Rehearsal Room

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January 18, 2014 .:. Small Group Team Time

Pathways Church Childrens Ministry Weekend Elementary

This Weeks Scope

Bible Story: Say My Name (who do you say that I am?) Matthew 16:13-20
Bottom Line: Practice talking about God.
Memory Verse: Training the body has some value. But being godly has value in every way.
1 Timothy 4:8a, NIrV
Virtue: Commitmentmaking a plan and putting it into practice.
Basic Truth: I need to make the wise choice.

This week, were discovering:

Talk. We can know God better by talking about Him with others. But this week isnt just about talking
about Jesus with people who dont know Him yet. Theres another important element of talking about
God. As kids process their growing faith, they will have questions and doubts. We want kids to know
they can talk about God and work through their question with others who also believe in Jesus. Well
spend time in Matthew 16:13-20 and look at the moment when Peter declared what he believed about
Jesus in front of all the disciples.
Our Bottom Line is: Practice talking about God. We can all share our story of faith with confidence
knowing that Jesus is who He said He is.
Our Memory Verse is 1 Timothy 4:8a, Training the body has some value. But being godly has
value in every way. (NIrV) When we commit to practicing our faith and follow through on our plan,
well grow in such a big way that it will impact our entire lives.

Welcome Time
What You Need: Offering container
What You Do:
Ask the kids in your group to tell you about their favorite person. What do they know about that person?
How do they know what they know? Do they ever tell other people about the person? What do they tell
other people about that person? What would people think of that person if the kids in your group talked
about him all the time?
Invite kids to put their offerings in the offering container.

Activity #1
Famous People (application activity / review the Bible story)
What You Need: Bibles
What You Do:
Hand out Bibles, and ask kids to open to todays Bible story. Ask the following questions:

What is the first question Jesus asked? (v.13)?

What is the second question? (v.15)?
What is the difference between those two questions?
What did Peter say? (v.16)?
How did Jesus respond to Peters statement? (vv.17-19)?

Next, ask kids to take turns describing some famous people you will name. Take volunteers and give
them a name of your choice, or use one from the list below. The names should be people some kids in
your group may be able to describe fairly well, but others might be harder to describe. Allow them to
correct each others descriptions or to help each other guess.
(Note: if you have mostly younger kids, this part of the activity might be difficult. Either skip this part or
try an adaption. Have one child think of a famous person or character and have another try to think of
what they know about that character.)

Walt Disney: creator of Disneyland; a dad with a very big imagination

Lebron James: plays basketball for the Cleveland Cavaliers; has won two NBA championships
and four NBA MVP awards
Serena Williams: top ranked womens tennis player from the U.S.; has a sister who also
competes
George Herman Ruth: better known as Babe, The Great Bambino, or The Sultan of Swat;
he hit 714 home runs in his career and is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame
TobyMac: one of the first and best-known Christian rappers; was in the group DC Talk, but is
now a solo artist; hit songs include Steal My Show, City on Our Knees, and Speak Life
Carly Shea: a fictional character from the show iCarly, about a girl who has a Web show, which
she broadcasts with her best friends Freddy and Sam
Abraham Lincoln: 16th President of the U.S., during the Civil War; was responsible for the
Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation; was killed in Fords Theater

What You Say:

Although the people we just talked about are either very famous or very important, some of them were
hard to describe. Its hard to talk about something we dont know very well. Some of them we didnt
know much about at all. In our Bible story today, people were saying Jesus was somebody great, like
John the Baptist or one of the prophetsthe great people of the Jewish faith. But what they didnt
understand was that Jesus was even greater than these men. He was more than a prophet or a
teacher. He was the Messiah they had all been waiting for their whole lives! [Apply] Sometimes our
perceptions of people arent who they really are. And even what we read about people in a
history book or through a Google search tells us only a little. But this isnt so with Jesus. When
Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Jesus said, basically, Right! And Jesus
taught about Himself for three years, little by little letting people know he was the One sent to save

them. From Jesus own words (in the Bible), we can learn who He really is, which can help us
[Impress] practice talking about God more easily and accurately.
If you lead mostly older kids, consider asking these discussion questions:
Whats the best thing to do before you start talking about something? (Know what youre talking
about.) Why?
What do you know about Jesus?
How can we know that what were saying about Jesus is true? (Read the Bible and look at what
Jesus said about Himself.)

Prayer Time
What You Need: No supplies
What You Do:
Sit in a circle with the kids. Explain that youre going to play the God Is game again, but this time it
will be a prayer and kids will say only the one word that is on their sticker. You will say, Thank You,
God, for being and then fill in the blank.
What You Say:
God, thank You for being so (say a few of the words kids said). We love You, and we want You to help
us practice talking about You. Give us the courage to do that. In Jesus name, amen.
[Apply] Its sometimes scary to talk about God, but its very important to do it so that we can
learn more about Him and so others can learn more about Him. Lets make sure to take time to
[Impress] practice talking about God this week!

Activity #2
Talk About A Switch
What You Need: Electricity Questions Activity Page
What You Do:
Ask the kids if they know how to turn on a light switch. Ask kids to imagine that there is a friend who is
stuck in a dark room and doesnt know where the switch is to turn on the light. Tell them that before
they help their friend, they have to pass a test about electricity. Ask them the questions from the page,
starting with the easy questions and moving to the harder ones. It will not take long to get to questions
to which none of the kids know the answers!
What You Say:
Did you REALLY have to know all of those answers to be able to help your friend turn on the light? No.
Of course not. It would be silly for you not to tell your friend about the switch on the wall, just because
you didnt know all the answers to those questions about electricity. You could help your friend with
what you already know. When we talk to people about God, we might not know ALL the answers, but
we dont need to know everything. We just need to practice sharing what we do know. [Transition]
Lets go to Large Group and learn more about how we can practice talking about God.

Lead your group to the Large Group area.