Lessons on Stewardship

Featuring:Cash Cow & Piggy Bank

A Three Week Children’s Church

CurriculumWeek One: Tithes

Week Two: OfferingWeek Three: Stewardship

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theBigIdea I will be a Good Steward

Refer back to the BIG idea often thru the

service to remind the children what the lesson

is about.

What you need: • Small dead plant (small enought to fit in the bank bag) You will have to

buy this at the beginning of the week and let it sit so it will be nice and dead for Sunday

• Plant Food• Water Bottle

What it is : The Big Idea is used from beginning to end in the service. Each element of the service should be opened with “whatʼs the big idea?” and allow the children to repeat it back. The more you use the big idea and more it is said by leaders and children the greater the chance for the children to retain what they have learned in the service.

What you say & What you do: Who is ready for the Big Idea? (kids react) Well we are getting ready to blow the roof off of this room today so get ready, take a deep breath and letʼs say it on the count of 3- 1...2...3...(kids yell the Big Idea)--Repeat this until you feel like the children have a good handle on it for the rest of the service.--The definition for stewardship in its simplest terms is a person who takes care of what they have. Today our Big idea is I will be a Good Steward. In order to be a good steward we have to take care of what we have. In the Bank Bag today is a beautiful plant. I laid it here this week and asked a friend of mine to take good care of it. I even gave them purified water and plant food for it. It is going to be awesome. I told them to gently put it in the bank bag of mystery so I could show you. Open the Bank Bag and look inside. Slowly pull out the water and plant food first. Wow here is the purified water and plant food but where is the plant. Slowly pull out the dead plant and kind of whimper. No, no this canʼt be the plant I left for my friend to take care of. The plant I left was beautiful. It was colorful and green and alive...now it is dead! How could this happen? I left the water and I left the food and I left the instructions. Well, I guess the person I asked to take care of my plant wasnʼt a very good steward were they? (kids respond) What would a good steward have done? (kids respond) Yeah, they would have fed and watered it for sure. Now it is too late. Letʼs not forget the Big Idea today. God wants us to be good steward of all the things He has given us and has blessed us with. Letʼs say it together one more time... 1...2...3...I WILL BE A GOOD STEWARD!

Week Three

Bank Bag Of Mystery

1. What you say as you teach this is in regular font.

2. What you do is in bold.

Money Games

Balloon Stewardship

This key to this game is all in how you say the rules and explain the game. The goal is to

have the children pick what they think is more

which would be the dollar bills.

What you need: • 10 to 20 balloons (depending on the size of your group and how many

times you would like to play) put into a large garbage bag to keep them together

• Painters tape

What it is : Game time is meant to be fun. Allow the kids to get loud as they cheer on their team for this part of your service.

What you say & What you do: Blow up the proper amount of balloons for your group ahead of time. You will need one balloon for each child that plays. Now it is time for our Money Game. Today we will not be playing with money. We will be learning how to be good stewards of something. In this game each player will have a balloon. It will be there job to take care of their balloon and make sure that it doesnʼt pop. I need some kids to play the game. Pick the amount of kids you would like to play the first round. You can choose to play this one on one or you can have teams of 2 or 3 kids to play against each other. Now that we have our game players, letʼs go over the rules. 1. Each player will have a balloon attached to their ankle with a piece of

tape. When you attach these to their ankle fold the tape over and loop it all the way around their ankle. Also fold the tape around the tied end of the balloon. Tape should be about 12” long.

2. After the balloons are attached and the game leader says “Go” then the game will begin.

3. Your job is to protect your balloon while popping everyone elses balloon while staying in bounds (set some boundaries with chairs or tape on the floor to keep kids close and not running into the parking lot)

4. After your balloon is popped you are out of the game.5. If your balloon comes loose but is not popped then you keep playing.6. No hands or pushing allowed.7. HAVE FUN!!

Play again as time alllows.

Week Three

How to attach the balloon.

MemoryVerseActivity

A person who is put in charge as a steward, must be faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2What you need:• Pieces of paper with a portion of the verse written on them. Here isthe breakdown for each piece of paper.! A person__who is__put in__charge__as a__steward,__must__be__ ! faithful__1 Cor. 4:2 • 5 or 10 children depending on the size of your group • 2 children who is the unscrambler

What it is: The memory verse and the activity is designed to do two things: 1. To give you the opportunity to give Biblical basis and support to the teaching of the day, 2. To get the kids moving and learning at the same time. Take this portion of the service to ensure that the children will memorize the weeks verse and understand what it means to them.

