May 23 – June 13, 2004
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:16-46
Memory Verse:
“You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.” Deuteronomy 4:35 (NIV)
Concepts:
Objectives:
1. Older children will locate the story of Elijah and the false prophets in their Bibles. Younger children will learn that the story is in 1 Kings.
2. The children will play a game that illustrates modern ways of “worshiping idols.”
3. The children will think about some of the things they are tempted to treat as more important than God.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
1. Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your name-tag. Make sure the children are wearing name-tags. If not, ask the shepherd to supply a temporary badge. Remember you are interacting with a different group of students each week who may not know you.
2. Open with a brief prayer (optional, as they have just prayed in Great Hall).
3. Explain the purpose of this workshop. Our story today is Elijah and the false prophets. After we review the story we’ll play a game where we think about modern false prophets.
Scripture/Bible Story:
1. Grades 1-2 will not use Bibles, but do open yours to show them where the story is. For grades 3-5, make sure everybody has a Bible. The shepherds will have extra Bibles. Help the students to find the book of 1 Kings. (Get the shepherds to go around the room and help with this.)
If necessary, review the organization of the Bible: The Bible is divided into two big parts, the Old and New Testaments. Each part is made up of books, which are divided into chapters and verses. Have them figure out whether 1 Kings is in Old or New Testament (it happened before Jesus so it’s in the Old Testament). Show them that if they open their Bible in the middle, they’ll usually land in the book of Psalms in the OT. Point out that the book name is at the top of each page. 1 Kings is the 11th book of the Old Testament, and it comes before Psalms.
After they’ve found 1 Kings, help them find chapter 18 and then verse 16. Some of the children will confuse chapters and verses. Show them that chapter numbers are the big ones, and also are at top of every page.
2. Review the story, using the summary below as a guide. Unless this is the first Sunday of the rotation, let the children help you tell the story. This will give you an idea of how much they already know. Other ideas for reviewing the story in later weeks:
o Begin the story and let each person in the circle add one line to the story
until it is complete. Variation for older kids: Use the timer in the supply bin (or just a watch with a second hand). First child starts telling the story. After 15 seconds, second student picks up the tale, even if in mid-sentence. Keep going around circle until complete story is told.
o Tell the story back to them with inaccuracies and let them correct you.
(especially fun for the younger ones -- but don’t do this until the later part
of the rotation.
o Have them roughly sketch the story out and then tell it.
o Photocopy the passage (remove verse numbers), cut it up and see if they can
put it back together correctly.
Story Summary
BACKGROUND:
During the time of Elijah, Ahab was king of
When Ahab saw Elijah, he shouted, "There you are, the
biggest troublemaker in
Elijah answered: “YOU’RE the troublemaker! You have
disobeyed the Lord by worshiping Baal. Call together everyone from
Ahab got all the people together, then they went to meet
Elijah on
The people did not say a word. Elijah continued: “Bring us two bulls. Baal's prophets can take one of them, kill it, and cut it into pieces. Then they can put the meat on the wood without lighting the fire. I will do the same thing with the other bull, and I won't light a fire under it either.
“The prophets of Baal will pray to their god, and I will pray to the Lord. The one who answers by starting the fire is God.”
"That's a good idea," everyone agreed.
Baal's prophets chose their bull, then they got it ready and prayed to Baal all morning, asking him to start the fire. They danced around the altar and shouted, "Answer us, Baal!" But there was no answer.
At noon, Elijah began making fun of them. "Pray louder!" he said. "Maybe Baal is day-dreaming or using the toilet or traveling somewhere. Or maybe he's asleep, and you have to wake him up."
The prophets kept shouting louder and louder, and they cut themselves with swords and knives until they were bleeding. This was the way they worshiped. But there was no answer.
Then Elijah used twelve stones to build an altar in honor
of the Lord. Each stone stood for one of the tribes of
Elijah told the people, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it over the meat and the wood." After they did this, he told them to do it two more times. They did as he said until finally, the water ran down the altar and filled the ditch.
When it was time for the evening sacrifice, Elijah prayed:
“Our Lord, you are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
The Lord immediately sent fire, and it burned up the meat, the wood, and the stones. It scorched the ground everywhere around the altar and dried up every drop of water in the ditch. When the crowd saw what had happened, they all bowed down and shouted, "The Lord is God! The Lord is God!"
Not long afterwards, it got very cloudy and windy, and rain started pouring down. The drought was ended.
Application:
Tell the class: Raise your hand if you’ve ever worshipped Baal. …. Raise your hand if you’ve ever prayed to an idol… Raise your hand if you’ve ever built an altar and sacrificed a bull… Unless you have a joker in the class, no one will raise a hand. Explain:
We might think this story doesn’t have much to do with
us because none of us worships Baal or other idols these days. But what the
people of Israel were really doing wrong was putting their trust in idols
instead of God….and sometimes we do the same thing when we treat other things
as being more important than God. Whenever we value something else more than we
value loving God and living the way God wants us to live, it’s the same thing
the people of
Now we’re going to play a game where we think about some of the things we sometimes treat like they’re more important than God.
Divide the class into teams of 3 or 4 players. The teams will take turns spinning the game wheel, then drawing a card. Let one player spin and a teammate draw the card.
Each card gives a situation and a response, then asks, “Who are you worshiping?” If the answer is “God,” the team gets the number of points they spun for. If the answer is “money,” “clothes,” “popularity,” “winning,” etc., the team loses that number of points. To keep the math simple, let zero be the lowest possible score. Ask the shepherd to keep score on the white board.
