Children’s Bible Study Leader’s Guide Designed for use with children ages 3-12 Jesus is the light who dispels the darkness of the world. Scripture: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). Purpose: The purpose of this Leader’s Guide is to provide you with five lessons to create an environment to help children reflect upon this season of the Church, awaiting the Savior, Jesus, who is the light, illuminating and dispelling the darkness that at times engulfs the world.
Resource List General Resources:
Bible This Leader’s Guide PowerPoint® of candles; projector and computer, opt. Printer, photocopier and paper (to make copy of patterns and parent communications) Pens and pencils Washable markers and crayons Felt (purple, pink, white, orange, and black) Craft glue Scissors (for leader and student use) Christmas cookie dough (materials for baking) Cookie cutters (candle, bell, tree, dove) Frosting and plastic knives Napkins Flashlight (one flashlight per student, opt.) Hand bell or jingle bell for week 2 Appropriate seasonal Christmas (focused on Advent or coming) songs and music player Bible times costume (if you choose to tell Bible stories as a Bible times person anticipating the coming Christ) Person to play the part of John the Baptist to tell week 2 Bible story Person to play the part of a shepherd to tell week 3 Bible story
What Is Illuminate? A Note About Helping Children Understand this season of Advent. Advent is a word that means “coming.” It is the season of the Church year that encompasses the four weeks before Christmas. This Advent season is when Christians prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ. This preparation may include praying, fasting, and thinking about one’s spiritual life. It is a time of anticipation as we look forward with glad hearts to the time when the Son of God comes to earth to illuminate the darkness, offering us the hope of salvation for all people, the deep love of God seen and experienced through his dramatic action to be with us and bring us into right relationship, the joy of light that empowers us to walk in his light, and the peace that only Christ can offer to a broken and hurting world. Advent is an opportunity to celebrate together, through the lighting of each candle, his dramatic and time-altering work of joining us and transforming our lives, changing the darkness of despair to the light of hope, love, joy, and peace in Christ. So teach these four lessons leading to Christmas Day. Help children to hear the good news of the coming of Christ, building anticipation toward Christmas Day. Encourage family times of worship with the church community, at home with family, and in the world with friends and acquaintances. Illuminate the world with the light of Jesus Christ through purposefully and prayerfully taking time to anticipate and celebrate all God has done and continues to do.
How to use this Advent guide: Prepare by first praying about your part in Advent, reading this leader’s guide, and then doing the suggested activities. This will help prepare you for the teaching experience, and prepare for any questions that may arise as you lead children. There are ideas for early childhood (ages 3-6 years) and elementary (1st through 6th graders). You will also want to read and use the family devotional book at home, and encourage the families of children to do the same. Make any copies that you will need (for children in your class and for take-home with families). If needed, look up any definitions and think through answers for any questions that you will be asking. Check out the book, Faith Words for Kids: A Dictionary for Parents, Teachers, and Children for definitions to commonly used words of the faith. You can purchase this book online at nph.com. Create an open environment. Allow children to ask any questions they may have about Advent and what it means. Introduce them to practices that provide opportunity for them to celebrate Jesus, the light of the world. Have fun! This should be something that you enjoy and are passionate about experiencing with children. You are part of an important spiritual event in the lives of the children as together you explore the four weeks leading up to Christmas (Advent) and the Christmas Day celebration time within your class. 2
Note: You may find that you have activity ideas for this season of Advent. Please feel free to substitute activities as you feel appropriate. In addition, there are activity ideas to celebrate the coming of Christmas and Christmas with children in Faith Connections Sunday School materials available from WordAction, in the WordAction elementary children’s church, Gonna Make Some Noise! and in early childhood church materials, Worship Time. You can find out more about these materials at wordaction.com
Remember the Family: There is a parent note provided for each of the four weeks of Advent on page 33 of this leader’s guide. Photocopy and send home the note to help families continue this time of Advent preparation at home. You may also send this note as an email to families, or text the weekly message found in the narrow column along with each lesson. You may want to send home a Christmas greeting in the form of a card, email, or text on Christmas Eve in anticipation of the celebration of Christ’s coming on Christmas Day.
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See page 2 of this leader’s guide for general supplies. Print and use a candle and flame from pattern page 31 of this leader’s guide. If you are using this activity with early childhood, trace and cutout a violet candle, white letters for “HOPE,” and orange flame for each child. Elementary children can trace and cut out their own felt pieces using the patterns that you provide. Print, and then send home at the end of this lesson, a note for the parent with each child. This note is found on page 33 of this leader’s guide. Text Message to Send Home during Advent week 1: Our God is a God of hope! Pray that God will introduce hope into the world through your family’s obedience this week.