What you say & What you do: Read the verse. Like we discussed in our game time today there are so many kids like you who donʼt think they have much to offer God. I am here to tell you again that God does not look at the amount of money our offering is... He looks at our heart and at our sacrifice. How many of you are ready to learn our verse? (kids respond)

Play Cash Cow and Piggy Bank Stewardship Video

What you say & What you do: Read the verse. Okay children, today we are really gonna mix things up. I need 6 (or 12) volunteers. Pick the children and bring them to the front. Give each of them a portion of the verse (one piece of paper for 10 kids or two pieces of paper for 5 kids). Line the children up in order holding the paper with their portion of the verse chest high so the other children in the audience can read it. Say the verse and have the children repeat it. Choose two more volunteers that will be the unscramblers. Okay kids, if you are holding a paper then you are going to scramble up when I say go... don’t stop scrambling until I tell you to stop. Do not pass your papers and scramble them... you scramble your whole body and keep the paper you have. Here are the rules: 1. Allow on unscrambler at a time to study, 2. then ask them to turn away, 3. ask the children to scramble, 4. ask the unscrambler to turn around and put them (the kids not just the papers) in the right order. Time both unscramblers and whoever does it the fastest wins.

MemoryVerse

MemoryVerseVideo $$$$$$

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Week Three

Stewards Got TalentMatthew 25:14-30What you need:

• Your anointing!• Bible text offered below in red

 14"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents[a] of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. 19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' 21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' 23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' 24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' 26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

What it is : The Bible Story Portion of the lesson is meant to bring all the teaching tools together to show that everything that is being taught and discussed has a basis in scripture. Without scripture there would be nothing useful to say. Children need to know that the Bible has all the answers they need. It is up to us to show them how to find those answers.

Bible Story

Week Three

Stewards Got TalentMatthew 25:14-30

What you say & What you do: Well, here we are at the most important part of our service... the message. I need to go over something with you before we get into Godʼs word. Did you know that the Bible is full of awesome stories about every subject that we deal with in life. So when we get to this part I would like you to help me remember that the Bible is full of Truth. Letʼs try this; when I say “if the Bible says it then” point at the kids you say as loud as you can “itʼs true! Practice this a few times. Now that we know that if the Bible says is then point at the kids (kids say “itʼs true”), we can tell our story today. Our story is found in Matthew 25. It is not a Bible story like we normally have. It is instead a parable. Do you know what a parable is? (kids respond) A parable is a story that teaches a lesson. Many times Jesus taught with parables. Today the parable talks about talents. The name of our story today is “Stewards Got Talent”. The name of this story reminds me of the TV show Americaʼs Got Talent. Have you guys seen the show? (kids respond) Cool, well since some of you have seen it then you know that it has people with all different sorts of talent on it. There are singers, dancers, jugglers and so much more. In this story Jesus talks about 3 people who are given talents by their Master. Now, we need to understand that these talents arenʼt talents like singing and dancing; these talents represent money. In Bible times a talent was a measure of money. Now that we know that back to the story. Each one of the 3 was given talents. Letʼs read how much. Read verses 14 and 15 of the text. What is interesting here is that the Master gave each one what he thought they could handle. Letʼs see what they did with it. Read verses 16 thru 19. Cool! We see here that the ones with five and two talents went out and doubled what they had and then there was the one who got only one talent. He went and buried it. Letʼs read on to see what the Master thought about all this. Read verses 20 thru 30. The Master was very happy with the first two servants because they doubled what he had given them. But, the last servant got in big, big trouble! He got his talent taken away and was punished. Yikes. Letʼs think about what this means for a minute. The master represents God. The servants represent us. The talents represent what God has given us like our lives, our salvation, our minds, our possesions, our church and yes...our talents (like singing, sports, dancing, etc.) This story teaches us to be good stewards of what we have been given. One day we all will have to answer for what we have done on this earth. I want to be like the first two servants and work hard to please God. At the end of the story we find out that “Stewards Got Talent” and that God will bless us even more if we do good with what we already have. Like in Americas Got Talent, when we try hard with what we have we will have a greater chance of winning in life and seeing God use us in great ways. Letʼs pray. Have an altar call here about how to be good stewards. Also challenge the kids to pray for God to show them their talents.

Bible Story

Continued

Week Three

Week Three Schedule

Time: 5-10 min(Do together)

Time: 5 min

Time: 5-10 min

Time: 5 min

Time: 10-15 min

Time: 5-10 min

Time: 5-10 min

Time: TBD

Time: As needed

Time: 10-15 min

Time: 5 min

Welcome and Opening Prayer

theBIGIdea: I will be a Good Steward

Bank Bag of Mystery: Dead Plant, Water & Plant Food

Money Games: Play Money Games here

Praise & Worship: Insert your own praise and worship

Offering & Visitors: Greet visitors & Take Offering

Memory Verse: Teach Memory Verse

Memory Verse Video: Play Cash Cow & Piggy Bank Movie

Memory Verse: Do Memory Verse Activity

Bible Story: Present the Bible Story

Prayer/ Altar & Offering: Use this time to allow the children to respond to what they have learned and to take the offering in a special way.

Review Game: Use Review Game provided in Week Three.