16 November 2025

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Bible readings for today

• Isaiah 65:17-25
• For Psalm: Isaiah 12:1-6
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
• Luke 21:5-19

Liturgical colour: GREEN

Collect

E te Atua kaha rawa
māu anake e taea ai te hari mai i te tika
ki ō mātou ngākau aroha, ture kore hoki;
hōmai ki a mātou kia tau te aroha ki āu whakahau
me te hiahia ki tāu kupu taurangi,
inā, i roto i ngā whakanekeneke me ngā wero
o tēnei ao hurihuri,
ka mau pono ki o mātou ngākau
ki te wāhi e kitea ai te hari;
Ko Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Ariki.
Āmine.

Almighty God,
you alone can bring order
to our unruly wills and affections;
give us grace to love what you command
and desire what you promise,
that in all the changes and chances
of this uncertain world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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Jesus speaks about the future (Luke 21:5-19)

Input for leaders

Gospel Conversations 2025: As we head towards Advent, we have to start grappling with the "apocalyptic" passages in our gospels. There are few passages which confuse and divide Christians more than these do, so it's a tough prospect for our Conversationalists to take on! 

Gospel Conversations 2022: As we approach Advent, the lectionary starts throwing some of the toughest passages in the Gospels at us. Here we have the destruction of the Temple and rumours of wars and betrayals- difficult stuff to talk about in terms of Good News! 

No Visio Lectio image this week but try this one instead. Artist unknown. Source: https://amerindiaenlared.org/

Intergenerational worship

Talks

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

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A collection of resources and ideas (Intergen Australia)
Written and compiled by Rev Sandy Brodine. Bible references: Isaiah, Psalm.

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Activities

•  Try these fun object lesson demos on the theme of trusting God (Flame Creative - The amazing water glass! or Curds and whey - great demonstration and discussion prompts for the idea of trusting God.
• Questions balls (Flame Creative) - for a kinetic way of exploring questions about this week's story! Use questions from the section or make up your own. To reuse your beach balls just use some easily removable stickers and write your questions n those instead of straight on the beach ball.
• Using colours to respond (Flame Creative) - another fun way to unpack any bible story.
• Held in God's hands (Flame Creative)
• Block building - grab out some blocks and challenge the kids to build the tallest tower they can. When you've finished let them knock them all down.
• Play Jenga! Talk about: how things that seem solid can become wobbly. How it feels when things break or fall down in our lives, how we can know God is with us at all times, how when we put our trust in the wrong things, everything can fall over.

Questions

• I wonder what the temple looked like — all those beautiful stones and decorations?
• I wonder why Jesus said the temple wouldn’t last forever?
• I wonder how the people felt when they heard Jesus say that?
• I wonder what it’s like when things change or break that we thought would last forever?
• I wonder what helps you feel safe when life feels scary or confusing.
• I wonder what Jesus meant when he said, “Don’t be afraid”?
• I wonder how God helps people when things are hard?
• I wonder what it feels like to know that Jesus is always with us?
• I wonder what helps you remember that God is close, even in hard times?

When things fall apart (RFour) - An excellent talk on how God is with us in scary and difficult times.

When I am afraid (Sermons 4 Kids)

The challenge of apocalyptic (Gary Neal Hansen) - a retelling of the story.

Trusting Jesus (Ministry to Children) - Jesus will be with us in the hard times.

Preschool Play

Tell the story: Use a simplified version of When things fall apart (RFour) - an excellent talk on how God is with us in scary and difficult times.

Tell the story: A simple retelling​. You will need: Blocks or Duplo to build a “temple”, small figure (Jesus), blanket to cover heads when “scary things” happen (optional):
(invite the kids to help build as you tell it.)
The friends of Jesus were looking at the big, beautiful temple.
“Wow! Look how strong and shiny it is!” they said.
Jesus said, “One day these stones will fall down.”
The friends were surprised! “When will that happen?” they asked.
Jesus said, “Lots of things will happen in the world — sometimes scary things, like shaking or loud noises. People might not always be kind.
But don’t be afraid — I will be with you.”
(Cover with the cloth briefly) When things feel dark or scary, “Keep trusting me,” Jesus said. “I will help you be brave.”
End with a smile and rebuild the blocks together: “Even when things change, God is always with us.”

Blocks, building and destruction!
Get out some wooden building blocks (or anything stackable). Add some flat trays or boards to build on. Enjoy building and knocking down.  Talk about - the story and what happened, times that things have felt scary, how can we know God is looking after us. Remind the kids that sometimes things fall down or change — but God never changes!

