I offer this as a tried and tested all-age
activity suitable for any family/all-age service or event over the Christmas
season. It has been used in small parish churches, town churches and in a
cathedral. On every occasion it has been thoroughly enjoyed and I especially like its capacity to
get the adults to join in with the children.
It works this way. Get the children to join
you and split them into five groups and sit on the ground in their groups (they
won’t be sitting still for long so don’t worry if the floor is a bit cold). If
you have a centre aisle of reasonable length, spread the groups down the aisle
so all the congregation are as near a group as possible.
.
One group has to remember ‘Caleb’, a
shepherd's name; the second remember ‘Amos’ another shepherd; the third group
‘Eleazar’, the fourth ‘Reuben’ and
the fifth group ‘Sheep’. ALL THE
CHILDREN have to listen out for their group’s name AND FOR ‘Shepherds’ and
‘Bethlehem’
As you tell the story which can be accessed HERE (BUT don't go to it until you've finished reading this column as it will then replace these instructions: so you might best be served by copying these instructions to a separate document first), each group has to stand up, turn round and sit down again whenever
‘their’ name is called and to do the same when ‘Shepherds’ or ‘Bethlehem’ are
read out.
Start to read the story slowly so the
children get the idea and so the smaller ones have a chance to follow the lead
of the older children in their group. Then gradually speed up so the children soon
have hardly time to sit down before they have to get up again. The children will
enjoy the muddle and so will the rest of the congregation (unless they are
very, very staid!).
THEN: stop the story where indicated in the
script and invite everyone who can to join in each time ‘Shepherds’ or
‘Bethlehem’ feature. Every time I’ve used it about 80-90% of the congregation
have joined in and on the occasion we used it in a cathedral I was delighted to
see the Mayor and her party enjoying the childlikeness.
Once the script ends, go straight into
whatever message fits your situation best. I like to go to why God chose
powerless shepherds as his first evangelists – but there are many, many more
messages that can be appended to the activity.
The story script can be accessed HERE. I only hope that if you chose to use this
story (or your own similar story-line developed on this idea) you have as much
fun as we have on every ‘outing’ of it.
There is more original Christmas and Advent material on this blog which you can find at the special index HERE
There is more original Christmas and Advent material on this blog which you can find at the special index HERE
