then put a pipe cleaner handle on it and presented it to me during the service.
i don't know if i ever thanked you...
so, thanks.
Post a Comment