SPCK Assemblies - The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

What is prayer?

by Kirstine Davis

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To introduce the idea of prayer.

Preparation and materials

You will need a bottle of bubble mixture, a crown (one made from cardboard is fine), a globe (or a ball with an explanation about the earth), a bread roll (or apple), a card with the word ‘Sorry’ written on it and some sweets.
You will also need to be familiar with the explanations of the Lord’s Prayer given in the table below because these will form the basis of the assembly. You will need a copy of this table to refer to during the assembly.

Our Father in heaven	Jesus is speaking to his dad	Wave
Hallowed be your name	God is so ‘HOLY’ that even his name is important
Your kingdom come	God is the king in heaven	Crown
Your will be done, on earth as in heaven	How does God want us to treat each other and the environment?	Globe or ball
Give us today our daily bread	God provides the things that we need	Bread roll or apple
Forgive us our sins	We need to say sorry to God and to other people	‘Sorry’ card
As we forgive those who sin against us	We need to treat others like we want to be treated
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	Sometimes, we want things that we know are bad for us!	Sweets
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours. Now and for ever	God is in control, but sometimes, we don’t realize it	Pick up the crown again and put it on
Amen	This just means ‘I agree’	Roll up the prayer and throw it to God

Optional: you may wish to use a musical version of the Lord’s Prayer during the ‘Time for reflection’ part of the assembly, in which case you will also need the means to do so:

- ‘The Lord’s Prayer – Hillsong Worship’ is 5.56 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCxqjEz5hJ4
- ‘Our Father – Hillsong Worship’ is 4.49 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzTxvOWpr7M

Assembly

Use the bubble mixture to blow some bubbles.

Invite the children to come to the front to pop the bubbles. You may wish to let the children blow some bubbles themselves and see who can blow the largest one.
When the bubbles have been popped, ask the children, ‘Where have the bubbles gone?’

Listen to a range of responses.

Follow up the responses with questions such as:

- but where have they really gone?
- were they really here then or did I just imagine them?
- is it magic?
- did they disappear?
Suggest that praying can sometimes be a bit like this. We pray, we say ‘Amen’ and the prayers have gone!
Ask the children, ‘What is prayer?’

Listen to a range of responses.
Explain that prayer is simply a special word that we use to describe us talking to God. Christians believe that God is always looking out for us and he loves us to speak to him. They believe that we can talk to God in any way we like, but in the Bible, Jesus told his disciples a special prayer called the Lord’s Prayer.
If the children are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, you may wish to ask them to say it together. Otherwise, say the prayer for them to hear before explaining it by using the table.

Go through each line of the prayer, explaining the meaning and using the actions or items that you have available.

Our Father in heaven	Jesus is speaking to his dad	Wave
Hallowed be your name	God is so ‘HOLY’ that even his name is important
Your kingdom come	God is the king in heaven	Crown
Your will be done, on earth as in heaven	How does God want us to treat each other and the environment?	Globe or ball
Give us today our daily bread	God provides the things that we need	Bread roll or apple
Forgive us our sins	We need to say sorry to God and to other people	‘Sorry’ card
As we forgive those who sin against us	We need to treat others like we want to be treated
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	Sometimes, we want things that we know are bad for us!	Sweets
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours. Now and for ever	God is in control, but sometimes, we don’t realize it	Pick up the crown again and put it on
Amen	This just means ‘I agree’	Roll up the prayer and throw it to God

At the end, you may wish to teach the children the action of rolling your arms (like in the nursery rhyme ‘Wind the bobbin up’) and then throwing them up into the air to say ‘Amen’.

Time for reflection

Ask the children to consider the following questions in the light of what they have just heard in the Lord’s Prayer.

- Do we use God’s name in an unpleasant way?