Shepherd Guys Are Comin to Town

252 Groups December 2015, Week 4 Small Group, 2-3

Shepherd Guys Are Comin’ to Town

Bible Story: Shepherd Guys Are Comin’ to Town (Shepherds visit Jesus) • Luke 2:8-20 Bottom Line: God gave us great news. Who will you tell? Memory Verse: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.” John 3:16, NIrV Life App: Compassion—caring enough to do something about someone else’s need. Basic Truth: I should treat others the way I want to be treated.

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes) Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today’s story.

Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Ask God to show your few that the perfect response to Christmas is to go and tell others about Jesus! Pray for opportunities for your kids to show their friends what Christ has done in their lives and to share Him with others.

1. Early Arriver Idea What You Need: Offering container

What You Do:  Collect kids’ offerings as they arrive.  Ask kids how they did with their Compassion Challenges from last week. Did they complete them? How did the other people respond? Would they change anything if they did it again?

2. Interviews What You Need: Hairbrush (or other object to use as a fake microphone)

What You Do:  Ask kids to sit in a circle.  Hand the hairbrush to one kid. Explain that it’s his microphone. He’ll be interviewing the kid on his left.  He can ask a quick introductory question and then ask the person the best news from his or her week or month.  Allow each kid to have a turn interviewing the kid on his or her left. Encourage them to have fun with it.

What You Say: “That was a lot of great news! I love to learn about the things that happen in your lives. [Transition] Let’s go to Large Group, where we’ll hear some more about great news.”

Lead your group to the Large Group area.

©2015 The reThink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. • www.ThinkOrange.com 1 If you change the content of this document, please add to the copyright: Adapted by (your name/organization name/date). 252 Groups December 2015, Week 4 Small Group, 2-3

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Small Groups, 25 minutes) Create a safe place to connect and learn how the Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions.

* 1. Megaphones (application activity / review the Bible story) What You Need: Cardstock, paper, aluminum foil, poster board, scissors, tape

What You Do:  Lay out all of the supplies.  Divide kids into teams of two or three.  Tell teams to use the supplies to make a megaphone. Encourage them to test out different materials or combinations of materials to see which will amplify their voices the best. They’re not allowed to yell—just talk in a normal voice.  Once each team has made their final megaphone, you will test them out to see which amplifies the best.  Explain that kids will now use that megaphone to re-tell today’s Bible story. One kid will say one sentence and pass the megaphone to another kid, who will say another sentence, and so on, until the entire story has been told.  Some plot points to make sure the kids cover are: o Shepherds were in their fields tending the sheep. o Angels of the Lord appeared to them and shepherds were terrified. o Angels told shepherds not to be afraid and that a Savior had been born in Bethlehem. o Shepherds went and visited Jesus and then told others the good news.

What You Say: [Bottom Line] “God gave us great news. Who will you tell? You know the story of the good news. It was in our Bible story today. What’s so good about this news? (Pause for responses.) It’s good news because when we hear it, believe it, and choose to follow Jesus, we get to live with Him in heaven forever. How awesome is that? [Make It Personal] (Tell kids your testimony of how you came to know Jesus as your Savior.) Do you know someone who doesn’t know this good news? (Pause.) Think about someone you can tell this good news to this week.”

2. God Gave (application activity) What You Need: Paper, markers, scissors, tape and/or glue, magazines with full page ads

What You Do:  Explain the “God loved; God gave; we believe; we receive” concept: God loved us so much that God gave us His Son, Jesus. When we believe in Him, we receive the gift of eternal life.  Tell the kids they will be making a poster with these phrases.  They will choose a large photo from the magazines or make a collage of smaller photos to fill one page.  Then they will put each of the phrases on top of the photo(s). They can write out the phrases on paper, cut them out, and tape them onto their pictures. Or they can cut letters or words out of the magazines to create the phrases and tape them onto their pictures.

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What You Say: “I want you to take these posters home with you and put them somewhere you’ll see them often as a reminder of the good news of Jesus. [Bottom Line] God gave us great news. Who will you tell? Whenever someone comes to your house, you can use these posters to tell others the good news.”

3. Parachute Verse (memory verse activity) What You Need: Parachute, balls with Memory Verse words/phrases

What You Do:  Spread out the parachute.  Divide kids into two teams.  Designate one “Runner” from each team.  Tell all the other kids to spread out around the edge of the parachute—one team on either half. The runners should stand behind their team’s side of the parachute.  Toss the balls onto the parachute. Explain that the balls have words or phrases from the Memory Verse on them. There are two complete sets.  Tell kids to start shaking the parachute.  When a ball pops off, the Runner on that half of the parachute grabs the ball and places it in a designated area. He then taps another person on his team to be the next Runner and they change places.  The goal is to get all balls in a set and put them in order. If a Runner gets a ball with words his team already has, he should toss the ball back onto the parachute.  Play until both teams have put the entire verse in order.

What You Say: “This is one of the most ‘famous’ verses from the Bible, and there’s good reason for that. It tells us the good news of Jesus in just a handful of words. When someone wants to know about Jesus, this verse is a good one to tell them. [Bottom Line] God gave us great news. Who will you tell?”

Pray and Dismiss What You Need: No supplies needed

What You Do:  Remind kids that there is no one formula for how you should pray. You can pray anywhere, anytime, in any position, aloud or silently, and with your eyes open or closed.  Tell kids to take a few moments to pray that they will have the opportunity and the courage to tell someone the good news about Jesus this week. If they want to pray aloud, they can, or they can pray silently.

What You Say: “Let’s keep praying that we’ll have opportunities to tell others the good news about Jesus not just at Christmastime, but all year long. Keep your eyes and ears open at school, at the park, at basketball practice, or at play dates so you’ll be ready to tell others about Jesus.”

©2015 The reThink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. • www.ThinkOrange.com 3 If you change the content of this document, please add to the copyright: Adapted by (your name/organization name/date). 252 Groups December 2015, Week 4 Small Group, 2-3

Give each child a GodTime card. Pass out Parent Cue cards as adults arrive to pick up. Tell kids to tell their parent or whoever picks them up that they’re going to tell someone about Jesus this week.

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