Helpful Hint Do you not have a candleshaped cookie cutter? You can check online by searching, “candle cookie cutter.” Also ask people in your church, someone might have one!
ADVENT WEEK 1: HOPE IN THE LIGHT (Gospel Reading: Mark 13:24-37) ENTER INTO HIS PRESENCE: THE LEADER Welcome Leader! This is your time to prepare for the first week of Advent. Remember that the time you spend in your devotions, both individually and with family, will directly impact the time that you share enjoying, contemplating, anticipating, and illuminating Advent for your students. This Sunday School lesson is just one opportunity for the celebration of Advent in the lives of your students. You can also find ideas, options, and activities in Faith Connections age level Sunday School materials and the Gonna Make Some Noise worship materials. In addition, your students and their families will participate in the lighting of the Advent wreath in worship with the community of believers and at home with family. You can begin by reading the gospel passage found in Mark 13:24-37. Reflect upon this passage, “What does it look like for you, as a believer, to keep watch?” Praise God for the illuminating hope of his Son in this world and your life as you celebrate his first coming or advent into the world, and anticipate his second coming or advent into the world. Pray for his direction as you teach. Pray this thought, “Dear Lord, help me to be a source of hope for the children I teach. Help me to point them toward the light of Jesus Christ, our true hope in today’s world. He is our true hope for the present day and the future.”
ENTER INTO HIS PRESENCE: THE STUDENT As students arrive in your class, play appropriate music that helps them to enter into his presence and celebrate the hope that Jesus brings into our world. Choose songs that focus on coming, light, anticipation, or the coming of Christ. Help students to prepare for the gospel story, celebrate the illumination of the Advent of Jesus who dispels darkness, and enter into the awareness of God’s presence through participation in these three activities.
CHRISTMAS COOKIES You’ll need ! Sugar cookie dough (and baking needs) ! Candle-shaped cookie cutter ! White frosting and colored tube frosting for writing ! Napkins and plastic knives (for each child)
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You’ll do Christmas cookies are a popular tradition in many homes. Use this familiar tradition with early childhood and elementary children to introduce the concept of “hope” to children this week. Early childhood, You will need to pre-bake the cookies for this age group. Allow young children to frost the cookie. Then carefully print “HOPE” on each cookie. Say the letters “H-OP-E.” Say, Jesus gives hope in his light. This means that we know Jesus loves us and believe that he does what is right for us and the whole world! Thank you, God, for your Son Jesus. We look forward to Christmas, Jesus’ birthday. We know Jesus is with us and will come again. This candle cookie can help us to remember this. Jesus is the light. Elementary, If time and facilities allow, elementary children will enjoy rolling out, cutting, and baking their cookies. Use parchment or waxed paper on the baking sheet. Use a permanent marker to write each student’s name next to his or her cookie. After the cookies have cooled, allow students to frost and write the word “HOPE” on their candles. Enjoy! Say, When we are followers of Jesus, we find our hope in him. Look at this candle cookie. What do candles do when lit? What do you think we mean when we say that Jesus illuminates or brings light into our world? Let’s pray and thank God for his Son, Jesus, our hope and our light.
ILLUMINATE. . . You’ll need ! Outline letters for HOPE (page 32) ! Printer, photocopier, and paper ! Scissors ! Flashlight ! One flashlight for each student, opt. You’ll do Enlarge, copy, and cut out the letters for HOPE. Hide the four letters in the classroom in dark corners or places. Gather the students and turn out the lights. Be sure to have the flashlight already on before doing this with young children. Say, I have hidden four letters to a very important word in four dark places (or corners) of this room. Let’s use this light to illuminate the darkness and find the hidden letters. Search as a team or in four smaller teams to find and return to the gathering place with the four letters. Turn on the lights and arrange the letters to spell “HOPE.” Read this word or ask a volunteer to read it. Ask, Who can tell me what hope means? Hope is important to have. It brings us comfort and a sense of well-being no matter what happens. How does Jesus bring us hope? Jesus is the true hope. He is the Son of God. He is our Lord, Savior, and Best Friend. He is with us now. How is he our hope for the future? Sometimes we think of darkness as a time without hope. Jesus dispels or gets rid of darkness, bringing us light or hopefulness.
