Family Time -- Worship

Sunday morning, our KidVenture time was spent in worship. We prayed together and sang together and it was a very fun morning. We learned some new songs, sang some old songs, and I dug out a song we haven't done in a very long time (Spin).

For family time this week, we want to encourage you to set aside some time for intentional worship as a family. 

1. Sing a song together. 

Choose a familiar worship song from church, from the radio, from the Bethel College chapel band CDs, from anything, really. Just choose a song that is about God's love or God's power or God's place in your life. Think about the words as you sing it. Take a moment to talk about what the song is about.

2. Pray together.

Pray some prayers of praise and thanksgiving. Take turns finishing these sentences:

God, thank you for __________.

God, you are __________.

God, when I think of you, I think of __________.

Have a great week! I'll see you on Sunday!

~ Mr. Ben

PS -- For a peak at one of the new songs we learned, check this out:

Wanna Be Clip

The songs came from Uncle Charlie, a kid's worship leader. I've had his DVDs for a little while, and I'm so glad we used them yesterday. They were awesome!

A Note from Mr. Ben

Hey, I hope you've been enjoying the KidVenture Zone.

We're going to be adjusting the blog here every so often as we try to work out the kinks and find our groove.

Some things to watch for in the future are commenting options (right now, the blog is set so that you cannot comment on the entries) and more regular features.

For now, the features you can look forward to being here regularly are the Family Time activities and the Bad Joke of the Week. We really hope the Family Time activities are something that you find helpful. We're designing them to allow for some conversation starters and also to give a peek into what we are learning about in KidVenture on Sunday morning.

Family Time is scheduled to appear every Monday at 11:00 AM.

We also really hope the Bad Jokes of the Week make you either laugh or groan. I'll be happy either way. Next week, btw, is another Pirate Edition. 

Bad Joke of the Week is scheduled to appear every Wednesday at 7:00 AM.

This Sunday, Pastor John will not be with us, so we will be taking a week off from the regular Romans lesson. Instead we will be focusing on worship. The Family Time on Monday will also focus on worship.

Have a great weekend!

~ Mr. Ben

Bad Joke of the Week (Bonus Edition!)

(The answer can be found between the brackets -- just highlight with your mouse.)

QUESTION: Why did the chicken cross the road?

ANSWER: <To get to the other side.>


QUESTION: Why did the cat cross the road?

ANSWER: <It was practicing how to catch chickens.>


QUESTION: Why did the other cat cross the road?

ANSWER: <It was a copy cat.>


QUESTION: Why did the rubber chicken cross the road?

ANSWER: <She wanted to stretch her legs.>


QUESTION: Why did the cow cross the road?

ANSWER: <To get to the udder side.>


QUESTION: Why did the turtle cross the road?

ANSWER: <To get to the Shell station.>


QUESTION: Why did the duck cross the road?

ANSWER: <To prove he was no chicken.>


QUESTION: Why did the pirate cross the road?

ANSWER: <To get to the other TIDE!!!>

QUESTION: Why did the orange go halfway across the road?

ANSWER: <Because it ran out of juice.>


QUESTION: Why did Mr. Ben cross the road?

ANSWER: <He was running away from all the people who read his jokes!>


~ Mr. Ben

Family Time -- Judgement Day

Read the following short paragraphs. After you read them, there are a couple discussion questions and a short activity to do as a family. This week, you parents just might learn something new about your kids . . . and you kids just might learn something new about your parents!

MATERIALS NEEDED: Paper and pen, pencil, crayons, pencil crayons, markers, or whatever you want to draw.

THIS WEEK'S VERSE: Romans 2:4b -- . . . God's kindness leads you toward repentance . . .


READ: Yesterday, both the adult service and KidVenture talked about judging others.

We also talked about some appropriate times to be a judge (like, for example, when you are a judge in a courtroom or when you are a parent or teacher who needs to take care of something wrong that someone has done). But the one perfect judge is God.

