The Widow and the Judge (Luke 18: 1-8)
Input for leaders
Another great illustration from the Visio Lectio,
thanks to Rev. Sarah West. PNG Download Terms of Use |
Gospel Conversations 2025: Jesus' parables continue, and continue to be a bit puzzling. This week we have the story of the persistent widow and the grumpy judge, and are ably led through our consideration of its perplexities by Kelvin Wright (Dunedin), Esther Clarke-Prebble (St Martha's, Dunedin) and Mannie Marara (Hadlow School, Masterton) - with Lisa filling in for the last time for a while for Michael!
Gospel Conversations 2022: The story is one of a nagging widow and a reluctant, non-God-fearing judge. It raises the question, "How on earth are we supposed to approach these parables?" Is God really meant to be equated with that unhelpful judge?
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Intergenerational worship
Ordinary Time Year C 2025 Part 2 Intergenerational Worship Series
(Angela Blundell, Auckland Dio Intergenerational Ministry) This resource has 8 weeks of worship ideas to help your community connect to God and each other through worship, sharing and creativity. 27th Sunday Ordinary Time to Reign of Christ Sunday 
A collection of resources and ideas (Intergen Australia)
Written and compiled by Chris Barras. Bible references: Luke, Psalms. Quick Questions
Preschool Play Full lesson plan for babies/toddlers (Trueway Kids)
Tell the story - try some ideas from the following...
Knock Knock - Set up a giant cardboard box and cut a door in so they can practice going in and out and knocking. Provide speech bubble cut-outs that say things like “Please help!” and let them decorate the door. Talk about times they have really wanted something and kept asking for it (Toddlers are experts at this!) Dress-up Corner - Add scarves, hats, and other simple costumes so kids can play as the widow, the judge, or neighbours. Talk about and act out asking for help and listening. Prayer board (See Pray it section) - Offer crayons, paper, and stickers for kids to draw someone they’d like to pray for or something they want to tell God about. Pray with playdough - make simple shape of things you want to ask for or thank God for. Or check out these five ways to pray with playdough (Godventure) 
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TalksA parable about prayer (Gary Neal Hansen) - a lovely retelling of the story with explanation.
Prayer and the merciless judge (RFour) - learning to pray 'in step' with God Persistence in prayer (Sermons 4 Kids) Full lessons plans & activities (Trueway Kids) - for a variety of ages. Prayer & the parable of the persistent widow (Ministry to Children) - Full lesson plan. Games & ActivitiesMemory Cards
You will need: pairs of pictures that relate to prayer. For an easy option download and print a set of the Methodist Prayer cards. At the end you can pick a few and pray them with the kids. Spread the cards on the floor face down. Kids take turns trying to find a pair by turning over two cards. If they don’t match, it is the next child’s turn. If they match, the child keeps the pair and has another go. The game ends when all the pairs have been found. Prayer Books You will need: An exercise book for each child, or fold A4 paper in half and staple to make a book. Also, stickers, glue, pens, and other things to decorate the book. Explain that this is going to be their own prayer book - a special book for them to talk with God. Talk about the kind of prayer you can do -- writing prayers, drawing, praying in colour, thank you prayers, topic prayers (for family, school, friends, etc). Let them decorate their books. At the end you might like to spread them out around the room, play some quiet music, and give them time to write/draw their first prayer. Chasing Chairs Set out two rows of chairs back to back. There should be one less chair than people. Get all the children to pick a word that relates to prayer for them. They must all be different. Be creative!! Choose someone to be ‘it’. The rest of the children sit on the chairs. The ‘it’ person walks around the chairs and calls out the different pray words. When someone’s word is called, they must get up and follow the ‘it’ person around the chairs. When the ‘it’ person feels like it, they can call out “Go Pray!’ and everyone must try and sit on a chair. The person who misses out becomes the next ‘it’ person. Challenge! Give the kids some doable but difficult challenges(depending on their ages and stages) e.g. walk across a room balancing a pillow on their head, or catching a ball ten times without dropping it. Encourage them to keep going until they master it and congratulate them. Talk about how it was important they didn’t give up and relate to prayer. Pray it!Why not set up a prayer board like this one from Flame Creative? This is a great way to encourage persistence in prayer.
