Use a simple circuit to light up some LEDs using “squishy circuits” to talk about sharing God’s love with others. What are “squishy circuits” you ask? Squishy circuits are two specific types of homemade dough that you can use to create simple electrical circuits. You will need to create both a conductive dough and an insulating dough. Check out this link for the complete formula. For a very spunky description of squishy circuits be sure to see the video below.

Bible Text:

John 15:9-12

Main Point:

Just like a circuit, God’s love flows through us to others.

What you will need:

I put my group into teams of 3 and then gave each team the following items. So you will need one set of these items for every group of 3 you will have. You can order they Squishy Circuits Kit or you can just pick up all of these things at Radio Shack.

• 9-volt battery
• 9-volt battery connector thingy (I don’t know what these are called, but you can buy them at radio shack and they snap onto the top of a 9-volt battery and have two leads coming out that connect to the dough)
• 3 or 4 LEDs
• jumper wires (little wires that can connect the circuits)
• Ball of conductive dough
• Ball of insulating dough
• You can also get a couple of cheap switches if you want to give students more to experiment with

The Lesson:

• Ask: Does anyone know how a circuit works?
• The basic idea of a circuit is this. Free electrons flow from the emitter through the circuit.
• Take a few responses and then set up a simple circuit in front where everyone can see. (Using the alligator clamps connect a resistor to the shorter lead of the LED. Clamp the other side of the resistor to the black wire (-) side of your battery connector. Clamp the long lead of your LED to the red wire (+) coming from your battery connector. If everything is connected you should see your LED light up. (LEDs have polarity so make sure the long leg is running to the positive terminal).
• Ask: What happens when I take one of wires off the battery? Since it is connected to the battery why doesn’t it stay lit?
• In order for a circuit to work it needs a complete path. The electricity won’t flow unless the circuit is closed.
• Point out which dough is conductive and which is insulating. You may also want to give some general pointers about the positive and negative side of the LEDs and that the conductive dough can’t touch or the light won’t light up.
• If possible play the video above (from the Mini-Maker show) as a way of teaching your students how to make circuits.
• Say: Your mission is to make a complete circuit and light up your LED using the materials provided
• Give students some time to make a few circuits. You may want to encourage them to make some of the more complicated circuits that you find on the links above.
• After everyone has had a chance to play with the circuits disconnect the lights.
• I would suggest moving to another location or cleaning up everything before you try to do the lesson, the squishy circuits can be a pretty big distraction.
• Direct students to turn to John 15:9-12.
• Call on a volunteer to read the passage.
• Ask: According to verse 9 how had Jesus loved His disciples? (As the Father has loved Him)
• Ask: Look at verse 12 how does Jesus tell us to love others? (As He has loved us)
• So the picture looks like this. God loved Jesus. Jesus passed that love on to us. We then pass that love on to others.
• Just like a circuit God’s love should flow through us to others.
• The question we have to ask ourselves is are we being conductors of that love or are we insulating others from the love of God.
• Pass out a sheet of paper with the word conductor on one side and insulator on the other
• Have students think back over the course of this past week and write actions that they did that either demonstrated Jesus’ love (conductor) or kept people from seeing God’s love (insulator). For example they may write that they shared their lunch with someone on the conductor side and that they were mean to their sister on the insulator side.
• After a couple of minutes ask students for ways that they can be conductors of God’s love this week.

Scott McClellen – Echo Hub

So last weekend I thought that I would take on this project that I found when looking for the “Geek Dad” project book. If you check out the link and scroll down there is a video where the guy makes a sort of demolition derby for radio controlled cars using LEGOS as what you are destroying.

It turned out to be rather easy (I got to use a hot glue gun which always makes me happy) and lots of fun too. Me and my boys played it a few times and then we had some of my sons friends (and their fathers) over to the house to play a couple of times too. We have taken the “arena” up now, but the cars are still in the garage and they get crashed at least once a day.

Anyway, I kept thinking that this would work really well for a youth lesson. Possible hooks might include:

• There are things in the world that are trying to tear us down as Christians
• Sometimes the friends you choose can be destroying you more than building you up
• Sometimes you can be hurting your friends when you should be building them up
• Try to live at peace will all men because if you keep on biting and devouring each other you will be destroyed by each other (Galatians 5:15)

If you get 4 cars (which is a little difficult because you want cheap cars so it may be hard to find 4 that are on different frequencies) it would up the destruction and allow more people to play.

http://creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2011/04/resurrection-sunday-the-empty-tomb/

I got a chance to go with my wife and oldest son to Bourbonnais, IL last weekend on a family mission trip with our church. As we were getting ready for the trip Meredith and I were trying to explain to Nathan (our 5 year old) what we would be doing and explain why we were doing it. “We’re going on a mission trip,” we said, “We are going to tell people about Jesus and help other people tell about Jesus.”

