The Sunday School Teacher's Network Newsletter - Great ideas for children's ministry!

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Issue #76 - December 7, 2007 Previous issues can be found in the Archives.	Home \| Search \| Support SSTN
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"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." -- Jesus
1) Children's Church Christmas 2) Christmas With a Capital "C" 3) Wise Men Not At Manger 4) Christmas Tradition - Custom 5) New Traditions? 6) Matthew & Luke Nativity Stories 7) Intergenerational Tradition 8) Hand Made Holiday Gifts	This book teaches that life without God is meaningless. (The answer is in this newsletter)

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1) Children's Church Christmas For Christmas our children in church get to Decorate a normal size Christmas tree. It stands in their room. Then they decorate their room. At the Christmas Party they exchange a 5-10$ Gift boys buy for boys and girls for girls then they Play the Left right game. If Santa shows up at the Party he tells of Jesus' Birthday, the night he was born, and Takes pictures with the kids. Our children's church also does two very good ideas, One is Every month they do a church wide Penny March. Everyone saves their change for once a month. The children's church then donates the money they raise to a children's charity. The other good idea is they Buy very inexpensive Bibles and Give them away to the children that Visit who don't have one of their very own. (that can read). The Idea is to get a bible into every home you can. You never know what just a bible in the house can do especially to a child. Merry Christmas.

2) Christmas With a Capital "C" This is great! Enjoy it and pass it on. Let's put Merry Christmas back in our vocabulary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAckfn8yiAQ

3) Wise Men Not At Manger Just wanted to encourage Sunday School teachers to distinguish between what's become tradition and what is scripturally accurate when teaching about the wise men. According to Matthew 2:9-11, the wise men came to see a child in a house, not the baby in the manger ("After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him."). Using the word "child" in scripture probably means that Jesus was about two years old. It probably took the wise men a couple of years to travel from the east. Cathy Bodell New Hope Church of Christ Benzonia, Michigan

4) Christmas Tradition - Custom Every nativity seems to have a set of wise men. This is so erroneous since the wise men did not come to the stable to visit Jesus. It amazes me how many children think they did because they see the nativity. I think as teachers it is our duty to teach the correct Christmas story.

5) New Traditions? Is anyone starting a new tradition this year? If so, please share it with us.

6) Matthew & Luke Nativity Stories Something to ponder: Isn't the traditional nativity scene a compilation of the Gospel of Matthew and Luke? The two stories complete each other. The Gospel of Luke tells us the family traveled to Bethlehem for the census and then left Bethlehem, returning home to Nazareth, after the law was fulfilled (purification took 40 days to complete, with circumcision taking place on the 8th day. See Luke 2:1-39 and Leviticus 12:1-8. Also note that Jesus is referred to as "the Child" early on in the Luke passages as well. See Luke 2:17, 34.). On the other hand the Matthew passages imply the family may have been in Bethlehem longer (see Matthew 2:11,16). So, it is not clear how long the family actually remained in Bethlehem. To intrigue you further, it is possible that our traditional idea of a wooden stable, next to an over-booked-inn, never even existed. Read the following explanation of the word "Kataluma", which when translated can mean "house", "guest room", "a sleeping place for travelers" or "inn": http://www.btinternet.com/~prgreetham/Wisemen/ana3.html also see: http://www.reformedtheology.ca/luke2a.htm If Jesus wasn't born in the traditional inn as we have thought, then we don't know exactly where or when the wise men came to see Jesus, but we do know, because the Bible is very clear on this, they saw him and worshipped him in Bethlehem. With Christmas blessings and food for thought ;o), Sarah Keith <><

7) Intergenerational Tradition Our church decorates a Chrismon tree. We have dinner and sing carols, then make Chrismons. Afterwards we take turns explaining their meaning. It's lots of fun! --from SSTN: for anyone interested in learning more about Chrismons, go to the following page: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/chrismon.html

8) Hand Made Holiday Gifts Fun gifts to make! Easy on the budget! Great to receive! Learn how in the Christian Crafts "Holidays" section at: http://www.sundayschoolnetwork.com/free_stuff.html

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