This summer, we ran a week-long morning camp for age 10–high school to teach kids some acting skills, discuss our hope in Christ, and give them an opportunity to express that to others. We culminated in a final performance that combined what we had learned in a series of skits with a running story that tied it all together. Here’s our notes and script from the week for anyone who’d want to do something similar:

• Final Script
• Planning Notes
• Skit Resource: We used a lot of skits from this site for practice and ideas
• Montage Video: Google Photos made it easy to put together a video showing off what we did all week. We played this video during the offering the following Sunday.

We can’t show the final production, because parts of it were improv, and we used the kids’ names, and we don’t share photos or video that connect kids’ names with images publicly, but I hope this will be a helpful resource.

Inspired by a sermon I recently heard, here’s a simple illustration depicting God’s name placed on our hearts through Holy Baptism, that He claims us as His own like Andy claimed his toys in Toy Story by writing his name on their feet.

Title art for sermon for 5/29/16

Text: 1 Kings 8:22-24,27-29,41-43

Description: “Bringing the World to the House of God” Where is the house of God, and how can we bring people to it?

The idea is that the house of God is now the human heart through Holy Baptism, and we bring others into God’s house by bringing them into our hearts and showing them the love of Christ, letting our light so shine before men….

(And of course, because the Word of God is in our hearts, when they’re in, they’ll hear it, because it’s everywhere in there.)

From a sermon based on Revelation 22:1-6,12-20

“The Coming Kingdom Today” Is the coming Kingdom of God just something that we look forward to someday, or can we find glimpses of it today?

via FaithWebbing.com

Faith Webbing is a deep, purposeful intergenerational approach to connecting youth to faith through a congregation. Its premise is to intentionally identify relationship voids in young peoples’ lives and then to fill those voids with members from within the congregation.

I haven’t tried this, since we’re doing DiscipleQuest here, but we’re looking into the concept to integrate into our Sunday School program.

http://artfrmthehrt.com/scripture-reading-samples.html

PowerPoint Contemporary Slide Presentations consisting of a Scripture reading introduction, three readings, and an appropriate ending slide for each reading using the ESV translation with copyright permission from Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The slides use the readings prescribed by the LCMS Lutheran Three-Year Lectionaries with an original and appropriate artistic background for each reading. The slides can be copied and pasted into any PowerPoint presentation.

So I was at a new grocery store to get supper, but when I went to check out, I realized I didn’t have my wallet, and they didn’t take Apple Pay, so I acted like I was self-checking, put it all in a bag, and walked out. That’s when I got caught. But then a guy stops the clerk and produces a receipt with my name on it for my items. Not just my items, but everything I’ll ever buy there in the future. All paid for, in advance.Before I ever walked into the store.

Then I notice he has a whole stack of these receipts, all with different names on them.
Oh, wait. It wasn’t a store. It was my life. And it was Jesus. And He paid with His life. And you still can’t pay with Apple Pay.

This Easter, I’m wrapping up our “I AM” series with John 11:25-26: “I Am the Resurrection and the Life”

None of Jesus’s statements about His identity would’ve meant anything if He were dead in a tomb today. Yet not only did He raise many others from death, He raised Himself, and because He lives, we will live with Him. But how does that change today?

“I Am the Light of the World” From an “I Am” Lent series. John 8:12 We all know darkness in different parts of our lives, but when we open our eyes to the light of Christ, we find that the darkness scatters.

“Whom do you seek?” Sometimes when we look for God, we find the unexpected. Should that bother us?

From a Lenten service based on John 18:5-6 from an “I Am” series. Uses the image from the Shroud of Turin.