Main Idea: When God created the planet he put man in charge to care for it.
Suggested Schedule: (90 mins)
- Welcome (5 mins)
- Game 1(5mins)
- Review Big Verse (5 mins)
- Set the Scene: Bible story/skit and review questions (10-15 mins)
- Object Lesson 1 talk (5mins)
- Game 2 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 2 talk (5 mins)
- Game 3 (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 3 talk (10 mins)
- Love our Planet Game (5 mins)
- Sense How You Feel – activity (10 – 25 mins)
- Seek God – prayer (5 mins)
Setting the Stage: This series helps children understand their responsibility to be a good steward of the Earth. With the rise in interest in our environment and concerns for the world’s future, children and young people are more passionate than ever about sustainable living and looking after our world. Over four weeks we will explore the ways that we can practically help the Earth in a Biblical way, understanding why God cares so much about our planet and everything on it.
If you have the space, you could decorate your stage with maps, globes, animals, giant leaves, recycled materials, love hearts and other ‘caring for the environment’ props.
Supplies:
- 2 Brooms
- Lots of recycling such as cans, paper, plastic bottles etc.
- 6 Balloons
- Very fragile model
- Parcel
- “handle with care” label.
- 2 plants (one that is alive and one that is dead)
- 2 large world maps
- 12 inflatable globes
- 48 heart shaped post it notes
- Empty egg cartons
- Spoons
- Soil
- Seeds
- Water
- Coloring pens
- Pintables:
- Playdough or clay
- Lego or construction toys
- Prayer tent materials – cushions, bibles, fairy lights, cross, candles etc
- All PowerPoint games with some way of showing them (i.e. laptop and screen)
SONG and BIBLE STORY VIDEO IDEAS available via our dedicated Pinterest Board
GAME IDEAS:
GAME 1 LITTER SWEEP RELAY – 5 mins
Description: Team Game.
Supplies: 2 Brooms, lots of recycling such as cans, paper, plastic bottles etc.
Details: Litter Sweep Relay. Divide the children into two teams and give each team a broom and a small pile of dry trash such as soda cans, paper, small plastic bottles, etc. On the signal, the first child on each team sweeps the rubbish to a certain point and back. The next child then takes over, and so on until all have had a turn. The winners are the first team to finish.
GAME 2 HANDLE WITH CARE – 5 MINS
Description: One on one Game.
Supplies: 6 balloons,
Details: Handle with care. Give each of the players a balloon and the aim is to hit the balloon up in the air but not let it touch the ground. To make it more challenging have them juggle more than 1 balloon, or tie one hand behind their back!
GAME 3 CREATION CARE – 10 MINS
Description: PowerPoint Game
Supplies: Animals PDF, Descriptions PDF
Details: Creation Care Leaders shows the powerpoint slides of different animals and match the correct ways of caring for each animal.
- Elephant (This animal needs lots of land so that it can feed up to 18 hours)
- Panda (This animal needs to eat 26-84 pounds of bamboo everyday)
- Polar Bear (This animal needs sea ice for traveling, hunting and resting)
- Dog (This animal needs exercise, food and lots of love)
- Gorilla (This animal needs to live with it’s family and eat vegetarian food)
- Lion (This animal is needs lots of meat!)
BIG VERSE: “The Lord placed man in the garden of Eden to tend and care for it.” Genesis 2:15 (widescreen)
SET THE SCENE: 10-15 MINS
Description: Bible story and questions
Supplies: Bible, PowerPoint of the days of creation (see previous lesson).
Details:
Say: Last week we looked at how God created the planet (show the powerpoint slides as a recap). Now if you made something really special you would want to take care of it wouldn’t you? Let’s see what God did next!
Read Genesis 2.
If you are able to, why not go outside and go on a scavenger hunt, picking up anything that God wants us to care for!
REVIEW QUESTIONS:
- What were the names of the first two people God made?
- Where did God put Adam and Eve?
- What do you think the Garden of Eden was like?
- What job did he give them to do?
- How do you think Adam and Eve took care of the world they lived in?
SPOT THE SIMPLE MEANING:
1) HANDLE WITH CARE! – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 1
Supplies: Very fragile model, parcel, “handle with care” label.
Details: label the parcel with the “handle with care” sticker.
Say: Have you ever made something which was REALLY fragile! (show model). Or maybe you’ve had a parcel arrive in the post with a label like this (hold up Handle with Care label). If something is really fragile then you need to look after it carefully right? If you gave it to someone else to look after you would expect them to respect it and give it back to you in the same condition, right? You wouldn’t expect them to take the parcel and do this would you? (take parcel and start kicking it around). Of course not! And it’s the same with God’s planet! God gave us this planet to look after, and we need to handle it with care!
