Bible Base:
Acts 23:12–22
For:
Year 6 pupils (or whichever age your school system TRANSITIONS at )
Equipment:
Three boxes open on one side and labelled A, B and C, suitable prizes to put in these boxes, a piece of cloth to cover the boxes (such as a sheet or tablecloth), flip chart (or similar) and marker pen, small pieces of paper, pencils
Opening activity:
Before the assembly, set up the boxes side by side so that the open sides face the children. Put a ‘prize’, such as a cabbage, a stick and small chocolate bar (or nice piece of fruit), in each box. Make sure you have one quality prize and two rubbish ones. Cover the boxes with your piece of cloth.
Ask for a volunteer and bring them to the front. Stand them behind the boxes and remove the cloth. The children will be able to see the prizes, but your volunteer won’t. Explain to the volunteer that there is a prize in each box, and all they have to do is choose one to get the prize inside it. They can ask the rest of the children for help, but they’re not allowed to ask what is in the boxes, or look inside them. Encourage the children to ‘help’ your volunteer choose the best box.
Once the volunteer has chosen their box and received their prize, ask them how they made the decision. Did they follow the advice of the others or make their own choice? If you have time, cover the boxes, put in more prizes and ask another volunteer to come and choose a box.
Making choices
Ask the children what kind of decisions they make every day. Write down some suggestions on your flip chart. If children are struggling to think of examples, give some simple (and appropriate!) suggestions from your own life.
Go on to ask how they make decisions. Whose advice do they take? What helps them make the right choice? Use the opening activity to illustrate how the children gave good (or poor!) advice to the volunteer. Explain that you’re going to read about a boy in the Bible who had to make a difficult choice.
Bible stories:
Explain that this story comes from the book of Acts, in the Bible. It is about a man called Paul, who told people about Jesus. However, some people didn’t like Paul. In fact, they hated him so much that they wanted to kill him. Read Acts 23:12–22 from a child-friendly version of the Bible, such as the Contemporary English Version. This is an exciting story, so practise the reading, in order to portray some of the drama.
When you have finished, ask the children these factual questions:
~~What choice did Paul’s nephew have to make?
~~Why was it dangerous for him? Reiterate that Paul was in great danger and Paul’s nephew had to do something scary (avoid the men who wanted to kill Paul and talk to the Roman commander). Go on to ask:
~~ If you were Paul’s nephew, how would you have felt?
~~ If you were Paul’s nephew, would you have gone and told the Roman officer, even though it was a dangerous thing to do?
~~What might have happened if Paul’s nephew hadn’t told the officer about the plot?
The children don’t necessarily need to answer all these questions out loud, but allow some silence for them to think about them.
Reflection and prayer:
Ask the children what choices they may face at their new school. You might talk about things like making a good first impression, making friends or being true to who you are. Look at your list of how you make decisions from earlier. Comment that, as a Christian, you would pray to God if you had a difficult decision or if you had to do something scary.
Give each child a piece of paper and a pencil, and ask them to write down a difficult decision they might have to make at their new school, or something that they might have to do which makes them anxious or scared. Challenge the children to talk about their worry/difficult decision with a teacher, parent or other friendly adult.
If appropriate, close with a prayer asking God to help with the things written on the pieces of paper. Ask too for help in making the right choices before going to your new school, and also when you get there.
You might want to give out a resource such as It’s Your Move (Scripture Union), suitable for children from all backgrounds, or YPs Guide to Starting Secondary School (CWR), for children with a church background.