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The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
Input for leadersKeep in mind, humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less. And specifically in this story, it’s knowing that we all need God because we’ve all messed up. [Crossroads Kids Club]
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Gospel Conversations 2025: The team focus on the short and deceptively simple parable of the pharisee and tax collector at prayer. Is it just a straightforward lesson about pride? Or is there more going on?
Gospel Conversations 2022: Here's a parable that faces us with both our own tendency to judgement, and God's abundant mercy.
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Intergenerational worship
Ordinary Time Year C 2025 Part 2 Intergenerational Worship Series
(Angela Blundell, Auckland Dio Intergenerational Ministry) This resource has 8 weeks of worship ideas to help your community connect to God and each other through worship, sharing and creativity. 27th Sunday Ordinary Time to Reign of Christ Sunday 
A collection of resources and ideas (Intergen Australia)
Written and compiled by Chris Barras. Bible references: 2 Timothy, Luke, Psalms. Children's TalksThe pharisee and the tax collector (Flame Creative) - a lovely all age talk.
Two people who prayed (Gary Neal Hansen) The pharisee and the tax collector (Ministry to Children) - Full lesson plan - includes some great visual illustrations. Headed for a Fall! (Sermons 4 Kids) - A simple talk using blocks. Parable of the two pray-ers (RFour) - knowing when we need help. The pharisee and the publican (Christianity Cove) - an object lesson with balloons. Being ourselves
In today’s story, Jesus talked about two people, a Pharisee and a Tax Collector who went to the temple to pray. They prayed quite different prayers, didn’t they? What were some of the differences you noticed between their prayers? (Pause for discussion) Well, the difference that I want to talk about today is that the Pharisee was comparing himself to the tax collector to show God how much better that the tax collector he was. But the tax collector was more concerned with getting his relationship with God right first. How many of you have something that you are good at? Like playing soccer, or drawing or anything? (Pause for answers). Well, how do you know you are good at that thing? (Pause) Sometimes, to help me get a better idea about how I am doing, I compare how well I do something; to how well my friends do that something. This is ok, but if I end up spending too much time comparing myself to other people, I will end up feeling bad about myself. You see, there will always be people that are better at you in some areas, and worse than you in other areas. But the one thing that we can all be the best at is being ourselves. You are special because God made you unique. There is no one else in the world that can be better at being you than you can. God isn’t worried about how good you are in comparison to other people. God is concerned about whether you are being the best you that you can be. And that means being honest about the things that are bad as well as the things that are good. That way, you can learn about how to be the person that God made you to be. Questions to think about
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Games & Activities
Why not revisit some of your groups favourite prayer activities from the year? Or explore some new prayer activities? Lots of ideas here. Preschool PlayKey ideas - God loves a humble heart that asks for help, rather than a proud heart that thinks it’s perfect.
Tell the story - try some ideas from the following...
Prayer Hearts Table - paper hearts, crayons, and stickers. Children can decorate a heart and draw or scribble something they’d like to ask God for help with. Talk about: What would you like to say to God? When have you needed help? Mirror Station - Put out a large wall mirror (firmly fastened). At the top stick a piece of paper that says "God loves me, and He listens when I ask for help.” Grab some whiteboard pens and invite kids to draw what God sees in their hearts on the mirror. Talk about how God cares about what’s in our hearts more than just what we do on the outside. Playdough Prayers - Have playdough for kids to shape hearts, praying hands, or people. Talk about - things they’d like to ask God for help with as they create. Block Temple - Provide blocks or Duplo to build a “temple” or “church.” Add toy people for children to imagine coming to talk to God. Talk about how we can talk to God in special places (e,g, church) but we can also talk to God anywhere. What would you like to say to God right now? Pray it!This duplo prayer activity (Godventure) would be an easy one to tie in with todays story and offers a way for kids who aren't confident praying out loud to be involved.
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You can also download this video from Max 7
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