Children and Families - Scripture Union NZ

  This Lent/Easter season, we have a series of intergenerational services for your church to download and use. These services have been written by our Children and Families Team and used in churches. This season in the church calendar is a very important one to share together as an intergenerational community and we want to support you in this.  Download one of our services, or get in touch with us if you would like us to run a service for you. We love getting out and about and supporting your ministry.  Intergenerational Services:  The rocks will cry out: Palm Sunday The Mercy Tree: Good Friday The Colours of Easter: Easter Sunday Breakfast on the Beach: Jesus appears to the disciples  More Easter resources

This Christmas is a good opportunity to gather your community together to sing and celebrate. This resource gives you all you need to create a community Christmas event. It is approx. 45 minutes long, is easy to use, fun and interactive, and perfect for all ages. Sing together, explore the letters in the word CHRISTMAS and spell out some very important words! Full Resource available here Skit script Spelling out CHRISTMAS activity

An Aotearoa Advent Circle: Written by Liz Eichler, thanks to Adrienne Thompson for this resource idea. The Aotearoa Advent Circle is an arrangement made of shell necklaces and paua shells with five candles, four around the circle and one in the centre. It’s inspired by the traditional Advent Wreath, which was invented in Germany by a village pastor helping his flock to count down the days to Christmas. In Europe the Forest was the place of adventure, quest and danger. The evergreen branches of pine trees symbolised the faithfulness of God’s love and the candles showed the light of Christ. But we live in Aotearoa, it’s summer time, everything is green, and using traditional pine branches in an Advent wreath seems a little odd. So, here is an Advent circle instead, with symbols drawn from the Ocean instead of the Forest. This is how you can interpret it.  The circle reminds us of God. A circle has no beginning or end, neither has God. God is for ever.  The shells remind us of ...

This is a resource that can be used by families and households during Advent, as well as by a church congregation. It is simple for a family to use over the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. The Sundays of Advent are often focussed around the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. This resource centres around an Advent Wreath, the lighting of candles for each of these themes, and engaging with Bible stories in the lead up to Christmas Day. In uncertain times it is good to create daily and weekly rhythms and routines as anchors or lighthouses to help us stay firm and find our way when the storms of life come with such unpredictability. It is our hope and prayer that these resources will be a part of that for you and your family. You will need: The Full Resource Additional resources

Dr Seuss tells the wonderful story of a Grinch who is not a fan of Christmas. It’s too noisy and disruptive. So, he creates a plan to steal it. Late on Christmas Eve he sneaks down to the village below and takes all the presents, decorations and food. But the Whos of Whoville, in the village  below are not to be stopped! Come Christmas morning, the Whos join hands in a circle and sing with joy! The Grinch cannot resist the sounds of joy, and the final scene sees him seated at the feast, invited to be part of Christmas.  As followers of Jesus we know that Christmas is more than the trimmings. It’s more than just food or decorations or presents. God came to dwell with us. That’s how much we are loved! That’s worth celebrating.  Our focus this year is on ‘The Certainty of Christmas’. In our uncertain times, people are looking for hope and meaning. They may well feel that the Grinch has stolen much from them this year, and is threatening to steal Christmas too. But in the mid...

As we move into Level 3 and more businesses get up and going, great creativity and innovation have emerged. ‘Click and collect’ and ‘contactless delivery’ are now familiar terms . Businesses have had to read the times and adjust —for many, a radical rethink has been needed. I have been wondering what these times mean for the church. It is too early yet to reach any firm conclusions, but let me share with you two conversations I have had recently, and how they are helping shape my thinking about the future of the church in Aotearoa. Friday’s Zoom conversation: a friend in India reflects on the experience of her church In the initial response to the pandemic, most of the energy of my friend’s church was invested in setting up church online and figuring out how to deliver a variety of programmes via technology. Now they are moving into the next phase. Their conversation has turned to how the church can best serve the poor and vulnerable in their community who are suffering greatly a...

Looking after number one v Caring for others The opposite of looking after number one is caring for others.  This 20 min devotion will help your family to explore together what God has to say about caring for others.  Each session includes:  - To do: a simple fun activity (no materials required) - To talk about: a question to get the conversation started - To explore: A short Bible passage to read, and an optional video clip to view - To think about: something for the family to ponder - To respond: choose from a few options (prayer ideas, a song to sing, an action) - To pray: finish by praying a simple blessing together Click here to download this session Click here to see all five in the series