BIBLE EXPLORE / NEW TESTAMENT / 1 & 2 CORINTHIANS

1 & 2 Corinthians

Paul's letters to the church of Corinth are found in these two books of the New Testament. Paul wrote to the people of Corinth twice, because he was unable to visit them again, and out of deep love for them, wanted them to change the way they were living. Paul shows the new Christians in Corinth that all of life's most complex problems can be seen through the lens of the gospel.

Activities

  • 1 Corinthians 10:31 Torch Craft (Our Littlest Disciples)
  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 'Love is' Wheel  (Crafting the Word of God)
  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 3D Heart Card (The Growing Creatives)
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 Toddler's Butterfly Crafts (Baby Devotions)
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 Butterfly Craft (One Little Project)
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 "I am a new creation" - Using recycled plastic bottles and material in your home, create a 'new creation' and turn your waste into something amazing. 

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Power in weakness

Guiness Book of Records
What you need: 
2 Corinthians 12:9 bible verse printed out in words, with some images. There are several different versions of this reading, depending on your favourite bible translation:
  • NIV: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"
  • CEV: “My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak.”
  • Message: "My grace is enough, its all you need"
If you children are older, words should be fine, but you may like to include pictures or different colours to help kids remember the words. 

​What you can say:
Today we are thinking about a reading from Corinthians - this is a letter Paul wrote after Jesus had left earth. Paul was a great leader, preacher and a man of God.  However, even he had his troubles and he gives us lots of ideas of how to live a good Christian life.  It is an interesting snippet from his letter - who wants to read it out?
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (You can change this depending on your favourite translation, or one that you think would be better for your kids)
From this Bible reading, there is one important, very important thing I want you to take away - to remember when life is difficult, or you feel you can’t do something, God is strong. God's grace -- his love, his kindness, his forgiveness -- is enough. Its all we need. 
Game:
  • Put the verse jumbled up at one end of the room and encourage kids to take turns running tot he end and bringing a piece back to the group. If you don't want to make it a team game, you can challenge them to try and get the order of the verse correct within a time limit. 
  • Repeat and reduce the time allocation they have -- they should get faster with practice!
Today we are going to find out who is the weakest and who is the strongest. 
Here is the test, you have to hold out these two (bottles of pop or cans of food, something fairly heavy so that it doesn’t take too long if everyone has a go!  Maybe bring cans too in case the bottles of pop are too heavy :-) 
Time all those who have a go (write up their times on the white board).
You could look at the Guinness Book of records for some facts about the strongest people in the world

Salt Dough - Weak, To Strong.

This Salt dough craft will take some time to make, so you might like to start your session with this activity, or bake it after the session and have the pieces ready for the following week. 
You will need:
  • I or 2 batches of salt dough
  • cutters, butter knives, rolling pins, straws, etc.
What you do:
  • Our craft today needs some time to bake so we will start with the craft!  
  • Explain that we are thinking about how with God, so much more is possible. “I am giving you some of this soft salt dough to make yourselves with, I want  you to remember that we are soft and weak - and then we will put ‘you’ into the oven to bake (you might need to bake them some more at home) and you will see how the figure hardens up and becomes stronger - this is how we can feel stronger inside as we let God more and more into our lives to help us.  
  • Hand out everyone a lump of salt dough and get them to make themselves. 
  • If you have some people cutters you could bring them and some rolling pins or bottles.  
  • Other than that they can use butter knives, cocktail sticks, straws etc to give them decorations.  
  • When they’re ready to cook, get the kids to whisper in their figures’ ears, something they want God to help them with, or to do better.

Cornflour Slime

Why cornflour slime?!
This activity helps kids play with the idea of strength and weakness. The unusual slime can be both strong and weak! 
You will need:
  • Cornflour
  • Water
  • Food colouring
  • A bowl
  • A tray

What you can do:
Put the cornflour in a  bowl, along with a couple of drops of food colouring. Add the water in slowly, stirring gently to combine the solution. You can pour this into a tray for children to play with. 
The cornflour slime will remain a solid when pressure is applied (punch, or push firmly), but also be weak when you handle it gently. 
You can watch some instructions in the youtube link 

1 Cor 12: 12-31 One body with many parts 

Potato Head Talk

You will need
  • Potato Head print outs, cut out and put in a separate envelope. You might want to print out enough for children to share or have one of their own. 
Get the children to name some parts of their body – hands, arms, feet, head, etc etc. Which is the most important part of the body? Invite answers and then ask them if they would miss their ears, eyes or a hand. Get them to think about how each of their body parts have an important job to do and that even something small like an ear would be very much missed! Church is a group of people who are all different but are all important – like a body or like a puzzle! Jesus said that we are all just as important to Him as the other – he wants you, even if you are young, just as much as he wants our church leader/vicar or people in the choir. Jesus knows that what YOU have to offer is just as key. 
When a part of the puzzle or a part of the body is missing, its not complete, it's not quite right!.
We're going to have some fun with Potato head to remind us that of all the parts of our church, none is more important.  
Let the children play with the Potato head and talk about how the church is like a body. 

Puzzle

You will need: 
  • A simple puzzle -- you can make one by printing out an image and cutting it up. 
  • A Bible for the 1 Corinthians reading

​Give out the puzzle(s)to do first – this what we are thinking about today! We need all the pieces to make the whole picture...

Read the 1 Corinthians reading.
  • How many parts of the human body can you name?  
  • What jobs do they do?  
  • How are they different from each other? 
  • Are there any we don't need?
  • Which parts of the body can't you see?  
  • Do you know what they do?
  • Think about the different people in your family and the different personalities and gifts they bring even though they are one family unit.
  • What different things do Christians do to show they belong to Jesus and the Christian family? 
  • In church? At home? At work/ school?
  • What could you do to show you are part of the Christian family?  
  • What gifts do you think that God has given you?

Activities

Overview

Here are some resources for leaders, who are looking for context and background information to share about the letters to the Corinthians
BibleProject Overview: 1 Corinthians
BibleProject: 1 Corinthians Overview poster, free download here
BibleProject: 2 Corinthians Overview poster, free download here
Bible Explore
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