Listen. Listen to the pre-recorded Children’s Message together. 

You can find it at pacificunionchurch.org/churchsmall

Review

Pastor Steve talked about the “new normal” we are living in because of the corona-virus.

Discuss the following with your kids:

• What do you miss during this new normal?
• What is good about this new normal that you want to keep after the virus goes away?

Activity: You can have the kids take a piece of paper and divide it in half. Draw a picture of what you miss on the left side. Draw a picture of what you want to keep from the new normal on the right side.

Pastor Steve also talked about some people in the Bible who were facing a new normal. Who were they? 

[Hint to parents: The new church in Jerusalem was facing a new normal. Jesus’ resurrection changed the world and new believers in Jesus faced a new normal that changed how they related to God and to other people.]

Let’s find out how they handled their new normal. 

Read Acts 6:1 together.

[Hint to parents: Here is what is happening in the Jerusalem church. There were two cultures in the church, Hebraic Jews – these were Jews who spoke Hebrew, and Grecian Jews who spoke Greek. The problem is that the church in Jerusalem was taking care of the widows who spoke Hebrew, but not the ones who spoke Greek. The Apostles solved this problem by asking the church to appoint people who spoke Greek to care of the Greek-speaking widows.]

What good thing was the church doing? Who was being left out (see verse 1)?

Under Jesus’ new normal, God expected his people to take care of each other, especially people who had no one to take care of them, like widows. Now they had a problem, some widows were being taken care of and some were being left out. Let’s find out how they fixed the problem. 

Read Acts 6:2-7 together.

How did they solve this problem? What kinds of people did they pick to take care of the widows?

Stephen was one of these special people who took care of the widows. But he also did so much more. Let’s find out what else he did. 

Read Acts 6:8 together.

What other amazing things did Stephen do because he was filled with the Holy Spirit? 

Respond.  We live in a new normal just like Stephen. Jesus is alive! We are Easter people. We are to love other people and tell people about Jesus just like Stephen did. 

How can we follow Stephen’s example as a family? How can we help others the way Stephen did? Who are some people who might need help today because of the coronavirus?

Share. Stephen shared Jesus with other people. Who is someone we know that we can pray for as a family and tell them about Jesus? Make a plan to do that this week.