Pattern Two

Pattern 2: Train members to follow Jesus in daily life

Passage: Luke 9:23
Paper Section: Obituaries

Objective: Discuss the Memory Verse. Daily Discipleship means choosing to die to selfishness and living to follow Christ.

Whole Group:
• Singing
• Homework – God Loves Me! Jesus Died for Me! I Can Have Hope in the Ressurection!

• Memory Verse – Luke 9:23
o What did it mean to carry a cross 2,000 years ago? Why did Jesus carry a cross? What does it mean for us carry a cross today? We choose to live our life the way God wants us to live it. We choose to follow Christ into a life of mercy, service, and obedience.
o Discuss Pattern 2 – Following Jesus in daily life means living a life of mercy, service, and obedience.

• Headlines
o Introduce our Mission: “By God’s mercy, we love and partner with the Woodlawn Community.”
o Review last week’s headlines - PumpHouse Clean-Up (Pictures)
o Obituaries (What is an obituary)?

Teasers/Supplies:
o Cross
o Obituary Examples
o Obituary papers for children to fill out
o Pencils
o Chalk or Tape
o Camera
o Treats

• The Beat (A beat is the story that the reporter is investigating).
o Investigate Luke 9:21-27.
o Write your own obituary for The Daily Disciple.

Class Activity:
• Send children to their classes to investigate Luke 9:21-27.
• What does Jesus say you must do to be His follower?
• What does Jesus mean when He says you must take up your cross daily? What are some unselfish things you can do this week for others?
• What did/does Jesus do for us?
• Talk about the unselfish and loving choice that Jesus made, to carry and die on the Cross.
• Discuss how each of us must make the choice to take up our cross and follow Jesus. When we choose to follow Jesus, we choose to life a life of mercy, service, and obedience. Christ’s disciples live daily for God and serve others.
• Have each student write an obituary for The Daily Disciple. (Younger students may draw a picture). These obituaries are a symbol of “dying” to our selfish desires and following Jesus.
• Have students get into pairs and draw chalk (or tape) outlines of themselves on the floor. This outline represents the death to the selfish life. Discuss that the children represent the life of disciple!
• Prayer
• Snack

Optional Activity:
• Have kids make headstones with a message on them. “Here lies Trevor, Follower of Christ.”

Obituary Example:
Tony Smith, November 22, 2002 – January 24, 2010
Son to God, and Peter and Kristi Smith. Brother to Rose and
and La Fonda Smith. The old Tony had two cats and loved to
dig holes in his backyard. He also liked to play with La Fonda,
and loved Geography. On this 24th day of January, 2010, Tony
has chosen to give up his selfish life and to live as a follower
of Christ.

Pattern One

Pattern 1: Knows and lives with its outward-focused purpose.

Passage: Luke 10:27
Paper Section: Community

Whole Group
• Singing
• Homework – God Loves Me! Jesus Died for Me! I Can Have Hope in the Resurrection!
• Memory Verse – Luke 9:23
• Headlines
o Introduce our Mission: “By God’s mercy, we love and partner with the Woodlawn Community.”
o Meet Dave Lankton (Building and Grounds)

Teasers/Supplies
o Garbage Bags
o Gloves
o Brooms
o Rakes
o Treats

The Beat
o Send children to class to investigate Luke 10:27.
o Luke 10:27 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
o Discuss what it means to love God and others. How can we love God? How can we love our neighbors? One of the ways that we love is by listening. We can listen to God by dwelling in His Word (Bible) and obeying what it says. We can also listen to our neighbors to show them that we care.
o PUMP is learning how to be a missional community of believers. That means, that we are trying to figure out the ways that God wants us to partner with our neighbors.
o As part of this process, we have been listening to our neighbors, and one of the things that they have share is that the outside of our building needs to be cleaned up!
o So, today we are going to love our neighbors by showing them that we are listening to them. We are going to clean up the outside of our building!
o Show children the Teasers and Supplies.

Class Activity:
• Send children to their classes. Give each group some supplies. Classes will work together to clean up the outside of the church.
• Designate one child to be the “Photographer” and have him/her take pictures of the clean-up.
• Return: Discuss the activity in classes. Why is it important for our church to listen to God? Why is it important for our church to listen to our neighbors?
• Prayer
• Snack

Optional Activities:
• Prior to this lesson, PUMP church had asked its neighbors what we could do to be better neighbors. Your church might do the same and come up with a different activity for this lesson. The key is that the children see the importance of engaging in a listening relationship with their neighbors and respond to that feedback.
• Additional Questions: What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Why is it important for our church to listen to God? Why is it important for our church to listen to our neighbors?
• Have children make a list of the things that they can do to love their neighbors. Choose one thing that PUMP can do to show love to our neighbors.
• Have children present their idea to the whole group.