Continue until everybody has had a turn spinning.
Older children: Give the player who drew the card the choice of reading it out loud or handing it to you to read.
Younger children: Read each card out loud. Some of the cards might apply more to older children, so feel free to write some additional cards with age-appropriate situations for the younger ones.
Reflection Time: (10:30)
Gather the class into a circle and discuss:
In our game, when you were asked the question “What are you worshiping?” how could you know the answer? We know how God wants us to live…love other people, obey the Ten Commandments, be kind, generous, patient, etc. Worship doesn’t mean just going to church on Sunday morning, it also means trying to live the way God wants us to live. So when we act mean, or treat parents with disrespect, or steal, or judge people according to how they dress or what kind of car they drive, we’re not worshiping God.
The game told us some of the things that we’re tempted to value too much. What were some of them? Money, popularity, winning, clothes, cars, etc. What is more powerful, those things -- or God? Can those things, help you?, comfort you? Are they as important as God?
Is it hard to always choose God over other things? Yes, especially when it means being different from other people.
Where can we get the strength and faith we need to trust God instead of the things that other people value? God helps us. We need to pray for the faith to choose only God.
Recite the Bible memory verse learned in the Great Hall: “You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.” Deuteronomy 4:35 (NIV).
At 10:35 a.m. pass out the journal pages and ask the shepherds to pass out pencils/markers. Optional: Give the children a sticker or some other memento to paste in their journal as a reminder of the workshop. Read the prompt to them, and offer suggestions if needed. (Their “favorite things” can be possessions or activities.) If they don’t know how to spell a word, write it on the white board. Those who finish early can turn the page over and do the activity on the back.
At 10:45 ask the students to close their journals and sit quietly.
Prayer: Close with a brief prayer. Suggestion: Lord we want to worship you not just on Sunday morning but in the way we live our lives every day. Help us every day to choose only you and not treat other things as more important. Amen
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help collect pencils, papers, Bibles, etc. When the room is tidy, dismiss the class.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1. Read the scripture passages and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible.
2. Prepare a closing prayer.
3. Check out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where everything is located.
4. Find the small blue fold-up table, stored behind the puppet stage. It is handy for organizing all your supplies. Optional: Bring a CD or taped music for background music while you are gathering, meditative music for Reflection time. A boom box is located in the Puppet workshop cabinet.
5.
GAME WHEEL: During the week, the game
wheel stays in the main room of the
6. Cut out the game questions at the end of the lesson plan and paste them onto note cards. Write more if you wish.
7. Practice reading or telling the story. Use props if you like. Be dramatic!
Supply List
Extra Bibles (grades 3-5)
Dry-erase marker (in supply bin)
Note cards for game
Game wheel
Pencils (in supply bin; the shepherds also have pencils)
Journal pages
Game cards
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Your soccer team wins the championship. In celebrating your victory, you and your teammates call the other team losers. What are you worshiping? |
Your soccer team wins the championship. You and your teammates congratulate the other team on playing a good game. What are you worshiping? |
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There’s a kid in your class who everybody thinks is weird. Someone makes a joke about him, and you laugh along with the rest of the class. What are you worshiping? |
There’s a kid in your class who everybody thinks is weird. You sit by him at lunch and get to know him. What are you worshiping? |
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You’re in the middle of a hard math test when you notice that you can see what the kid in front of you is writing. You copy the answer to a problem you’re having trouble with. What are you worshiping? |
You’re in the middle of a hard math test when you notice that you can see what the kid in front of you is writing. You look away so you won’t be tempted to cheat. What are you worshiping? |
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You’re in a store when you see a video game you really want, but you don’t have enough money for it. You put it in your backpack and walk out of the store. What are you worshiping? |
You’re in a store when you see a video game you really want, but you don’t have enough money for it. You go home empty-handed. What are you worshiping? |
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A group of the kids offers you a cigarette. You’re embarrassed to say no, so you take it. What are you worshiping? |
A group of kids offers you a cigarette. You feel embarrassed, but you say “no thanks.” What are you worshiping? |
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Your parents say you can’t go to the movie that EVERYBODY is talking about. A friend invites you to go; you lie about where you’re going so you can see the movie too. What are you worshiping? |
Your parents say you can’t go to the movie that EVERYBODY is talking about. A friend invites you to go; but you say, “Sorry, I can’t go.” What are you worshiping? |
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You’re shopping for clothes, but your mom says the store you want to go to is too expensive. You pout. What are you worshiping? |
You’re shopping for clothes, but your mom says the store you want to go to is too expensive. You say, “OK, let’s find a less expensive store.” What are you worshiping? |
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Your dad asks you to take out the garbage. You ignore him because you’re watching TV. What are you worshiping? |
Your dad asks you to take out the garbage. You do it without complaining even though it interrupts your TV show. What are you worshiping? |
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EVERYBODY is wearing a certain brand of shoes. You make fun of a girl on the bus who is wearing the “wrong” brand. What are you worshiping? |
EVERYBODY is wearing a certain brand of shoes. You buy a different brand because you know that’s not important. What are you worshiping? |
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A friend invites you over and you’re surprised to see that they live in a very small apartment with old furniture. You decide you don’t like your friend as much as you did before. What are you worshiping? |
You’ve been saving your money for something you really want. At school, they’re collecting money for a family whose house burned down. You decide to give your savings to the family. What are you worshiping? |
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You’re standing in the carpool line at school when you see a classmate get into a very expensive sports car. You feel new respect for him. What are you worshiping? |
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