Passing on the Message

To think about the idea and work of the Holy Spirit

by Penny Hollander

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To think about the idea and work of the Holy Spirit.

Preparation and materials

• A selection of cards with short messages written on them, e.g.:
  ‘God loves you very much’, ‘You are a special child of God’, ‘Jesus rose from the dead after three days’, etc.
• One large sheet with this verse written on:
  ‘We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the lord’ (Psalm 78.4).

Assembly

1. Ask the children to put their hand up if they have recently received any good news. Ask some to share.

   Ask them who told them this good news – again ask to share.

2. Say that Christians believe that the reason Jesus was born and lived on earth was to share good news. Explain that the word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’ and that there are four Gospels in the New Testament (the second half of the Bible).
   
   Before people wrote Jesus’ words down, they remembered them in their minds. They had to remember a lot of words because Jesus said many things. They had to remember them carefully because they wanted to make sure they got them right.
   
   
3. Point out that it can be hard to remember things and that we are going to try to remember a message and see how well we can do it. Ask for volunteers – make the first one an adult (teacher/support staff/parent) and the rest children – ideally about three or four of them.
   

   Ask the adult to read out one of the cards and whisper the message to the first child – then the next has to whisper and so on. When the last child has received the message, get her to whisper it back to you so you can check it against the card (repeat a few times with other cards). How accurate were the final messages? Thank the team and ask them to sit down.

4. Jesus said it was very important to tell other people about him. Christians believe that he sent his special invisible helper, the Holy Spirit, to help people to do that. In fact Christians believe it is especially important for grown ups to tell children about Jesus so that they can tell their children and they in turn can tell their children, passing the message on just like we did a moment ago.
   
   
5. Point to the large sheet: explain that it means that we should pass on important things to the next generation and that Christians believe we should do this with the words and deeds of Jesus just like we passed on a message today.

Time for reflection

Reflection:

Who has told you some good news this week? How did it make you feel? Do you like telling good news to others?

Prayer:
Breathe on me breath of God

Fill me with life anew

That I may love the things you love and do what you would do.
Amen.

Song/music

‘Go, tell it on the mountain’ (Come and Praise, 24)