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Aim: To show the children how to "multiply" their spiritual power through the church

Core Competency: Church

Objectives: The children will

• Understand the importance of "assembling together" and "bearing each others’ burdens"
• Resolve to "multiply" the use of their spiritual gifts and service through the church

Key Verse: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. ( Hebrews 10:25 )

Story: "Original Church Harmony " ( Acts 4:32-35 )

Materials Required:

• Poles, 2
• Rope

Eye on Science:

Select 3 volunteers of about equal size and strength from the audience. Assign two of the children to one "team", the other to his own "team", and announce a tug of war. Ask the audience who they think will win (perhaps allow them to vote). Emphasize to the volunteers that when you say "Stop!", they must stop pulling immediately. Then count to 3 to begin the contest. (In a tug of war, each team simultaneously pulls on the rope, trying to drag the other team across the midway point to win.) The team with two volunteers should win easily.

Point out that the contest was not at all fair - after all, one team had twice as many "tuggers" as the other. However, life is often not fair, particularly for the Christian. John 15:18-25 assures us that the world will hate Christians, and Matthew 22:14 that although many are called to become Christians, few will be chosen. Thus, we can expect to be at the short end of the rope many times in our life. So somehow we need an advantage if we are to have victorious Christian lives.

Tie the rope to one pole. Set the two poles upright about 1 meter apart, and wrap the rope around the poles 3 times. Have each member of the first team grab a pole, one hand on either side of the rope, and encourage them to keep the poles apart. Tell the third volunteer he will tug on the rope, trying to bring the poles together. Again ask the audience who will win. The poles will certainly come together, because of "mechanical advantage" – he pulls with 5 times his normal strength because of the "pulley" created by the poles and rope. (Nothing magical is accomplished, of course; he also pulls 5 meters of rope to move the poles 1 meter together!)

Similarly, when Christians unite as part of a church, they receive a "spiritual advantage" because they can focus on their unique spiritual gifts and pooling their resources to more efficiently accomplish God’s work.

Used: KIDZ 07/99