Nathan took all of this in, but was probably more excited about hanging out with the other kids and getting a chance to ride the church bus (an experience he is not as excited about after two long trips on it). On Saturday morning we went out to hang door hangers about Journey Church. Journey church is a church plant that our church has partnered with. A team went last year to help with their launch and now we were back a year later to help celebrate their 1 year anniversary.

We were walking through neighborhoods, the story of how one man had come to church, accepted Christ, and was now a big part of their community all because of a door hanger that the team placed last year was dancing through my head. I had visions of dozens of people responding to the work that my family was doing.

At about the 30^th house Nathan was slowing down so I wanted to remind him of why we were doing what we were doing. So I asked him, “Nathan what are we doing all of this for?” (OK, it is bad grammar I know, but that is what I asked). I was expecting something along the lines of what was in my head, “to invite people to church,” “so that people will come to hear about Jesus,” or something similar. Nathan’s answer was much simpler and much more….I don’t know…true in some way.

“For worship,” he said.

That was it for him. Why were we out walking through neighborhoods hanging signs on people’s doors? For him it was simple. We were doing it for worship.

I have so many reasons why I do things around a church. I do things because if I don’t no one else will. I do things because I think I am supposed to. I do things for noble reasons too. I do things so that other people can know Christ and so that the love of Christ can be carried around the world.

But at the heart of what I should be doing is what Nathan was doing. It should be for worship.

When you are working with your church I am sure there are lots of reasons why you do what you do. But when it all comes down to it the motivating factor of our service should be to praise and honor God. Why do we do what we do? We do it for worship.

So this week as you are changing a baby’s diaper because no one showed up to work in the nursery, remember that you are doing it for worship. As you are trying to get that 7^th grader to calm down and listen to the truth that you are trying to teach, remember you are doing it for worship. When you are cleaning up after people and no one else seems to notice, remember you are doing it for worship. When you are setting up chairs and getting game stuff together you are doing it for worship. When you are leading in the service, when you are singing in the congregation, when you are walking through the halls your church remember that whatever you there you are doing it for worship.

When you walk through your day, and go to your job and live out your life away from church remember you are doing it all for worship.

Why do I do what I do? This week at least I know my answer will be “for worship.” I hope I can remember the lesson that Nathan taught me for much longer than that.

In Ephesians 6:10-13 Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus to put on spiritual armor because the day of evil is coming. He warns them that their struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against a spiritual foe. To this end he says to put on the full armor of God. This object lesson is a fun way to talk about the need to protect yourself. Some of the projectiles thrown won’t be very damaging, while some could be devastating. The same is true in our lives. Some attacks are easy to shrug off, but some could be devastating. That is why we need to put on the full armor of God.

Bonus stuff: Any time you get students working together it is a good thing. Add to that the fact that God is creative and we who are “in his image” are also creative and you have a pretty neat (albeit long) object lesson.

Materials Needed

One set of the following for each team:

• 20 popsicle sticks
• 10 tongue depressors
• 20 standard rubber bands
• 4 thick rubber bands
• 2 large binder clips
• 4 medium binder clips
• 4 small binder clips
• 1 roll transparent tape
• 2 spoons
• 6 mini-porcupine balls (Like these)
• 1 pack of index cards
• 2 LEGO mini-figs or other similar small toy

Set Up:

Make a 2 foot by 2 foot square on the floor. About 4 feet away place another square directly across from the first one. This will be the starting place for 2 teams. Add additional square pairs as needed. The picture here is of my set up.

How to Play:

• Divide your group into teams. Optimal team size is probably 4-6. Groups will be working on 2 separate projects, building a wall, and building a catapult. So 4-6 allows teams to divide that work.
• Pass out the materials and instructions to each team. Modify the rules as needed.
• Give students around 20 minutes (maybe even longer) to create their walls and catapults
• When everyone is finished groups that are across from each other take turns firing their catapults at their opponents structure.
• Points are awarded as indicated on the instruction sheet
• Get an adult volunteer to choose the best design awards.

Instructions

Goals: 

1. Create a structure using only index cards and tape that can protect your mini-figs from being knocked over.
2. Create a device using the materials given (and the rules set up below) that can knock over the mini-fig of the opposing team.

