In our desire to equip parents as they “train their children up in the way they should go,” we have created a blog series to communicate the lessons our kids will be learning each Sunday, family verses to memorize together, and resources to help you as the parent to disciple your children.
The word “disciple” means to intentionally impact the life of someone in the direction of being more like Jesus.
Disciples follow Jesus and help others follow Him too.
Every week faithful servants enter into this discipleship process with the children in Renew Kids. Their are three classes every Sunday: Nursery (ages birth-2), Primary (ages 3-6), and Challenge (ages 6-10).
This week’s Family Verse
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. —Mark 10:45
Having a family verse helps encourage the whole family to be “hiding God’s word in our heart” as we are commanded to do. Take the time this week to learn the family verse together.
Renew Kids Food Pantry Challenge
The Father’s Heart Street Ministry is a ministry for the homeless in Downtown Oregon City. They are in need of some items for their food pantry and we thought it would be great to have all of you at Renew Kids contribute to that. Please bring in your food donations to your class on May 1st and May 8th. You can ask your friends, family, and neighbors to donate food as well. Let’s see how much food we can collect!
Items Needed:
- Instant oatmeal packets
- Cup of Noodles
- Canned fruits & vegetables
- Canned meat (chicken & tuna)
Primary Class
Our curriculum for the Primary class comes from The Gospel Project for Kids and systematically teaches the stories of the Bible starting in Genesis and finishing in Revelation. We are currently studying the Old Testament going from Creation through the life of Joseph.
Unit Focus: God the Redeemer
God raised up a deliverer, Moses, to rescue His people from bondage in Egypt. God demonstrated His Glory through a series of miracles to secure Israel’s freedom. The Exodus account was great, but God’s greatest rescue would come through His Son, Jesus, who would save people from their sin.
Unit Key Passage
Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.—Hebrews 3:5-6
Bible Scriptures: Exodus 1:8-2:10,23-25; 3:1-4:20
Main Point: God rescued Moses to deliver His people from captivity.
Big Picture Question: What is God’s plan? God’s plan is to rescue His people from captivity.
Discussion Questions
- Where did Joseph’s family live for many years after he died? (Egypt)
- What did Pharaoh command people to do to the Israelite baby boys? (Throw the Israelite boys into the Nile River, Exodus 1:22)
- How did God rescue Moses? (God rescued Moses to deliver His people from captivity, Exodus 3:7-10)
- What is God’s plan? God’s plan is to rescue His people from captivity.
Christ Connection: God saved Moses to rescue His people. The calling of Moses points to a greater calling and rescue-the call of Jesus to come to earth to save God’s people from sin. Moses and Jesus both obeyed God’s commands in order to carry out His plan for salvation. Moses delivered God’s people from physical captivity; Jesus delivered God’s people from captivity to sin.
Challenge Class
The Challenge Class is currently studying the Gospel of Mark. Mark emphasizes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus announced the Kingdom of God, healed the sick, and died as a ransom for sinners. Three main groups of people are focused on in Mark: the disciples, the crowds, and the religious leaders, none of whom understood Jesus. In the Challenge Class we focus on learning to study and read the bible and learn what God is trying to tell us through scripture.
Gospel for Asia Project
In the Challenge Class they are working on earning a pair of goats for a family through Gospel for Asia. How do they earn this? Every week the kids in the Challenge Class have the opportunity to earn marbles to fill up a jar in order to earn a pair of goats for the Gospel for Asia Ministry. How do they earn marbles?
The Challenge Class can earn marbles in these ways:
- Memorize the scripture verse for the Challenge Class
- Study the Bible at home
- Draw a picture of something they learned in the bible
- Learn a new story from the Bible
- Learn the books of the Old Testament
Challenge Study
This week we will be continuing in the Gospel of Mark and will be focusing on Mark 10:32-52 and we will continue learning the books of the Old Testament. This section of Mark focuses on Jesus foretelling His death for the third time, James and John requesting to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in glory, and Jesus healing the blind man at Bartimaeus.
Scripture Memory Verse
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. —Mark 10:45
Discussion:
In the Challenge Class we really encourage the kids to ask questions and think about how the scripture is alive for them today. We would really like encourage the parents to continue to model this at home with open ended questions about the scripture we are studying. The goal of the Challenge Class is for the kids to be able to read and study the bible themselves with the help of their parents and teachers as they grow in Christ.
Song:
Scripture Verse for the Parents
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. —Psalm 46:1