OK – so first of all – thanks for the feedback. And so here is a shorter edition of ideas for family worship. Much less explaining of the passage in the background, and just the ideas for family worship!

Chapter 12 opens with a lot of wedding imagery... and links back to Gen.1 and the first wedding (of Adam and Eve). So, I’m guessing this is something daughters might be more into that sons, but that might just be my own experience as a father of boys! But if your kids do get excited about this, why not act out a wedding, and have a think about how the vows help us understand the dynamics of the relationship between Christ and His bride... or maybe just a conversation!

get back into Gen.3 and have a look at the passage where the serpent deceives Eve. Paul isn’t being sexist here – that might be a point worth making with older children / y.p. who may be sensitive to the politics! He’s making a Jesus-focussed point, or rather a Church-focussed point. Paul is teaching that we know how Satan seeks to deceive the Bide of (the Second) Adam because we’ve seen him at work before. How does Satan deceive the Bride? [for younger child(ren) a sock puppet with a forked tongue might be fun craft activity here).

Make a mind map of the Jesus preached by the Apostles...? the best way to recognise a fake is to know the genuine article really well! What are some common deceits Satan uses to trick the Church into believing in a different Jesus? How do we know we are preaching the Jesus of the Apostles at MIE? There are lots of creative ways of getting across the idea of deception or of disguising people to look like someone they aren’t. Can you pray together as a fmaily for those who teach about Jesus from the Bible at MIE?

My First Books… Section 33-46 explores the Gospel - you might find it helpful to work through these few short paragraphs over the next few days…

Play spot the difference games as a way of introducing the idea that things can look similar, but are in fact (very) different sometimes. There are examples of forgeries online that you can download, and use to show how something can look like the genuine article, but are in fact copies, and worthless. Paul’s point is that the same is true of the Gospel – there are forgeries, and training our children to spot them might be one of the most important things we can ever do!

It is interesting that both Jesus and Satan work through preachers. Why not have a discussion about preaching... why is it so important, and what makes ‘good’ preaching? Explore how as parents you could help your children learn how to listen to a sermon. As a family, could you take notes and then talk over Sunday lunch about what said in the sermon... or about the Bible and how it is all about teaching us about Jesus (John 5:39). Take some of the famous OT stories and ask ‘How does this teach us about Jesus’?

11:5-11. We’ve thought in previous weeks about the Church’s responsibility to support the Church elsewhere in the world... but here Paul is talking about supporting mission elsewhere in the world. We support a number of missionaries and mission organisation as a Church... this might be a good time to have a look, pray, give..? Our Global Mission Partners can be found here. But you might have others you support as a family. Perhaps a particular focus on the work of Kagera Christian Theological College would help?

God’s power is revealed in our weakness (see I Cor.1:18-2:31; II Cor.4:7-12, though v.17 might be useful to have in the back of your minds as well). Paul therefore ‘boasts’ about his weakness... how is that different from the way the world boasts? Why does the world boast in such a different way to the Church? Why do we need to be so careful when we hear Christians who boast in the same way as a non-Christian would?

Can you make a list like Paul, that focusses on your weaknesses? Why can we find this such an encouraging exercise?

Craft idea: with little kids, there are plenty of ‘instructions’ online about making a ‘Paul escaping in a basket’ picture with moving parts...

Memory verse... well – depending on your child(ren) possibly v.3, or 4, 14, or 30!