Building Rules:

• You may only use the index cards and tape you were given.
• You may not use ANY other building material
• Other building material includes the structure being propped against anything or being supported by anything other than the floor.
• Your building must be within your designated square

Launcher Rules:

• Your launcher must be made with the materials given.
• You may use anything you were given to create your launcher, but you may not use anything else.
• Your launcher must fire on it’s own power (you may not fling a spiked ball with a spoon in your hand for instance)
• Your launcher must have a base that sits on the ground. You will not be allowed to hold your launcher in the air
• You may stabilize your launcher when firing it, but it must stand on its own.
• You must shoot from behind whatever walls your team has built
• Tally up the total points after you have taken all 6 shots

Points:
Knocked down mini-fig 1000 Points
Knocking down part of the structure 500 Points
Knocking down part of your own structure -500 Points
Successfully firing spike ball over your wall 100 Points
BONUS: Best launcher design 1000 Points
BONUS: Best structure design 1000 Points

Team Name: ______________________________________________

Total Points: _______________________________________________

General Thoughts:

• Check out Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction for my inspiration
• We did this tonight in our youth meeting. It took WAAAAAAY longer than I had planned, but everyone seemed excited about the process so I just cut the rest of the lesson short. This would be a great way to spend an extended time at a retreat or d-now weekend. We could have easily spent an hour crafting and firing these things.
• You may want to build something yourself before the time starts. I had a catapult already built and that helped teams to get an idea of how to proceed and the general scope of the project.
• I bought a bunch of plastic boxes from Dollar Tree to put the material in. I have been giving out lots of small bits lately and wanted something that I could reuse. I am surprised that no team used the box in their design.
• If you can find sugar cubes I would suggest using those as building materials instead of the cards. I couldn’t find them anywhere around me. If you go with sugar cubes award 100 points for each cube knocked down.
• I found the porcupine balls in the party favor section at Walmart. They were 6 for 97 cents.
• You can probably get away with less stuff than in each box, but I wanted to be sure that the students had the materials needed to really pursue whatever idea they could come up with.

So here is my plan. I have built one of the catapults from the book (pictured here). I am going to take that as a bit of inspiration and then pass out a collection of spoons, tongue depressors, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, paper clips and tape to teams of 3 students. The students will have 10 minutes to come up with their own launcher of sorts. Here is what I think the rules will look like.

The launcher must sit on a table (or floor)

The launcher must fire on its own power (you can’t just flick things with a spoon)

Students will get 5 shots using mini marshmallows as ammo

The goal will be to destroy a small “wall” that is guarding an army of LEGO mini-figs

Points will be given for each brick knocked down and for each min-fig hit

I think I am going to have one firing range and have everyone bring their catapults to. This will make judging easier (I won’t need as many blocks either) but it will make the game take FOREVER, so I may have multiple shot sites.

The debrief is to talk about putting on the full armor of God. In our world it isn’t a question of if we will be attacked, but when. As such we must be ready to stand. Some attacks are easy to withstand (as will be some of the attacks from the catapults) and some attacks will be more difficult, but all of them can be repelled by the armor of God.

I will give a full report of how it goes later this week.

How it Works

• Print the Risky Behavior PDF or make your own sheet using the text below.
• Pass out the papers and a pen to each participant.
• Instruct participants to walk around the room getting people to sign if they have engaged in the risky behavior listed.
• Each person may sign a paper only once.
• Give a time limit of 5-7 minutes and play some loud music while people move around the room and get signatures.
• At the end of the time limit award a small prize to the person who gets the most signatures.

The Text

Walk around the room looking for people who have engaged in the following risky behaviors. Have them sign their name beside an activity they have done. Each person can sign your paper only once.

1. __________________  I have been bungee jumping
2. __________________  I have driven over 90 miles/hour
3. __________________  I’ve sent a gift to someone as a “secret admirer.”
4. __________________  I have shot a gun
5. __________________  I’ve lied to my parents
6. __________________  I’ve snuck out of my house
7. __________________  I have eaten lunch without washing my hands
8. __________________  I have jumped off a high dive
9. __________________  I’ve told a friend that his/her significant other was cheating
10. __________________  I have been shot at
11. __________________  I have ridden a motorcycle
12. __________________  I’ve drank milk after the “sell by” date
13. __________________  I have been scuba diving
14. __________________  I have cheated on a test
15. __________________  I have been rock climbing
16. __________________  I’ve taken time to look and think about it when a girl asked me “do these pants make me look fat?”
17. __________________  I have been in a drag race
18. __________________  I’ve been to the mall on Black Friday
19. __________________  I have jumped out of an airplane
20. __________________  I’ve texted while driving

“Crucify Him” responsive reading

“The Torn Veil” hands on experience

“Unashamed Love” object lesson

“The Cost” performance poetry piece

The Veil Resown Sermon Idea

There are a myriad of ways to approach it, but when it is all said and done the basic pillar of teach youth is to have caring adults spending time with teenagers and modeling a life of worship and service.