- Say you’re going to be a little part of (name your church) church at home today.
- Light a candle and pray:
With the light of this candle, we remember the light of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God, you are here with us now and also with our friends and family in their homes today.
Especially we remember that you are also with… (invite everyone to remember people from church, school, extended family, neighbourhood)
Thank you, Jesus, Light for the world. Amen
- Say: Today we’re thinking about the holy habit of sharing – not just the good things we have, but the good news we have. Ask if everybody can think of a time when they met someone amazing or saw someone famous – did you tell anybody about it at the time? Why (not)?
- Listen to this YouTube video of Genesis, Follow you follow me. Who do you follow and how do you follow them (maybe social media, news of favourite teams, groups or celebrities, the news…)?
- Read John 1:40-42. When Andrew met Jesus, he couldn’t keep the excitement to himself, he had to go and tell his brother to come and see Jesus too. What other people can you think of who heard about Jesus and started following him?
- Get a piece of paper and something that will help you make thumbprints, like an inkpad, a sponge with paint on or just a plate of mud. Draw a cross in the middle of the paper to stand for Jesus, then add a thumbprint to stand for one person who’s met Jesus next to the cross. This person might tell two more people about Jesus, so add two more thumb prints next to thee first one. And each of these people might tell two more people about Jesus – add two more next to each thumbprint, and so on. See how quickly the paper fills up. Does it remind you of anything? Maybe one of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of heaven or maybe the diagrams of how viruses can spread from one person to another?
- Say: The first Christians lived in such an amazing way and shared the good news of Jesus with the people they met until, Luke says, ‘The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’ (Acts 2:47). Imagine all the ‘thumbprint people’ squeezing into your front room or into your church to hear more about Jesus! How would that make you all feel? What might you do to help that imagined picture become a reality?
- Look at this picture by a Namibian artist. Here are a lot of very different people very close to Jesus. What questions does it make you ask? Turn those questions into short prayers.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer together, with or without actions and point out the line about giving us today our daily bread.
- Say the Messy Grace if you usually do that at Messy Church
- Blow out the candle, changing the light from visible to invisible light.