Sky Paintings
You will need: art items for creating different sky pictures. Try different colours of paper, cotton wool clouds, star stickers, felts/paints/ glue scissors etc. 
Create! Talk about: The sky changes every day — morning, night, clouds — but God stays the same. 

“God with Me” Sensory play
You will need: Soft fabrics, toy people, a small cross or heart.
Children can wrap the toys in fabric “blankets” and say, “God is with you.”
Talk about: - What helps you feel safe when things are scary? We can remember that God is with us, just like this blanket is around you.

Pray it!

Try these bubble-wrap prayers for praying about tough stuff and worries (Flame Creative). If you don't have access to bubble wrap you can do something similar blowing bubbles and watching them pop.

​Blessing Box (Flame Creative) - why not make a little box of blessings and let your kids draw one to take with them as a reminder that they can trust God with any hard stuff this week.

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The Importance of Teamwork (2 Thess 3:6-13)

Team Games

The Bible passage today is a great one to emphasise the importance of being a team. Use the opportunity to play some of your favourite team games:
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Relay Races
Divide the children into groups and line them up at one end of the room, wiht a stack of beanbags or balls. At the other end of the room, place a bucket. Children run backwards and forwards to put the beanbags in the tub. First team wins. 

Cup up, cup down
Place 20+ cups around the hall, with half facing up (rim up), and half facing down (rim on the floor). Divide the children into two teams -- one will try to turn all the cups up, and one will try to turn them all down. Each round lasts 2mins, and repeat with as many rounds as you have energy for. This game is so simple, but so much fun -- and great for wearing off energy!  

Over under game
Line teams of children up in rows, with all the children facing the same direction. The person at the front passes a ball over their head, and the next person passes it through their legs, repeating the over/under pattern until the end of the line of children. Once the ball has reached the person at the back, they run forward to the front of the line and repeat until the children are back in the original formation, and the first person is at the front of the line again. You can vary this game by changing the number of 'overs' and 'under' e.g. all overs, all unders.

Minute to win it
There are some amazing minute to win it games. Our favourites include wrapping sellotape around a person and sticking on as many balloons as possible in the time allowed, and balancing milk bottle lids on a ice-cream stick.

Tower Challenge

Preparation
You will need newspaper, cello tape and scissors for each group 

​What to do
Split the children into groups of three of four, and tell them they have ten minutes to build the tallest tower they can using the things provided. 
At the end of the ten minutes, judge which is the tallest.

The Importance of being a Team

We are all part of God's family, all playing on the same team. Each of us has a role to play! 
Here are some question to help kids think about what role they have to play in their 'church team'

• Why does a sports team have to work together to win a game? Can the players just do their own thing? 
• How is a family like a team? 
• What jobs do your family members have? 
• Do you have any chores or responsibiliites?
• What jobs and roles do we have in our church family? 
• Why is it important for all of us to pull our own weight, and not just leave the jobs to 1 or 2 people to do? 
• What can you do to contribute? Write down ideas of what roles children can do in the church, and encourage them to offer to do some of the ones listed in weeks to come. 

The Feel Good Jar

​​What you need

• Jar or container -- you can use metal tins if the edges are safe (not sharp!). One for each child. 
• Labels -- one for each child (A4 sheet, or individual label)
• Glue sticks
• Pens
• Slips of paper
• Any other embellishments for decorating, eg. glitter, sequins, stickers, pictures. 
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Instructions

• Talk to the kids about the verse from 2 Thessalonians, and what it might mean to 'never get tired of doing good'
• Can then think of anyone they know who lives out this verse well? 
• What are some of the good things we can do? Brainstorm ideas of kind, loving, and caring things we can do.
• Decorate the label and stick on the jar/container
• You can then encourage the children to use the jar in several ways, or you might like to choose just one for ease!
  • Write down 7 different ideas of good things they can do this week, on slips of paper. Put the slips in the jar and encourage them to pull out a slip each day, with a different 'good thing' they can try and do. Ask families to talk about the good things they have been doing each evening, and feed back next Sunday to see what ideas the kids had. 
  • Encourage the children to use the jar as a collection of memories. Overtime they can fill it with slips of paper with good things that others have done and things they have done to show are 'never get tired of doing good!' 
  • Perhaps each family has a jar, and whenever someone else does something good (e.g. a sibling goes out of the way to help another) they write it down and put it in the jar. The contents are read out at the end of the week and celebrated.