Ideas for the whole family to explore the current Sunday School Unit
Start Here….
Thanks for visiting our Take Your Faith HomePage!! As the days grow longer and the weather warms we find ourselves longing for summer. This is the perfect time to introduce a few new family activities to help make your faith life a part of your everyday. Make a point to set aside some time each day to keep God at the heart of your family. Here are a few ideas:
- Read a scripture or devotion at breakfast
- Say a prayer expressing your hopes for the future
- Ask God for guidance throughout the day
- Write a sentence of thanksgiving in a daily journal
- Send your kids off to school with a blessing. One quick and simple blessing is to use your thumb to rub a small (invisible) cross on their forehead while saying the words “God’s love goes with you.”
Faith Stuff, Fun stuff…
Kids are busy. Parents are busy. It can be so easy to slip into the routine of “too, too busy” to take time for God. But weaving your faith into your everyday life doesn’t have to be “one more thing” to do. Take some of these printables with you to do while waiting at the dentist. Carve out some family time for one of the activities this weekend. Or use one of the discussion starters to liven up your dinner conversation. Whatever you do, let your faith touch every part of your life!
Ideas from our current Sunday School Unit – Questioning Thomas – Questions and the Kingdom of God
Printables:
Coloring Pages:
Activity Pages
Websites:
Activity Links:
Just for fun:
Fun Family Activities:
Maundy Thursday
Read aloud John 13:1-5.
Have a bowl of water, a bar of soap, and paper towels ready. Take turns washing each other’s feet and drying them as you express love to each other. Display the soap at your family worship space.
Join us for Maundy Thursday worship at 7:00 pm at PCHUM
Good Friday
Read aloud Mark 15:21-39
You’ll need 2 horseshoe or carpenter’s nails, light gauge wire, and a shoelace for each child. Help children lay their nails across each other like a cross and start wrapping the wire around the point where the nails intersect, to bind the nails to the cross. Crisscross the wire in the center. Have the kids recall an event of the crucifixion with each wrap. Wrap more wire around the top and make a loop to hold the shoelace. Encourage the kids to wear this necklace until Easter.
Join us for Good Friday worship at 7:00pm at PCHUM
Saturday
Read aloud Mark 15:42-47
You will need a paper bag, three hard cover books, a grapefruit, tissue or toilet paper, and a three small action figures. Make a mini-tomb from the open paper bag surrounded on either side—and bridged on top—by the books. Wrap the action figure in the tissue paper and place him in the tomb. Roll the grapefruit in front of the entrance and place the remaining two action figures as soldiers to guard the entrance. Let the kids know that first thing tomorrow morning they should come and see if Jesus is still there or if He has risen. If He has risen, they should wake up the parents to come and see. (Parents: Make sure to remove ‘Jesus’ from the tomb, roll away the stone, and lay down the soldiers before the morning!)
Talk about how the disciples might have felt when all their hopes seemed destroyed when Jesus died. Ask, “How would you have felt if you had been there when Jesus died? What would you have done?”
Talk about how the burial isn’t the end of the story, but that it was a very sad day for Jesus’ friends.
Easter Sunday
When the children come to tell you that He is Risen! Make sure you insist they have made a mistake and that they are all wrong. When you finally go and see, make sure to celebrate in awe and wonder with the kids. (Parents: Go ahead and own up to your part in the empty tomb, discussing how it helps the whole family remember the events of Easter morning)
Read aloud Luke 24:1-9
Imagine together what it must have been like for Jesus’ friends to realize He had risen.
Join us for Easter Worship at PCHUM at 8AM, 9AM, or 11:30AM
Family Discussion Starters:
- What are your most frequent questions about God, Jesus, faith, life? Where do you seek answers for these questions? Who would you trust to help you find the answers you seek?
- What about your faith do you find the easiest to believe? What about God have you never doubted? Why?
- What about your faith do you find the hardest to believe? Why?
- Thomas wanted to see Jesus’ hands before he would believe the resurrection. What do you helps you to believe?