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ADVENT BANNER You’ll need ! Printer and paper (make copy of patterns) ! Washable markers ! Felt (purple, pink, white, orange, and black) ! Craft glue ! Scissors (for leader and student use) You’ll do Follow the instructions on page 30 of this leader’s guide to help each student create an Advent Banner. You will need to do more of the work for younger children, pre-cutting the patterns out of felt. They will glue the pieces to their banners. As students work on the banners, adding the first candle to the felt background for week 1, say, This is the first Candle of Advent. It is called the Prophets’ candle. It symbolizes or helps us think about hope. God made a promise through the prophets that he would heal and help his people, Israel. We have that same promise fulfilled or made complete in Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus is our Lord and gives us the light of hope now and for the future. We celebrate that Jesus will return and we will live with him in heaven forever. Have students add the flame and the letters of “HOPE” to this first candle.
ENCOUNTER HIS WORD Help children to encounter the Word of God through a time of Bible story telling, followed by retelling and open-ended questions that encourage students to think about how they will respond to the Scripture and apply it in their lives. You’ll need ! Bible (preferably an easy reader version such as the New International Reader’s Version) ! Bible times costume (robe, scarf, head covering, etc.) ! PowerPoint® of candles, projector, and computer, opt. You’ll do Dress in Bible times costume and tell the Bible story to the students as one who is looking forward to the coming of Jesus. You may also invite a guest to tell this story each week, or ask an older elementary student to dress the part and tell the story to peers. If you choose to do either of these options, print a copy of the story and give it to the person a week before to learn and practice. Use the discussion questions following the story telling to gauge children’s understanding and reactions to this first week of Advent.
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Jesus, Our Hope based on Mark 13:24-37, along with background information Sit with the children. Option: display the first flickering candle from the PowerPoint® presentation as you tell and discuss the Bible story. Do you know the name of the holiday when we celebrate Jesus’ birth; the first time that he came to earth? (Christmas) When does Christmas occur? (December 25th) We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas. Close your eyes for just a moment. Picture a favorite part of Christmas. (Pause for a few minutes) Now open your eyes. There is another coming that followers of Jesus, like me, have hoped for. We have looked forward to it since he returned to heaven. Do you know what I am talking about? (Pause. Elementary children may be able to answer the second coming) God’s Word tells us that it will be a time when Jesus comes again to earth. (Pause. Open the Bible. Read Mark 13:24-26.) When Jesus came the first time, he brought with him a light for all people. He is that light. It was like a small flame of light that comes from a candle in a dark room. Where the light is, the darkness goes away. Did you know this small flame of light still shines? It does. We are Jesus’ light when we tell others about him and when we show his love and care. This gives people hope, letting them know that God loves them and things are going to be all right. But this light is not even the best part! No, the best part is still to come. We do not know for sure when, the exact day, or even the hour. We do know for sure it is going to happen. (Refer back to your Bible. Read Mark 13:32-33.) God has told us that Jesus, the light of the world, his only Son, is coming again. We hope for this. We watch for this. (Read Mark 13:37) We believe this is going to happen. So this week as you think about Christmas and how excited you are that it is coming, remember this even greater coming that we are looking forward to. Jesus, the light of the world, the greatest light we can know, is coming again. Bible Story Follow-up Questions: 1. What can you tell me about today’s Bible story? 2. What did we discover is going to happen one day? 3. What do you think God wants us to learn from today’s Bible story? How do you think God wants you to live each day? Digging Deeper Questions (most likely for older elementary children or preteens): 1. What feelings do you have about this Bible story? Why? 2. Did this Bible story change the way you will celebrate Christmas? How? 3. This Bible story was about Jesus’ second coming, what do you think about this? Feel about this? Do you have any questions about this that you want to ask?
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ENGAGE HIS WORLD What’s Next? You’ll need ! Flashlight You’ll do Following the Bible story telling and conversation, gather with the students. Talk about the season of Advent and what they have discovered. Encourage them to take this information home and enjoy Advent with their families. Challenge them to do one thing this week at home, at school, or in their neighborhood to show the hope that Jesus, our light, brings into the world. Pass the flashlight to each child and allow the child to hold the flashlight under his or her chin and share ideas of what might be done to share Jesus’ light of hope with someone else. Note: Do not require that every student participate. Allow students to pass as needed.
Prayer You’ll need ! Flashlight You’ll do Gather in a circle. Lower the room lights. Turn on the flashlight. Have students bow their heads in prayer. Give a few minutes for them to pray silently, talking with God. Conclude with a prayer of praise for God’s hope illuminated for us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Following prayer time, help students gather their take-home items and prepare for dismissal as parents arrive. As children depart from this lesson time, you may want to play this familiar song, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This song expresses well the longing for Jesus Christ’s transforming light to come into the world.
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