Introduction to The Daily Disciple

8 Missional Patterns and Discipleship Daily

Section in Paper: Headlines

Introduce New Quarter - Daily Disciple

• Discipleship and Our Communities

Whole Group:
• Singing
• Recite Weekly Homework
o God Loves Me! Jesus Died for Me! I Can Have Hope in the Resurrection!
• Memory Verse – Luke 9:23
• Headquarters
o Introduce 8 Missional Patterns and newspaper concept to the children.
• Headlines (News about the kids, PUMP, Community, etc.)
o Teasers (Supplies and Treats)
o The Beat (Class time, Bible Story Investigation and Community Reporting)

Supplies:
• Poster Board (for rules)
• Markers (for rules)
• Newspapers
• Tape

Class Activities:
• Send the children to their classes
• Team-building Exercises
• Develop and/or Review Rules for Class (Involve the children in this process i.e. “What rules do you think we should make for our class time together?”
• Newspaper Fashion Show – Kids create costumes using newspaper and tape.
o Wedding Dress
o Ninja Warrior
o Robot
• Newspaper Mountain – Have the kids see which group can make the tallest structure using only newspaper and tape. It must be able to stand on its own!
• Discuss the importance of teamwork (respect for each other, listening, and participation) during class time.
• Prayer

The Pitter Pattern of Little Feet

For the last two years PUMP Church has been involved in the Partnership for a Missional Church process. We are practicing spiritual disciplines, such as Dwelling in the Word, Praying, and Listening, in order to discern God's Missional Vocation for our church. At this time, we are focusing on the 8 Missional Patterns. These are patterns often found in missional churches according to the book Treasure in Clay Jars by Lois Y.Barrett.

PUMP Church has invited the entire congregation to engage in the study of these 8 Patterns. This invitation has also been extended to our children. Our children are the church of tomorrow, but they are also the church of right now. Therefore, PUMP has chosen to involve its children in the process of discerning what kind of church we will be. To do this, we have created a children’s curriculum based on the 8 Missional Patterns. The ultimate goal of this, or any Bible curriculum, is that it fosters passion for Jesus, compassion for neighbors, and faithful obedience to the teachings of Christ. With that in mind, this curriculum will focus on the theme of Daily Discipleship.

We are using this curriculum with children from Kindergarten to 5th grade. Minor changes are made by the teachers during the class discussion time, which make the lessons more age appropriate. Lessons will include Bible stories, field trips, and activities, that will encourage the children to think about their relationship with Jesus, with their church, and with their community. PUMP Church of Christ is making a newspaper called The Daily Disciple to bring these patterns to life. Each week we will add another element to the paper. On this blog you will find the online version of this newspaper, where we will publish lesson plans and pictures of our journey. We will also be utilizing Power Point presentations, video, music and dancing as much as possible to make these lessons engaging and fun..

This curriculum is ideal for smaller congregations - PUMP meets in a small and very “well-used” home in Northeast Portland! However, it can easily be adjusted to fit your larger group. This endeavor is a work in progress, much reflection and editing still has to be done, but please feel free to use any part of these lesson plans, and let us know how they worked for you. Also, contact us with any questions that you might have. Peace to your church!

Terms/Things you should know:

Homework: This is a mantra that PUMP Church created when it first started in 2000. It is: "God Loves Me! Jesus Died for Me! I Can Have Hope in the Resurrection!" It comes out of John 3:16. We recite the homework together often.

*Since we are building a newspaper together, we will be using newspaper lingo as much as possible. Each week we add to The Daily Disciple, using the projects that the children have worked on. In addition, we are utilizing powerpoint slides that reflect a Newspaper/Headquarters theme. The children have also been given Press Passes.

Editor-In-Chief: God

Editors: Teachers

Reporters: Children

Teasers/Supplies: Teasers are the objects/supplies that we show the kids which give them clues about what they will be doing during the lesson.

The Beat: The Beat is what the children will be investigating, such as a Bible passage, community interview, or story.