2) CARE CONTINOUSLY – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 2
Supplies: 2 plants (one that is alive and one that looks dead).
Details:
Say: Have you ever had to look after something that didn’t belong to you? I once was asked to look after my friend’s plants. I agreed because I thought that it would be easy! I just needed to water it every day. How hard could that be?! When my friend went away on the first day I gave it lots of water and even talked to the plant! (show the alive plant). Then the next day I did the same and the day after that. But then one day I was so busy that I forgot! A few days had gone past and when I went to water the plant it looked like this! (show the dead plant). You know sometimes it’s easy to care for things at the beginning but then it can seem hard work and we can give up. But God always cares for us. He never forgets or gets bored of us. So we should do the same!
3) GOD NEEDS US TO CARE – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 3
Supplies: 2 volunteers, plant pot, water, seed, soil.
Details:
Say: Ok I have two volunteers. Can my first volunteer stand behind this table with their hands behind their back. Can the other volunteer be the hands by putting their hands through their arms. So what I want volunteer two to do is put the seed in the plant pot and fill it with soil and put a bit of water. OK go! (you could play some music while this happens).
OK let’s have a look at how you got on (show plant pot). How hard did you find that? (allow volunteers to respond). Volunteer one – did you find it hard having to rely on volunteer two to care for your plant? Volunteer two – did you find it hard to do the job for volunteer one? It looks like you’ve made a bit of a mess!
You know while we are on this Earth we are God’s hands – Just like volunteer two was the hands for volunteer one. God needs us to care and look after his planet because He can’t. And by taking care of the planet, we are pleasing God.
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES:
LOVE OUR PLANET GAME – 10 MINS
Description: Team or individual game
Supplies: Bibles, 2 large maps (or one for each team), 12 blow up globes (or 6 for each team), 12 heart shape post it notes, Bible verses, pens.
Details: Print out the bible verses and place each one on one of the globes (making sure you have enough for each team). Give each team 6 post it notes and pens. Hang the large maps on the wall.
The children need to run and grab a ball then find the verse. Once found they write it on the post it note and then stick the post it note around the edge of their map on the wall. Keep going until all the scriptures have been found, written on post it notes and stuck on the maps! The team that finishes first is the winner!
Love our planet verses:
- Proverbs 12:10 The righteous care for the needs of their animals,
- Acts 17: 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
- 1 Peter 2: 17 Show proper respect to everyone.
- Galatians 6: 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up
- Colossians 3: 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
- Matthew 7: 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Then discuss the questions below.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How do you think God feels when people don’t care about His creation?
- How would you feel if someone ruined your creation?
- In what ways do people sometimes show they are lazy about caring for the Earth?
- What are some ways you can care for wild animals and plants?
SENSE HOW YOU FEEL – 10 MINS EACH OR IN TANDEM/ROTATION
Encourage the children to think about the questions above as they do one of the activities:
Description: Craft.
Supplies: Empty egg cartons, spoons, soil, seeds, water, coloring pens.
Details: Decorate the egg carton and then use it to plant a seed. Ask them to take care of their seeds and bring them in next week to show how much they have cared for them!
Description: Moulding activity.
Supplies: Playdough or clay.
Details: Mould something that you care for.
Description: Building activity.
Supplies: Lego or construction toys.
Details: Build something in God’s creation that you need to care for.
Description: Sensory activity.
Supplies: Create a prayer tent space using cushions, lights, a cross and tent if you have one. Have some quiet music playing.
Details: Encourage the children to spend some time listening to God. Have some scriptures around to help focus them. Allow time to draw or write anything that they have heard.
Description: Activity sheets.
Supplies: Adam and Eve Hide coloring sheet, markers.
Details: Fill in or color the sheets
SEEK GOD: 5 MINS
Description: Prayer/Encounter activity
Supplies:
Details: Ask the children to stand. Play some quiet music in the background
Today we have been looking at how God has chosen us to look after his planet.
Have a time of worship and during this time ask the children to spend some time thinking about how well they care for the planet. Ask God to help the children love the planet as He does.
Dear God, thank you that you have given us this planet to look after. Help us to take care of it like you take care of us. AMEN
CHALLENGE: For next week ask the children to bring in their plants or something that they have had to care for this week.
Download the ‘Adam and Eve’ Childrens Ministry lesson on Genesis 2 title here.
