The Church works together

Hi all! Welcome back! Today’s lesson is a New Testament story AND part of our lessons on living a Godly life. The text for this can be found in Acts 6:1-7 and Romans 12:3-8.

In the days after Jesus went back to heaven and the people who loved Him had received the Holy Spirit in their hearts, lots of people were hearing about and deciding to follow Jesus. Back then, the church took care of any one who needed help. So the grandmas who were all alone, kids without parents, or people who couldn’t work…anyone who didn’t have food or clothes, the church would make sure they got what they needed. BUT, everyone was so busy telling new people about Jesus that some of the people weren’t getting the food they needed! So the disciples got together and said, “We can’t stop telling people about Jesus!? But we also have to make sure we are SHOWING God’s love by taking care of everyone! So…let’s choose seven men who are full of the God’s Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of making sure everyone has the food they need and we will give our attention to prayer and teaching God’s word.”

Everyone thought that was a great idea, so they chose a man named Stephen, and 6 others. (Most of them were Israelites, but one was not. Before, you had to be an Israelite to be one of God’s chosen people, but Jesus came for EVERYONE. Now ANYONE who believes in Jesus and wants Him as their Savior and Lord can be one of His chosen children. So this man was also included as one of the seven.)

So the word of God spread. The seven men made sure everyone had the food they needed and others told people about Jesus. They all worked together to spread God’s word and His love.

In the book of Romans, God says everyone who loves Him is like one body working together. Do your eyes do the same thing as your nose? Do your fingers do the same thing as your heart? Can you hear with your toes? No! You need all the different parts of your body to do what they are supposed to do! And the church is the same way! All of us who love God work together to share His love! Some of us can be like His mouth and teach people about Him. Some of us can be like hands and help other people. Some of us can be like feet, traveling around to the far-away places of the Earth to make sure everyone knows about God. Some of us can be like ears…we can listen to other people when they are sad. There are lots of way to show God’s love! And we can all work together, like the people in the early church to make sure everyone knows God and His love.

Even kids can and SHOULD help in the church! You can help your mom and dad at home, you can help in your Sunday school class by being a good listener and helping your teacher and you can tell your friends about Jesus too! You can pray for your friends and family…no matter how big, or how small you are…you are never too small to serve God!

This is last year’s lesson on being the body of Christ.

For today’s craft we cut out people shapes and on each one we wrote a way we can serve in the church. (If you were doing this with a larger Sunday school class you could have each child decorate their cut out like themselves and then hook them all together in a banner.) We stapled ours around a paper plate and the center text says: We can ALL work together to tell people about Jesus and show them His love. Acts 6 and Romans 12