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PRAYER / WORSHIP ACTIVITY
OPTION 1
Resources needed: A4 coloured card, pens, stickers, glitter glue, crayons, scissors
10 mins
Write your own name on A4 card, as big and bold as you can, but with space within the letters for writing. Fill your name with words of praise: this could be done with worship music playing. You could keep adding words to your name as the service continues. Decorate the card with crayons, stickers and glitter. Finally cut out your name and place it in front of you.
OPTION 2
Resources needed: list of anagrams printed for each group or table and displayed on screen, paper and pens, anagrams of famous and biblical characters
15 mins
Display the anagrams of famous people and Bible characters listed below (or some of your own using an online anagram generator) on a screen or have them printed on pages for each group or table. Give everyone four minutes to solve as many as possible. Go through the answers as quickly as possible or display them all at once to save on time. Invite people to come up with anagrams of their own names as they reflect on the importance of names during this service.
STORY
10 mins
This story is to be told largely from the front of the church by a single voice but if possible, recruit a younger person to say Samuel’s lines from their seat (nice and loud or with an appropriate microphone) and another person to say God’s lines.
Storyteller:
In the land of Judah, in a place called Shiloh, there lived a priest by the name of Eli. He had two sons who were waiting to take over the running the temple from Eli. The people of God came from far and wide to worship God in the temple at Shiloh so the job had a great deal of responsibility. But Eli's sons were scoundrels; they saw their place in the temple as an opportunity to get anything they wanted - they didn't worship God.
One day a woman came to the temple. Eli recognised her as one of the many who travelled the great distance once a year to offer a sacrifice, but she was here on her own, sitting very still, in silence. But her lips were moving frantically and Eli assumed she was drunk. He sighed and decided it was time to ask her to leave. Eli was in charge and he didn't want anyone to complain about the woman. Her name was Hannah and as Eli challenged her she looked up through tear stained eyes and told Eli that she wasn't drunk. She was praying. She was begging God to give her a son, because she couldn't have children. She was promising God that if she had a son, she would offer that child to God's service.
Eli was shocked. What passion! What faith! What loyalty! Eli had a twinge of regret - he knew what his sons were up to and he prayed every day that they would change and follow God - how he wished his sons could have faith like this woman. Before he knew what he was doing, Eli blessed her. He told her to go in peace and prayed that God would answer her prayer.
Eli forgot about the woman Hannah. He had his sons to worry about. A couple of years later, Hannah arrived at the temple again, carrying a small boy. She came straight to Eli and reminded him about her prayer and his blessing. Eli stood dead still – totally shocked.
He was faithful, but it had been a very long time since anyone had shown him such a clear answer to prayer. God didn't speak much these days and yet here was a real life answer to prayer. As his brain was coming back to the present, through the fog of his shock, he realised that this woman, Hannah, was passing the boy to him. Through her tears she was saying that she was holding firm to promise to offer her son to serve God.
What? She was actually willing to offer her son? How did she come to such faith? How did she come to such loyalty? The last thing she said to him was the boy’s name: Samuel. Eli took the boy inside to hide his tears - Samuel meant simply: asked of God.
The years passed by. The only thing that changed was the size of Samuel's clothes, which his mum brought for him at their annual pilgrimage, and the wickedness of Eli's sons. Both grew and grew. Samuel was devoted to serving God in the temple. He got to sleep right next the Ark of the Covenant to make sure that the lamps were burning all night. But he had never heard God. He wondered sometimes if God was there. He worried about Eli's sons and the terrible way they abused their positions in the temple. He had overheard Eli trying to convince them to change but they ignored him. Eli was getting old and Samuel worried about what would happen when Eli eventually died. One night Samuel was sleeping in his usual place next to the great chest of God, when he was woken up by a voice calling.
God: Samuel! Samuel!
Storyteller: In a panic Samuel jumped out of bed and ran to Eli. Who else could be calling him?
Samuel: Eli, here I am, you called me.
Storyteller: Only half-awake Eli waved Samuel away. ‘I didn't call you, Samuel,' he said ‘go back to bed!’ Samuel walked back to his bed, scratching his head, thinking he must have been dreaming. He fell asleep again.
God: Samuel!
Storyteller: Samuel sat up with a bolt. That voice again. It must be Eli. He ran again to Eli's room.
Samuel: Eli, here I am. You called me
Storyteller: Eli didn't even open his eyes this time. ‘Go back to bed, Samuel, I didn't call you!’ More confused than ever, Samuel went back to bed and back to sleep.
God: Samuel! Samuel!
Storyteller: Samuel woke again to the voice and ran back to Eli, beginning to really worry that the old man was losing his mind.
Samuel: Here I am. You called me!
Storyteller: Eli was suddenly more awake as something clicked into place in his head. ‘Samuel,’ he said ‘go back to bed. I am not calling you. It is the LORD. The voice is God's voice. Go back and if you hear it again, say “speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”’ Samuel's face was frozen in a look of shock. But the memory of that voice made sense of what Eli had suggested. He was too scared to move, but somehow his feet followed Eli's order and he went back to his bed and waited.
God: Samuel! Samuel!
Storyteller: The voice! Samuel stood up and spoke in a frightened, shaking voice.
Samuel: Speak Lord. Your servant is listening
Storyteller: And God spoke to Samuel. From that day on God was with Samuel, and spoke to the people of God through Samuel. And Samuel walked with God all his days.
REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO THE STORY
OPTION 1
Resources needed: a small cross on a focal table at the front of the room
10 mins
This follows on from option 1 in the prayer / worship activities. Write or draw prayers of thanksgiving, requests or praise on the back of your cut-out name. Invite the congregation to read their prayers out loud from where they are or ask for a handful of people to come forward and read them from a microphone. Invite everyone to bring their names forward to a central point, perhaps at the base of a table cross. As a further extension, you could then invite people to take a different name home with them and to commit to praying that person’s prayers in the coming week.
OPTION 2
Resources needed: paper and pens
10 mins
Use your name as a prayer acrostic. Invite everyone to write their names vertically down the side of a piece of paper. Use each letter to begin a short prayer. It could be prayers of thanks, prayer for others or prayer for God’s hand in broken or hurt situations. Allow about five minutes for people to write their prayers, then either say a short summation prayer acknowledging the praying that has been happening throughout the room or ask people to read one of their lines out loud, giving some time for a handful to be read. End with a short prayer.
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
10 mins
Split into mixed-aged groups. Give younger children some play dough to fiddle and create with during the discussion, but ensure they are still included and given the opportunity to answer these questions:
What does your name mean? Do you live up to it? (If possible have a couple of baby name books available for people to look up the meaning of their names, or display a web link on the screen for people to use on their own devices.)
What does it feel like to hear your name called by someone you respect, look up to or love?
The Bible says that all will bow at the name of Jesus: why are names so powerful?
