Children’s Church idea: Spontaneous children’s drama of the baptism of Jesus. Assign roles to the children and then paraphrase the baptism events in a short narrative while the children do the acting. John baptizes Jesus. As “Jesus” comes out of the water the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove. Then a voice from heaven says “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Objects needed: Blue blanket (for water), Dove (cut out of paper) Rolled up paper cone (For affirming voice of the father)

 

Full Children’s drama: Good morning children. Today our bible reading is about Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and I’m going to get you to help me show the congregation just what happened on that day. First of all, I need two people to hold up this blue blanket. We’ll pretend this is the water of the Jordan River. Thanks. Hold up the blanket at the corners like this. (Get the children to hold it about 3 feet up in the air.) Now I need someone to be Jesus. Great. I’ll have you stand behind the “water.” Now I need someone to be John the Baptist. Thank you. I’ll get you to stand next to Jesus with your hand on his shoulder as if you are getting ready to baptize him. Next, I need someone to hold this Dove up in the air above Jesus. Thank you. I’ll get you to stand on this chair to give you a little height. I just need one more person to help me. I need someone to be the voice of God the Father saying, “This is my son with whom I am well please.” Thank you. Take this paper tube and speak through it. It will make your voice sound deep and strong. You can stand back over here. OK. I think we are ready for a short practice run. Let’s have John the Baptist lower Jesus into the water and them come up again. When you come up out of the water you can put your hands in the air like you are praying. That looks good. Now, as Jesus comes up out of the water we need the Holy Spirit dove to come down to Jesus. Yes. Just like that. After that there was the voice of the Father saying, “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Let here those words. Wow. That sounded pretty powerful!

(Read out a short paraphrase of the event slowly.) “When all the other people had been baptized Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist (You may need to give a nod to your actors.) When Jesus came out of the water the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove. Then a voice came from heaven affirming Jesus…” So that is what happened on that day. Let’s give these children a round of applause for being such good actors.

Lead the Children in Prayer: Thank you God for sending Jesus. Though it seems like he wouldn’t need to be baptized he loved us so much he wanted to (identify with our humanity) join with us in baptism. Thank you also for so powerfully sending the Holy Spirit to be upon him and that you can fill us with that same Holy Spirit today. In Jesus’ name – Amen!

Copyright Andrew Hewlett   sundaychildrensfocus.com  Feel free to use this story on Sunday morning but please give credit to sundaychildrensfocus.com and consider linking to this site.  Blessings, A.H.