Worship Programs

                                  Theme:

               "Hope of Earth, Joy of Heaven"

             Fourth Sunday in Advent –

        Sunday School Opening Exercises

Hold a Christmas party for kids, complete with snacks, games, a Christmas carol sing-a-long and a telling of the Christmas story.

Have Christmas shaped cookies available for children to decorate.  Provide a table with plenty of frosting, sugar sprinkles, candy, etc.

Game Idea:  Using masking tape, make a very large square on the floor and divide it into four smaller squares.  Divide your group into four equal teams.  Assign each team a square.  Provide them each with the same amount of scrap paper (one color per team).  Have the young people scrunch up all their sheets of paper.  Giving them two minutes, see which team can get rid of all their “snowballs” and keep any “snowballs” from landing in their square.  They cannot move outside of their own square boundaries.  The team with the least amount of paper in their square wins.

Present the Christmas story in a series of monologues spoken by people dressed in appropriate Bible time clothing.

Monologue by Joseph (based on Matthew 1:18-25)

Hi!  I’m Joseph…I want to tell you my story.  Mary and I met when we were kids.  I thought she was beautiful…and so kind and sweet.  As we grew up, I realized that I loved her and wanted her to marry me, so we were engaged.  We were still just teenagers at the time.  I was so happy!  I had a good job as a carpenter in Nazareth and was ready to provide for and take care of my new wife.  Then…something happened that seemed to make all my plans fall apart.  Mary found out that she was going to have a baby – this was before we had been married.  I didn’t understand all the details about her baby…that an angel had appeared to her and told her that her baby would be God’s Son…but I didn’t really care.  I was so upset!!  It wasn’t right!  I couldn’t marry her now…but at the same time, I still loved her.  Regretfully, I decided I would break off the engagement, but do it quietly so that I wouldn’t disgrace her in front of all our friends and family.  It was a hard time.  I loved God with all my heart and wanted to believe Mary when she said the baby was given to her by God’s spirit, but it was all so strange!  I was having a lot of trouble sleeping…but one night, I fell into a very deep sleep and had an amazing dream.  An angel of the Lord spoke to me and told me that I had nothing to be afraid of in taking Mary as my wife.  The baby was indeed from the Lord and would fulfill all the prophecies about the Messiah.  Imagine – Mary would be mother to the one sent to save us all!!  It was amazing.  It was such an honor to be chosen by God to carry out such a task.  I knew that I needed to love and support Mary, and be her husband.  I went to Mary the next day and told her what I had seen.  We were married right away… 

Monologue by Shepherd (based on Luke 2:8-20)

Hey!  I have to tell you something…I know I hardly know you, but an AMAZING thing has happened!!  My buddies and I work as nightshift shepherds on some hills just outside of Bethlehem…and every night we sit around telling stories, eating, catching the occasional stray sheep…you know, the usual.  Well, the other night we were hanging out when out of nowhere, the sky burst into light and a large white figure stood before us.  I think my heart stopped beating for a minute…we were all petrified!  One of my friends hid his face in his coat, while another friend got up and started to run away.  It was an angel!  It spoke to us!  Why an angel would appear and speak to a bunch of us shepherds is something I will never figure out…but it did!  It told us not to be afraid because it had great news for us.  The angel told us about a baby that had been born in Bethlehem named Jesus – Christ the Lord.  The angel said that Jesus had been born to save us!  It told us where to find Him then was joined by a whole bunch of angels who started singing and cheering, praising God.  It was incredible!!  They all disappeared just as fast as they had appeared.  I think we sat there for a few minutes without talking, just trying to take it all in, hoping that we hadn’t been dreaming.  At last, I looked around at my co-workers and suggested the impossible (for shepherds NEVER left their posts):  Why didn’t we go into Bethlehem and try to find Jesus, this “savior”…?   In a second, we were all on our feet running towards Bethlehem.  You know what?  The angel was right!  A baby had just been born and we found Him in the exact place the angel said we would.  We ran throughout the town telling everyone what the angel had said about Jesus.  It was so exciting!  We have waited such a long time for the Messiah—our Savior—to come, and now He’s here!!  Of course…we eventually got back to our sheep, but we couldn’t stop talking about what had happened and praising God just like the angels had done.

Monologue by Angel (based on Luke 2:8-14)

I’m here to tell you about my part in Jesus’ birth.  I’ll never forget that night!  Imagine you have some news, news that would change people’s lives …I’m not talking about a little change, BUT as massive change.  News that would save their lives!!!  We angels were so excited about what was happening.  God was coming to earth as a baby!!  He was coming to save all mankind!!  I’m not sure if all humans completely understood what was happening:  Their Savior was being born!!  Our job was to prepare the way and let people in on the incredible news.  First off, I visited Mary.  Of course…she was a little scared to see me (I mean, who wouldn’t be?)…so I had to ease her fears a little.  Then I got to tell her how blessed she was going to be.  She was going to be the mother of God!  Next, I visited Joseph in a dream and tried to tell him what an incredible event he was about to be part of.  The best part of our job was to tell the world what was happening.  We saw a group of unruly shepherds lying down on the job in a field and decided to tell them first.  They were petrified to see us at first (we can be a little overwhelming sometimes), but ended up running as fast as they could to the place where Jesus, the Son of God was being born.  They had the news spread around the countryside in no time. 

Monologue by Wiseman (based on Matthew 2:1-12)

I am a wiseman.  I’m not just saying that because I think I’m smart.  It’s my job.  I’m paid to be the man who knows things.  I’m part of a very special group of people who study ancient writings, stars, languages and so many other things.  I was with the other “magi” one night, studying the stars, when we saw something incredible!  There was one star in the eastern sky that outshone all the rest.  We had never seen it before that night and have never seen a star like it since.  One of the other magi remembered reading in an ancient script that a star like that could only mean one thing:  a king had been born.  Not just any king…but THE king of the Jews.  He would be the king of all kings.  We hurried and gathered our travel gear, starting out on a journey that would last a few years.  We followed the star.  Eventually we found the end of our journey in Bethlehem, in the land of Judah.  We found there a child, just a few years old.  As soon as we saw Him, we fell to our knees.  The people around didn’t seem to entirely understand who was in their midst in this child:  a king sent by God.  We brought the king the finest gifts we could offer:  gold, incense and myrrh. 

Make the following points based on Matthew 2:1-12:

• Christmas is far more than eating good food and giving and receiving gifts from our friends and family.  It is when we celebrate Jesus’ birth, promised for generations. 
• Jesus isn’t just a nice person who performed the odd miracle and helped people once in awhile.  He is the promised Savior, the One who died on a cross so that we could have eternal life and live with Him forever in heaven.
• This Christmas, let’s worship Jesus, the Son of God, born as a baby in a manger.  Let’s thank Him for all that He has done for us.