Welcome
This is the first week of our new sermon series on the Kingdom of God! We are so excited to be journeying through this adventure together. Here you will find a brief overview, a few ideas for going deeper into the sermon topic with Preschool, Elementary, and Middle/High Schoolers, and a guide to the week’s chapter in our Family Book Club. After this week, the book club guides will only come out in emails to those registered, so make sure you register on REALM if you’re going to read along with us!
Preschool
God made you and God made me!
Get a large piece of paper or on your sidewalk, have your child lie down and trace around their body. Invite them to decorate themselves with clothes, colors, or designs that show what they like about themselves. Talk about how God made each of us in his image, to look like him. Pray together and thank God for the way he made your child.
This is a great week to learn the catechism question, “Who made you?” The answer: God made me.
Elementary School
Invite your child to make a book. Staple 10 blank pages between two pieces of construction paper. Each week, your child can add a piece of artwork, a poem, or write about what they learned about the Kingdom of God, from the sermon or from the Book Club chapter for that week.
An idea for this week:Read Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:5-15. Imagine what the garden was like. Then use your favorite art material to make a picture of that garden on the first page of your book.
Middle/High School
Read Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:5-15 in the NLT.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God. What do you think that meant?
What was the calling of Adam and Eve at the beginning? In other words, what did God want them to do?
What stands out to you in the description of Eden in Genesis 2?
What does it mean that you are the image of God? How does, or should, that affect the way you think about yourself? What about the way you live?
The Biggest Story Family Book Club
This week’s chapter covers a lot of ground, from the beauty of creation to the devastation of the fall. This chapter also includes the promise God made that he would one day send someone to crush the serpent’s head—Jesus. We suggest reading the chapter from The Biggest Story after you attend worship on either Saturday night or Sunday. Then, during the week, read a couple of Scripture passages that go along with the chapter. A list is available here, but they will also be posted each week here on the website. Discussion questions can be used the first night after you read, or you can use them throughout the week.
Scripture Passages
The Creation of the World: Genesis 1:26-31
The Fall: Genesis 3
Discussion Questions
Can you imagine what the world would’ve been like when God first created it? What was it like for Adam & Eve?
Look at the picture on page 25 while you read Genesis 3. What thoughts, feelings, or questions do you have?
What do you think about the promise? That there would alway be a war between good and evil? Where have you seen that in the Bible? Where do you see it in the world?
What about the other promise? That one of Eve’s children would crush the head of the snake? Who do you think that is?