for a Christingle service

You will need several different candles with a central lit candle

Introduce your different candles: red, purple, white, painted - tall/thin, more rounded, small and stubby, smelly. 
All different, but all candles and all made to burn and give off light.

A bit like us! All different, but people and all made by God for a purpose:
- to be light in the world
- to be stars
(not celebrities - but to shine for truth, love, kindness, mercy, service)

The problem is that we don't: we're like these candles. They look good, but something is missing!

How do we begin to shine?
- Perhaps we need to think right. Please think these candles alight - think harder. 
Often people think if they just make a bigger effort, work harder, then they'll be able to shine. 
- Perhaps we need to come close to the light (move candles close to central lit candle). Doesn't work!
Often people think that if they go to church, or come to a church school, they'll start to shine.

There is only one way. 
The Christingle tells us that Jesus came from God into our world, 2000 years ago, to be the light of the world, the true light. He is the Truth; he is absolute Love.
The only way for us to shine is if the light comes to each one of us and we personally receive it. We need to allow him to set us on fire for himself. 

You don't need to say sorry!

(for KS1 and KS2)

Sorry can be an easy word to say

I have 3 boys. There are times when they fight with each other. We tell them 'Say sorry'. They say 'Sorry', but you know that they are not sorry. They are only saying it because we've told them to. In fact they are quite pleased that they hit the other and what they're really sorry about is that they didn't hit them harder. 

Sorry can also be a very hard word to say. 

Sometimes I think sorry is a harder thing to say when you really are sorry.

Friends know that.
There are some people who say to their friends, 'You can only be my friend if you say sorry'
But it is not always true. What is important is not necessarily what you say, but what you feel.

I'd like to tell you the story of two people who were friends

Jesus had invited Peter to come and be his friend. Peter has said Yes
Peter tells Jesus that he will never ever let him down. 'I will never let you down'
But Peter does let Jesus down badly

Jesus was in trouble - big trouble, serious trouble. In fact the biggest trouble you could be in. They had arrested him and were going to kill him - not for anything he had done wrong. They were just trying to get him.
Peter followed Jesus: someone says to him, 'You were with Jesus'.
Peter - because he is frightened - says No. Not just once but three times. And Jesus hears
Peter is crushed

He feels horrible about himself
He didn't do what he said he would do
He worries what Jesus will think of him
And then Jesus is then killed. Peter thinks that he will never have the chance to put it right.

But 3 days later, because Jesus is the Son of God, he rose from the dead.

Now what would you do if you were Jesus?
Would you ditch Peter? After all he ditched you.
Would you say, 'Peter you can only be my friend if you say sorry?'

Peter never says sorry  - Peter shows that he is sorry
When he does it, he actually goes away and because he feels so bad about himself he cries
And when he is told that Jesus is alive, he is one of the first to run to see if it is true
And when Jesus appears, Peter jumps out of a fishing boat to get to Jesus

 Jesus doesn't ditch Peter
He doesn't say to Peter: 'You can only be my friend if you say sorry'.
That might be just a bit too hard for Peter to say, at this point.
Jesus knows that Peter is sorry - and so all he asks Peter is, 'Will you still be my friend?' He asks him that question three times.

If your friend lets you down, and actually you know that they feel bad about what they have done
- don't ditch them
- don't even say to them, 'You can only be my friend IF you say sorry'. Good friends don't do that.
Instead go to them and ask, 'Would you still be my friend'?

Giving

An assembly for KS2

You will need £1 in pennies

Ask for 5 volunteers (choose one from the oldest class, one of the smallest in the school and several from other classes). Invite them to the front

Today I would like to talk about money and giving.

I have here £1 in pennies (pour them out).
Ask children what would happen if I said that whoever could get these could keep these.
Ask children who would get them

The thing is, in our world, that is exactly what happens. The big and the strong get the wealth and it is the poor and the weak who suffer.

If this £1 represents the worlds wealth, how much do the richest 10% of the world's population own? 85p. How much do the poorest 50% of the worlds population own? 1%

To be in the top 10% you need to have about £40,000 in assets. If your parents own their own house then you are certainly in the top 10% of the richest people in the world.

Money usually goes to people who already have money.
Why? Because it is the richest and the strongest who get it.
You could say that that is right. Survival of the fittest and all that.

But it is not the way that God made us. It destroys us:

1. If the big one pushes the little one out of the way - and they are so big they can do it without getting into trouble - it hurts the little one and leaves the little one with nothing. But it makes the big one think that little ones do not matter.  They think that what they have belongs to them by right, that they deserve it, that they are better or more clever or stronger than than everybody else. They become hard and cold.
Jesus said, 'What advantage is it to gain all the wealth in the world and to lose your soul?'
God made us to be people who care about others who have nothing.

