- Say you’re going to be a little part of (name your church) church at home today. Before you begin, can everyone go and find something they can share with everyone else here today. It could be something to eat, a favourite story, a YouTube clip, a meme, a joke (if you must). You’ve got 1 minute to bring it back here…
- Light a candle and pray:
With the light of this candle, we remember the light of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
God, you are here with us now and also with our friends and family in their homes today.
Especially we remember that you are also with… (invite everyone to remember people from church, school, extended family, neighbourhood)
Thank you, Jesus, light for the world. Amen
- Say: Today we’re thinking about sharing what we have. The writer Luke says that the first Christians ‘had everything in common’ (Acts 2:44).
Put a toilet roll on the table.
Say: This could be the last toilet roll in (name your town or village). The shops have run out. Nobody can buy any more. We seem to be the only household who still have toilet paper. What do we do?
Take all the suggestions and doodle/cartoon them on to a sheet of paper. Have some fun thinking of off-the-wall things you could do as well as more reasonable ideas.
- Say: Here’s a time when Jesus met someone who shared what he had. Read John 6:1-14. What’s that got to do with the toilet roll?
- Say: We’ve all got different things to share, and some of them aren’t even ‘things’ but are skills or time, or something like ‘cheerfulness’ that can’t even be touched. What have we each brought to share with each other in our little church here at home? (Share the things people have collected either now or afterwards) Is there anything we’ve been given that we can share more widely?
- Share a prayer: Pray using the game of Consequences if everyone can write, or do it in pairs if some people can’t write. (Or you could draw instead.) Simply write at the top of the paper, fold over the paper so the writing is invisible and pass it on to the next person. That person writes the next part of the prayer near the top of the paper, folds it over to hide the words and passes it on again. At the end, pass it on one last time and everyone opens up and prays aloud what is on their paper. Try these suggestions for each ‘fold’ of the prayer:
- What word or words will you use to open your prayer and greet God?
- Write, ‘You are…..’ finishing it off with something you love about God
- Write ‘Please…’ and finish it off with a request
- Write ‘Thank you…’ and finish it off with something you want to say thank you for
- How do you want to end the prayer?
- Say the Lord’s Prayer together, with or without actions
- Say the Messy Grace if you usually do that at Messy Church
- Blow out the candle, changing the light from visible to invisible light
If you have time and a Monopoly set…
Try playing Monopoly with the normal rules except that each time an unowned property is landed on, all the players have the opportunity to buy it together as a shared resource (meaning that any rent collected is shared among all the owners). Reflect on how this simple change makes the game a very different experience. (Idea reproduced with permission from Holy Habits: Sharing Resources.)