And I'm pretty glad for that.

Only God is a perfect judge because when we sin, it is HIS law we are breaking. But he also makes a perfect judge because he is a loving judge. As our verse says, "God's kindness leads to repentance." Well, Paul wrote those words to people who were forgetting that God's kindness leads to repentance. Instead, they were acting like judges themselves.

Instead of judging people who are doing wrong, we need to remember that God forgives our own sins . . . and we need to try showing that love to others. We can do this by being forgiving ourselves (showing by example) and by telling other people about God's forgiveness.

TALK:

1. Tell about a time when you were forgiven. What kind of feelings did you have? What kind of feelings do you think the person who forgave you had?

2. When you forgive someone, you are telling them about God's love without even mentioning his name! How are you showing or telling people about God's love when you forgive?

DO:

Draw a picture of something you were forgiven for. After everyone has drawn their picture,take turns showing it to the rest of the family. Then take turns TEARING IT UP AND THROWING IT AWAY!!! Because that's similar to the way God feels about the sin he has forgiven. 

~ Mr. Ben

Bad Joke of the Week

(The answer can be found between the brackets -- just highlight with your mouse.)

QUESTION: Why were the old days of European history called the Dark Ages?

ANSWER: <Because there were so many knights!>

~ Mr. Ben

BLAST FROM THE PAST!!! Peanut Butter and Jelly Episode 1!!!

Bad Joke of the Week (Pirate Edition)

(The answer can be found between the brackets -- just highlight with your mouse.)

QUESTION: Why are pirates called pirates?

ANSWER: <Because they arrrrrr!>

~ Mr. Ben

Family Time -- Introduction to Romans

Read the following short paragraphs. After you read them, there are a couple discussion questions and a short activity to do as a family. This week, you parents just might learn something new about your kids . . . and you kids just might learn something new about your parents!


THIS WEEK'S VERSE: Romans 1:16 -- I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes . . .


READ: Yesterday, both the adult service and KidVenture talked about the introduction to Romans. It's pretty exciting, because for the next little while, the kids and adults will be learning the same things on Sunday mornings (although in different ways).

Romans was a letter from Paul to some people at a church he had never been to, but wanted to visit, so it starts with an introduction. The first thing he says is, "From Paul, a servant of Christ." He probably thought that was one of the most important things about himself. The whole rest of the introduction is filled with information about Paul: things he thinks the Romans might want to know about him and things he thinks are important. He ends the introduction by saying, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Again, that seems to be something that's VERY important to him. And in a lot of ways, it's what the whole book of Romans is about.

Get ready to go on an adventure for the next little while as we learn about that power!

TALK:

1. Why would Paul think that being a "servant of God" is an important part of who he is?

2. Before Paul knew Jesus' love, he was a pretty bad guy and did some pretty awful things. How do you think that connects with Paul saying, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes"?

DO:

Pretend the people in your family don't know you. Introduce yourself to them, telling them three of the most important things about you.

Kid Jokes (from Sunday's party)

Here's our girl's joke and our boy's joke from our contest last Sunday. As you remember, I said the winning joke would be posted here . . . but they both were winners!

(The answer can be found between the brackets -- just highlight with your mouse.)

The girls' joke:

QUESTION: Why did the chicken cross the playground?

ANSWER: <To get to the other slide.>

The boys' joke:

QUESTION: What do you call Batman and Robin after they get run over by a dinosaur?

ANSWER: <Flatman and Ribbon.>

Thanks to ALL our volunteers in our contest Sunday morning!

Speaking of contests . . . here's some video of the final contest of that morning:

~ Mr. Ben

Bad Joke of the Week

(The answer can be found between the brackets -- just highlight with your mouse.)

QUESTION: Why do bees hum?

ANSWER: <Bee-cause they forgot the words.>

Tomorrow, the kid jokes from Sunday's party!

~ Mr. Ben

Hoagie Cam: Welcome to KidVenture