Gospel Archery
Gather around kids it’s storytime. I’m sure you all read the title of this post and thought, “Gospel archery? What the heck Ticia, that’s just crazy.” And you would be right, but I’m heading up to Alaska on a mission trip and we’re using this super cool curriculum that is a combination of AWANA and teaching archery, and that started my crafting brain going to create a ridiculously cool and silly Bible lesson. And now I have another gospel presentation for kids to add to my growing repetoire.
(there are affiliate links in here)
Where it all started
Our church is going to Alaska in a little over a month to support some missionaries that are working with families at risk for various reasons. Reading the updates on the families they help is just amazing, they’ve given away car seats, taken in pregnant teen moms, sat in hospitals cuddling babies, and a whole bunch more.
Actually back up a bit, it actually started with my daughter’s friend, the daughter of the missionary, and how I struck up a friendship with the mom, and I love her amazing super-human hospitality. Anyone is always welcome at her house, and I love to learn from her.
Well, I sat at the information meeting for this mission trip because The Artist was interested in the trip, and I was sitting there saying, “Nope, I’m not going. Not gonna happen,” and my friend is turning around saying, “Ticia, it would be so helpful if you could come, and you would be perfect for this trip.”
Long story short.
Too late, I know.
I’m going on the trip, and I started reading the curriculum, and got this awesome video:
And between the two Gospel Archery was created!
Other cool thing about the trip, I found an article on one of the towns we’ll be working at with all 318 people living there!
Now, what do I need for the gospel archery craft?
Here you go:
- craft sticks OR these awesome notched craft sticks
- yarn
- q-tips (I had to search for a while to find the cheapest ones)
- acrylic paint (I ordered this set, but you only need black, red, yellow, and green)
- scissors (I just bought this again on Prime Day, just like the paint)
Let’s put together the craft
Soak the craft sticks in water overnight. While it’s soaking, cut off the end of one side of the q-tip, and cut about 9 inches of yarn.
If you didn’t buy the saw-tooth popsicle sticks, then notch the edge of the sticks with the scissors. Then slowly bend the popsicle stick into a curve.
While it is curved tie the yarn onto first one end of the craft stick, and then keeping it as tight as you can to the other end of the craft stick turned bow. (If you’re using this in a Sunday School setting, I would pre-make the bows because it can be difficult to bend the sticks without breaking them)
Each kid will need 5 q-tips. They will dip the cotton end of each q-tip into the black, yellow, red, and green paint. When I was making the sample I used poster paint because it’s washable, but it takes so long to dry I would really recommend using acrylic paint instead.
This resulted in my filling one of my few mini-plastic bins that haven’t been eaten by the dog with rice and just sitting them there.
Let’s turn this into Gospel archery, a gospel presentation for kids
Okay, this is vaguely based off of the Wordless Book or Gospel Fuzzies. I was at Boot Camp with the teens 2 weeks ago and I mentioned the Wordless Book and the teen looked at me and said, “Oh you mean the Gospel Fuzzies?” Then I felt old again.
The first arrow is Gold.
Once upon a time we said gold because the streets in heaven are gold, now we say, “Because God’s glory shines so brightly we don’t need a sun.”
There are three things you need to know about God. They all start with P.
- God is perfect. He has never sinned. Sinning is falling short of the mark. It’s anything you think, say, or do that falls short of perfection.
- God is powerful. He made the whole world, everything in it.
- God is personal. God created us to be friends with Him.
Unfortunately, not long after creation we messed that up.
The next arrow is Black.
We sinned. [This is a great chance to get audience participation and ask for examples of sin].
We try to come up with ways to fix our broken relationship. [This is the fun audience participation part]
[Draw a line on the floor, or already have it drawn with tape.] This line represents God
[Draw a second line at least 10 feet away from the first line.] This line represents us. Now sometimes we try to get to God on our own.
[Have kids volunteer good things they might trying to do. When they volunteer one, let them shoot their black q-tip arrow. It won’t reach the other side.]
Nothing we can do will get us to the other side. That’s why God came up with a plan.
The third arrow is Red.
God sent His son Jesus to live a life as a human. He lived a perfect life. He never fought with His brothers or disobeyed His parents. He died on the cross, was buried for three days, and rose again. Because of His death and resurrection, we can….
The fourth arrow is White.
Now be friends with Jesus. Jesus took your sin on Him on the cross. It’s like this, you tried shooting your arrow with a bit of rope tied to is to try and climb across this great divide.
Then Jesus came down from heaven, picked you up, and carried you up to heaven.
[if it won’t freak a kid out, pick one up and carry them across to the other side.]
You did nothing to earn it, and you don’t have to do anything to get but the ABCs:
- Admit you are a sinner. You’ve messed up and you can’t ever be friends with God without help.
- Believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
- Choose to accept what Jesus did.
When you do that, you get three things:
- A home in heaven when you die.
- Forgiveness of all your sins.
- Jesus as your forever friend, you will never be alone.
The final arrow is green.
Once you’ve made the decision, God wants to get to know you better. There are many ways you can do that. You could go to church and learn more about God, or read your Bible. The more you do, the more you will get to know God.
Is this gospel presentation for kids not your cup of tea?
I fully recognize this is a bit of a weird idea, but it works so perfectly with the Centershot Curriculum, I just had to figure out how to make it work.
Then check out these other ideas:
I need to add in more of these, because I’ve learned half a dozen or so gospel presentations, that I like to cycle between.
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