24 January 2020
This month at Messy Church we were answering the question, ‘Why bother with God?’. We looked at the account of Jesus forgiving the sins of a paralysed man (Mark 2:1–12). The incident shows that we must bother with God because our greatest need is to have our sins forgiven.
Here are some of the activities we did connected with the Bible story.
Jump Up Man Cup
To illustrate the joy of the forgiven (and healed) man we made cheerful men out of paper cups. An elastic band was stretched from side to side inside the cup. When the man was pressed down on another upturned cup and then released, he leapt into the air!
Weave a Mat
The man was lowered to Jesus on a mat. We made T-shirt yarn, plaited it together and spiralled it into mats.
Build a House
The man’s friends had to dig through the roof of a house to get to Jesus! We chose to build houses instead! We covered a flowerpot with clingfilm and added cardboard to mask out doors and windows. We then covered the whole thing with clingfilm. Finally we added layers of modroc to build up a house, avoiding the door and window masks.
Painting a House
Along the same lines we made a large cardboard house which people painted.
Marble Run
The friends in the story had to take a difficult route to get to Jesus – onto the house and through the roof! We placed two tables on a slope (by folding down the legs at one end). The children made a course to take a marble from top to bottom in the slowest time possible. The two tables competed with one another. This was very popular.
Gingerbread Man
We made gingerbread men with big smiles to represent the forgiven and healed man. Then we ate them!