The book of Amos at Ravenmeol's Community Centre

On Sunday 22nd Janaury 2012, Messy Church Formby welcomed a host of people to Ravenmeol's Community Centre where they learnt about the prophet Amos through arts, crafts,.worship and songs. Through a variety of activities we looked at how Amos, an ordinary man was used by God to show love and justice. We also looked at how God calls ordinary people to speak an unpopular message.

The Activities
Lion Masks
'The lion has roared' (Amos 3:8) - God is all-powerful, and he has spoken.

Using wool, fabric, ribbon and card lion templates we made lion masks. During this activity we talked about how the lion in the book of Amos represents God as all powerful. We also spoke about other times when a lion has been used to portray God such as Aslan is in the Narnia books.

Fruit Pictures:
Amos had a vision of God's people like a perfect bowl of fruit (Amos 8:1).

Using fruit cut lengthways so it keeps its profile, we dipped the fruit into paint and then pressed it onto paper.Whilst we did this we talked about perfect fruit and bruised fruit. Do we feel perfect all the time? What makes us feel bruised?

 

Junk buildings
Amos shows how God can become angry with his people when they ignore him, and threaten to destroy their homes. Whilst we built toweres out of boxes and then knocked them down we thought about how actions have consequences for each of us.

 

Prayer tree
Amos took care of sycamore fig trees before he was called by God to be a prophet. He listened to God through prayer (Amos 7:14).

We wrote or drew prayers on the pre-cut leaves and then glue them to a prayer tree. We talked about prayer and communicating with God.

 

 

Sieving:
We talked about how God will sieve out the truth and loveliness in people (Amos 9:9).“For I will give the command, and I will shake the people of Israel among all the nations as grain is shaken in a sieve, and not a pebble will reach the ground.

Using alarge container with sand, nuggets, grains, pebbles, grave all mixed up. The children sieved the mixture into a smaller container, and sort out what they find.

Fruity meringue nests
Amos had a vision of God's people like a perfect bowl of fruit, in all their variety (Amos 8:1).

Everyone enjoyed chopping up lots of different fruit and putting it in a meringue nest and covering it with cream - yummy!

 

 

Scraper stars:
God created the stars, darkness and day (Amos 5:8).

We created colourful pictures with pencils on white card, which we coloured over with a black wax crayon and then, using 'scraper pens', scratch stars and constellations.We talked about how God will 'scrape away' our sins to show our beauty underneath.

 

The worship
After an hour of activities, we began our time of celebration and worship. Mike led the worship showing everyone examples of the activities and discussing how it fits in with the story of Amos.

We also learned a verse from the book of Amos - " Come to me and live" Amos Chapet 5 verse 6.

After the worship, we tucked in to a sandwich tea followed by an assortment of delicious cakes! During the supper we were able to enjoy a special time of fellowship which included birthday celebrations and lots of chat.

 

If you would like to join us at Messy church, then the next one is at Regate School on Sunday 4th March and then again at Ravenmeol's on 22nd April 2012. Why not come and join the fun.