So don't try to grab hold of the money for yourself. Could I ask you to share it out between the 5 of you.

2. Money that we grab gets a grip on us.
Imagine someone is trying to take away your 20p. Hold onto it. Grip it.
But look at their faces - all knotted up and stressed up

And people create bigger banks, build stronger front doors, install larger locks. we go around suspicious or fearful of other people. We say, 'They want my stuff'.

You think that you are gripping on to your money. But in fact your money is gripping on to you.

Jesus said there is a very simple way to solve the problem. Don't try to grip on to you money. GIVE the money.
On one occasion a very rich young man came to Jesus and said, "What must I do to gain eternal life". Jesus looked at him and saw that his money had got a grip on him. He said, 'Sell what you have, give to the poor, and then come and be one of my disciples following me on the road'.

He wasn't able to do that - and he missed out on being one of the first followers of Jesus.

We were made to give. When we are ready to give we are open and relaxed. Even if someone nicks it, well it is a shame, but it came from God in the first place and we were going to give it anyway.

To your volunteers: so could you share out the 20p that you have in your hand. Give it to these year 5's

Don't let money control you.

Can I suggest one very simple thing you can do - it is much easier to do when you are young. Many Christians tithe - that is they give 10% of what they get to the church or to some charity or to people in need. It is a good thing to do. So if you are given £1 pocket money, right at the beginning you put aside 10p and that will be money that you give to your church or to some appeal that your school is doing. Later, if you are given £10, you put aside £1. And when you start to work and earn money, you do the same thing. You give 10% of what you get away. It is something that many Christians - and people of other faiths - do.

It is the way to make sure that we do not end up hard and cold
It is the way to make sure that money does not control us.
And it is the way to begin to learn that we really were made not to grab, not to grip, but to give.

Happiness and bubbles

For KS2

You will need some bubbles to blow

What makes you happy?

Blow bubbles (or get a child to blow bubbles)

Happiness is like bubbles.

1. It is beautiful and desirable.

We all want to be happy.

Happiness is connected to what we desire:

Sometimes we need to be unhappy in order to be happy! Think of athlete getting up at 5:30 on the morning to swim for 2 hours. Are they happy? But they are doing it for the greater happiness of being chosen for the Olympic team, and of winning a medal.

The desire for happiness is what drives us.

2. If we try to catch happiness, we will lose it.

The best way to gain happiness is to give it.

This is the secret of happiness. If you are thinking 'why am I so unhappy', can I suggest that you try something? Try to work out how you can make someone else happy. Do something kind for them; give; stand up for a friend even if it means you get hurt; help out at home.

Jesus said that if we want to gain our life, we need to first learn to lose it.

Don't be the person who tries to catch the bubbles, but who makes the bubbles.


3. Happiness is here for a moment and then gone.

We enjoy it and then it is gone


But wouldn't it be great if there was a bubble which never burst, a happiness which lasts for ever?

The problem is that the things we desire are things that will not last: a nice taste in the tummy, money, an experience. But what if we desire something that will last for ever?

That is why Jesus said, 'truly happy are those who hunger and thirst for the things of God'. They will never be let down.

Going against the flow - being different

(Key stage 2 and 3)
Christmas Fayre. Everyone is going one way. You are going other way. It is hard.


Dinghy at beach. The tide is going out. You paddle hard. If not, the air sea rescue ambulance will come and you will look a bit of an idiot. You went with the tide.

Sometimes we need to make a stand and go against the flow.

You go to the cinema with friends and your mother said you must be back at seven but the film ends and your friends say let's go round to someone's house. You have a decision to make. Do you go with the flow or do you say, "sorry. I've got to go home".

There is a story in the Bible about the King called Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar was ruler of the Babylonian Empire. Story of Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego (my shack, your shack and the bungalow).

It's very hard to be different, especially if you're going to be fried alive if you are different.

But God was so important for shaped rack, Meshack and Abednego that they were going to make a stand – even if it meant they were thrown into the fiery furnace.

Story of Father Kyrill: We met Father Kyrill in the theological college in St Petersburg, when my wife and I were living there for two years. He was the spiritual father of the seminary. He had been battered and smashed by life. He had been sentenced to 10 years of hard labour (on three different occasions) in Soviet labour camps, simply for responding to the love of God in a society which said that God did not exist. He could have become so hard and bitter. But he wasn’t. Despite the suffering, he had begun to love, to forgive and to give, and his face was literally radiant.

Dead fish float with the current; living fish swim against it.

