This is an assembly on the text from 2 Corinthians 9: 6-7. I used this at school this morning and we had a really good time.
“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as they have decided in their heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
This assembly takes a simple approach of two stories, both possible versions of the same event. YOU’ll need sweets – I used 5 large packets of M&Ms.
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I’m going to tell you two stories about the same thing and I’m going to ask you which story you liked best.
Here is the first story:
When I was planning assembly for today I thought ‘OH NO! I suppose I’m going to HAVE to go to the supermarket and get sweets. I HATE going to the supermarket and I BET it will be heaving and the queue will be a MILE long and they probably won’t have the right sweets anyway – I might even have to go to ANOTHER SUPERMARKET to get what I want.. And I’ll have to spend MORE of my money – it’ll be REALLY EXPENSIVE so I won’t be able to afford anything for myself. It will take SO long that I’ll be late home and then I have to make tea for everyone AGAIN. We’ll have to guzzle it down REALLY quickly because I’ll be late because of having to go to the supermarket to buy those sweets. And then when I take them to school I bet they won’t really appreciate all the trouble I’ve been to – they’ll just take the sweets but they won’t know how DIFFICULT is was getting them and how EXPENSIVE they were.
Anyway, I’m here now. Here are the sweets. I hope you appreciate how much trouble I went to to get them and how much money they cost me!
(show 1 packet of sweets)
Here is the second story:
Ooh GOOD! It’s school assembly again tomorrow. Last week we had lots of fun. I wonder if I should get some sweets this week? That would be fun! I wonder which sweets the children would like best? I might get some Smarties. Or I might get something different. I know, I’ll just nip out to the supermarket and see what they have. There’ll be something really nice and I’ll enjoy spending money on sweets for school assembly because I like hearing all the children laughing and getting excited. It’s a good way to spend my money and it makes me feel happy too. Everyone’s a winner – the children at school are happy and I’ll be happy too because I’ll enjoy seeing them being happy.
So here I am. Here are the sweets. I hope you’ll really enjoy them – I’m sure you will. It’s SO much fun having sweets at assembly! Enjoy!
(add the remaining packest of sweets one at at time – the children loved this bit!)
Discuss in pairs: Which story did you like best?
Show of hands to vote for the best story.
Another vote : Do you think the sweets might taste better after the second story? I was surprised that everyone thought the sweets would taste better after story number 2!
The bible tells us that God loves a cheerful giver? (You could display the verse on an overhead screen along with a colourful picture – I chose one of M&Ms with happy faces)
Discuss in pairs: Whydo you think God loves a cheerful giver? I got some good answers to this but had to ask the teachers in order to get ‘because God gives to us cheerfully’
Generosity is not only good but it’s also wise. Look at the text: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
If you’re a generous giver people will be generous back to you. Why is this? How does it work?
As the children leave they each receive a few M&Ms. Afterwards I went around school giving sweets to staff members who hadn’t been in assembly. People were really delighted to receive sweets unexpectedly! There were still enough to put into a small bowl on the staffroom table.
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