Gather

Adult & All Age

Prepare the space

Ideas for a focal point with adults and all ages

Begin to introduce some of the imagery of Christ’s death and resurrection. If you will be making an Easter garden, you could have the tomb ready this week. Use flowers associated with funerals, for example white lilies. If you have a printed order of service, put a funeral-type border round it and entitle it ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep......’ (John 11.11). Ask your musicians(s) to play funereal music as people gather (for example, something from Fauré’s Requiem ) and create a more hushed than usual atmosphere by asking those setting up and welcoming to be very quiet and grave. Wear sombre clothes.

Children & Young People

Prepare the space

Ideas for a focal point with children and young people

For children

Write out words of surprise, such as ‘Amazing!’, ‘Wow!’, ‘Incredible!’, ‘Stunning!’, ‘Hooray!’, ‘Hallelujah!’ and so on in large letters. Invite the children to colour in the letters in bright colours as they come in — then display them on the wall for the session.

Make a cave-like structure, large enough for a person to lie down inside, with upturned chairs or a table and dark sheets or blankets. The ‘door’ of the cave can be made from a large piece of cardboard, covering the entrance. Tell the children you will be using this later in the Bible story and ask them to be thinking about what may happen.

If you are using the Lent display, set it out again. It consists of a purple cloth draped on a table with a cross placed centrally on it. The number 40 is written in pebbles or on a piece of card on the table.

For young people

This session focuses on Jesus’ power over death.

Display pictures of graveyards and cemeteries, tombs and tombstones on dark paper or cloth. Above them, put a picture of a sunrise or a similar triumphant image.

Add a black scarf or tie, a sympathy card, and, if your church has one, a funeral service book.

Gathering activities

Activities to gather children and young people

For children

Come to me

Play this very simply with the youngest children. Call out abilities or items, as below, and anyone who has or does those things runs to you. Older children can be in teams, and only send one team member up each time. The first person to arrive gets a point for their team. Items could include things like:

has a brother and a sister,
is in a swimming club,
has green socks on,
ate toast for breakfast,
can play the recorder,
likes to read,
has brown eyes.

In today’s story, Jesus calls someone to come to him.

Family moments

In groups, role-play the ways that families and friends care for each other. Give each group a scenario — happy or sad — to practise then perform. Ideas could include:

One person has just passed a driving test or exam.
One member is ill in hospital.
There is a new baby in the family.
One person is worried about going to a new school.

Today’s story is about a very small family who are very sad when one of them dies.

Place race

Label five different places in the room — as far apart as possible — as follows: ‘Mary, Martha and Lazarus’ house,’ ‘Judea,’ ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Bethany’ and ‘River Jordan’ . Explain that today’s story has all these places in. Call out the names, for the children to run to the right place. Add more challenging instructions such as, ‘hop to Judea’, ‘walk backwards to Jerusalem,’ and so on.

Trusting without seeing

Explore with older children the way that we trust many things we cannot see. Do the following actions and discuss how they demonstrate this.

For young people

Lazarus race

Lighten the atmosphere! Divide into teams of four — giving each team several cheap toilet rolls. The teams race against the clock to completely bandage one person so nothing can be seen of them except their nose. They should still just be able to walk!

Creepy places

Have the young people ever been potholing or caving? Have they ever visited a church crypt or graveyard at night? Were they frightened? How did it feel? Can they imagine such places before electric light and tourism? Today’s story is about sisters visiting their brother’s cave-like tomb, not pleasant at all.