Worship Words-Puzzles with Children

I am scheduled to preach on Sunday. My plan was to weave together stories of past mission trips and the importance of youth ministry with 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31 and Luke 4: 14-21. I say my plan because there is a huge blizzard heading for us this weekend. And I might have spent too much time watching the weather forecast and planning for when we’ll reschedule the weekend plans, and not enough time finishing my sermon. While my sermon may not be complete, I do have a plan for talking with the children on Sunday (or whenever this actually happens).

To help the children understand that we are all necessary parts of the body of Christ, I purchased some blank puzzles and will bring some of my favorite markers so they can sign or draw on the puzzle. We’ll take the puzzle apart and then put it back together to show how we come together as individuals to create the body of Christ together.

Here’s how it might work out-

Welcome. Today, I’m going to ask each of you to take a marker and sign your name or draw a small picture on this puzzle. And now that everyone has done that, I’m going to take our puzzle apart and together we’ll put it back together.

What would happen if one of the pieces decided it didn’t want to be in the puzzle? The puzzle would have an empty space and wouldn’t be complete.

Our first Scripture for this morning talked about how we need all our different body parts and we might think that some are more important than others and yet we need them all. The writer of Corinthians said we are the body of Christ and we all need to bring our gifts and work together to do the work God calls us to do in the world.

So all the puzzle pieces are important and all of you are important as we live as Christ’s disciples sharing his love with everyone in the world.

Let’s pray together. Repeat after me-

God, We thank you for each one of us and the gifts you gave us. Help us to love ourselves, each other, and all your children. Amen.