Harvest assembly

An assembly that can be used for KS1,2 and 3, with adaptation

You will need the letters HARVEST written on different cards.

At the beginning of the assembly, invite 7 children to the front to hold the cards (jumbled up), and ask the other children to tell you what word they can make from it.

As you speak, ask the children with the letters to spell the words, and for those whose letters are not being used, to stand to one side.

God has given us a beautiful and abundant EARTH.
There is actually enough food for everyone to EAT
God provides for us in many ways. He gives us the products to make clothes (ask what items of clothing can be made from the word HARVEST: HAT or VEST)

But something is wrong. While we HAVE so much; indeed we have so much that a great deal ends up as TRASH, VAST numbers of people in the REST of the world STARVE.

(You may wish to add some statistics: eg. one third of the world is overfed, one third underfed, and one third seriously malnourished)

God gave us a good EARTH, with enough for all people, if the resources were used wisely
God also gave us a HEART, to love him - who has given us the earth - and to love other people.

But we don't. We put ourselves first.

So here is a simple test. Imagine you found a £10 note in the street. There is nobody around. There is no point taking it to the police station. What would you do with it? Be honest.

Who would keep it?
Who would keep it and possibly invite some friends to Shake-away or Macdonalds?
Who would give most of it away, when they heard of someone in need?

We did nothing to deserve that £10. It was pure chance. But most of us would keep it for ourselves.

That is the same situation that we find ourselves in. We did nothing to be born into a relatively wealthy society. We might give away a little, but most of the time we keep our resources for ourselves.

So how do we change?
We will not change by simply having someone like me telling you that you have to change.

It begins when there are real TEARS - when we realise just how selfish we are.
We recognise that we need someone to SAVE us - because we cannot change ourselves
We need someone who loves us and who can give us a new HEART - so that we begin to love.
Because it is when we love that we will freely choose to SHARE

Parable of talents

KS1/2

Based on Luke 19:11-27

There is the story of a Master

(bring child to front as master, and have them stand on chair)

Who had three servants: Hobble, Dobble and Nobble

(bring three other children to front)

Hobble was called hobble, because he hobbled. Dobble was called Dobble because he dobbled (?), and Nobble was called nobble because he nobbled.

The Master was going away, so he called his/her three servants (Master calls)

And he gave them each £1 (actually the story says about £6000, but you can only have £1), and he told them to do business, so that when he came back they could give him the money with interest.

Hobble loved going to the theatre. So he thought, 'Great'. And he put on a production of a new play that he wrote. It was called, 'Willy Wonka and the tall giraffe'.

Dobble loved inventing things. So he thought, 'Great'. He invented a thing: an aeroplane that flew backwards

Nobble loved watching TV and playing on the Wii. So he thought, 'Oh No. If I've got to make money I've got to do something. And if I've got to do something, I can't watch TV or play on the Wii all day'. So he thought and he had a great idea. He got a spade, dug a hole in the garden, burid the money, returned to the lounge, turned on the TV and sat down.

Some time later the master returned. He/She called her servants

(Master calls servants)

'What have you done with my money?'

Hobble came forward. 'We put on a fantastic production. The crowds loved it, especially when Willy Wonka rescued the monkey from the alien space craft by climbing up the giraffes neck. You gave me £1. I can give you £10 back'.

The Master was delighted. He/She said, 'Well done. You can keep that money'

Dobble came forward. 'It was a great design. Slight problem. We forgot to put the cockpit in the back of the plane, so the pilot can only fly using mirrors all the time. But we had a buyer. UDA. It's an Australian company: Upside Down Airlines. We made £5'

The Master was delighted. He/She said, 'Well done. You can keep that money'

Nobble came forward. He knew what he was going to say. 'Master, Master, I was afraid. I know that you are hard. Alan Sugar has got nothing on you. Well I had lots of ideas. I thought I could set up an umbrella shop, but then I thought that it might not rain - and the money would be lost. I thought that I could dig for oil, but then I thought there might not be oil there - and the money would be lost. I thought I could use it to go on a course, but then I thought that I might not get a job afterwards.

So I had a brilliant idea. I dug a hole and kept your money safe. Here it is!'

The master was not happy. Not at all. He/She was very angry. 'I am hard. You know that. You know that I want you to use what I give you. You weren't afraid. You were lazy. Take the money from Nobble and give it to Hobble. He has shown that he can make the best use of it'.

The assembly concludes with you asking the children what the point of the story is. They will almost certainly talk about using your abilities. But the main point for Christians is that one day we will be accountable to God for what he has given us. Jesus is the master who has gone away, but one day he will come back again.