Top Tree Praise 

Aim: to praise God for the beauty of  autumn 

Autumn brings surprising beauty in the  form of colourful trees. Their seasonal  leaves are a way to remind us of the  wonder of God’s creation. 

Set your group the challenge of  looking out for beautiful trees. When  they find one that they like, encourage  them to praise God for creating it. You  could have a competition to find this  autumn’s ‘top tree’ – the most beautiful  tree (in their opinion, of course)! 

Encourage the children to take  photographs of trees they find and bring  them in to compare. If your group are  old enough, you could upload them to a  group page on suitable site such as Flickr  or Facebook. When you’ve collected  enough photos, let everyone say which  they think is the top tree and why. Take a  vote on which is the most beautiful. 

Notes for adaption 

For an all-age service:  Ask a few people to take photographs of  beautiful autumn trees in the local area.  This works particularly well if you can  take photos of trees that people might  recognise, such as outside the church,  station or local schools. Use them to  create a Powerpoint presentation and  ask people to chat in small groups about  which one they think God made most  beautiful. Then vote on this. Challenge  people to look out for and praise God for  the beauty in the world around them. 

Sorry Bread 

Aim: to let go of things that hold  us back 

At Jewish New Year, it is traditional to  throw bread into a stream to represent  repentance, or letting go of the things  which hold us back. This comes from  Micah 7: ‘You will be merciful to us  once again. You will trample our sins  underfoot and send them to the bottom  of the sea!’ Invite everyone to tear off  chunks of bread and to drop them into  a bucket of water. With each one they  should think of something they want to  say sorry to God for, or something hard  or difficult they want to let go of. 

Notes for adaption 

For families:  You could do this in a stream or the sea  to make it more fun and authentic. 

For an all-age service:  Have multiple piles of bread and  buckets of water. Encourage people to  work in circles around them rather than  queue up! 

Harvest Food Thanks 

Aim: to thank God for food 

Make a diagram to track the process of  creating your favourite food, eg growing,  shipping, processing, packaging etc.  Thank God for each element of the  process that brings you the food you  love. You could choose one food and  make one diagram between you, or  make one each of your individual  favourite food. 

You could create some symbols in  advance for people to use to represent  various processes, e.g. a factory symbol  or a tractor symbol. Use a symbols font  or Google images for this. 

Notes for adaption 

For young children:  Pre-select a food yourself, such as a  biscuit. Before your session, create a  simple diagram to track the process of  creating biscuits. Bring along a packet of  biscuits to the session, and talk through  the production process with children,  using your diagram. At the end, as the  children eat their biscuits, pray prayers  of thanks for foods that you love, and for  people who help to produce them, such  as farmers or chefs.