Faithful Families Resources September 4 2016

Tell them of the duty and privilege of going to the house of God, and joining in the prayers of the congregation. Tell them that wherever the Lord's people are gathered together, there the Lord Jesus is present in an especial manner, and that those who absent themselves must expect, like the Apostle Thomas, to miss a blessing.

~J. C. Ryle

Family Closeness

Game:

Interlocking Interests

This works best with three but can be done with four. If your family is bigger than this you can create multiple diagrams. You will need a large piece of paper and some different colour felt pens. Draw a Venn diagram with a circle for each family member. If you aren’t sure what this is, look here. Each group of family members is to discuss their similarities and differences. After the discussion, they fill in the diagram showing their similarities and differences. When they agree they write their preferences in the overlapping areas of the diagram. When their answers are different they write in the outside area of the circles. If only two members of the group share something in common there should be an area that they have in

Sharing:

Questions for stimulating discussion in your family.

• If you could have any question answered, what would it be?
• If you could do your dream job 10 years from now, what would it be?
•  If you had to be allergic to something, what would it be?
• If you sat down next to Jesus on a bus, what would you talk about?

 Story

With your family read:  Luke 15.1-10

(for a way of explaining/talking about this reading with children look at http://www.sermons4kids.com/lost_sheep.htm

  

Questions for Discussion:

• Why do you think Jesus ate with sinners?
• Why were the Pharisees (religious people) upset by this?
• What do you think about the story of the lost sheep?
• Why do you think God is so happy about people turning back to him?

Prayer and Celebration

Intercessory Prayer.

A useful image used for intercessory prayer is a stretcher.  From Mark 2.3-12, some people lowered their paralytic friend through the roof into the presence of Jesus.  This is a good image of the work of intercessory prayer.  That is, don’t labour too hard with the words  to use, simply do the hard work of placing or ‘lowering’ the person into the presence of Jesus.

Place on the stretcher, someone you know who needs help.

Silence

Lower on the stretcher someone who you can love better this week.

Silence

Put onto the stretcher a place that needs peace.

Silence

Put onto the stretcher one who needs healing.

Silence

Put on the stretcher a hope of yours for your life.

Silence

Lord in your mercy, receive our prayer.

  

Family Activity

Masks

You will need paint or crayons, felt pens and scissors and white card for this activity.  Give each family members a piece of white card. Get  them to draw and cut out a lifesized shape of a face. They can also cut out eyes and a mouth if they wish. Everyone then has to decorate their card face. One side represents what they think people believe about them i.e. on the outside. The other side represents what they feel about themselves i.e. things going on the inside, what people do not necessarily know or see. 

(This material is based on and draws from earlier Faithful Families emails by Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning: An Unless Ideas Production.) Unless otherwise noted all material on this blog is copyright Stephen Harrison and Richard Browning