Welcome to The Oak Church Family Resources Page. We hope the information and resources you find here will inspire and grow you, your children and the wider community. You can filter which resources you can see using the buttons below. These resources are created each week as part of our Sunday Gathering at The Oak, click here to join us live at 10:30am each Sunday.
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The Nest
Prayer Week 5
29th August 2021
This is our final week learning about prayer which is another word for talking to God.
If you have a chance, take a look at this 2 minute video about chatting to God with young children (see the video here). We would also recommend watching this video as well if you have time, you will need to create a login to watch it, but it is free and this video and the whole course are really fantastic (see the video here).
As a quick overview, we are going to be thinking about this concept of ‘chatting’ to God which is taken from the Parenting for Faith course and books (which we would really recommend). ‘Chatting’ encourages children to use informal language, as well as non-verbal forms, to communicate with God. It’s about reinforcing our children’s understanding that they have their own relationship with God. All our activities this week hopefully will help with this.
Verse ‘Always be full of joy. Never stop praying. Whatever happens, always be thankful.’ 1 Thessalonians 5v16-18
Book My Very First Prayers by Gabrielle Mercer (see link here). Tamsin, one of our Nest team, has recorded a wonderful video of this term’s story using Makaton signs (see the video here).
Songs For this term please choose whichever are your favourite songs from our Nest resources page (see the videos here).
Activity 1 This is a chance to practice chatting to God with your child. We are going to include this activity each week of the prayer term and although it might feel a bit awkward at first, we hope that with a bit of practice this will become easier and help to encourage our children to chat to God themselves. Your child naturally learns by copying you and we want to show them that they can have their own relationship with God. It is also something we can try to do every day by letting our children see and hear us chatting to God out loud. For example ‘Thank you God for this dinner I am making, I really love spaghetti, God isn’t it funny that it looks a bit like wiggly worms!’.
Grab a cushion and ask a question (some ideas are below). Then tell God your answer into your cushion and encourage your child to do the same. If children are non-verbal or don’t want to speak then you could suggest the following: God is a proud parent just like us, who wants to see their new skills, so they might want to show Him how they can clap their hands or the funniest face they can make. Just remember to keep directing it as communication with God, not a performance for you.
What is your favourite animal? What did you have for breakfast today? Who is in your family? What is your favourite colour? Do you like singing or dancing? What food do you love to eat? What is your favourite toy? Do you like it when it’s sunny or rainy?
Activity 2 Make some paper dolls (see example here). Decorate these with whatever things you have available, you could colour them in, cut and stick items on, paint them etc. Either create them to look like people your child would like to thank God for, or while you are decorating talk with your child about people we can thank God for or ask God to help.
Treehouse
Big Questions - Does prayer change anything?
29th August 2021
Yes yes and yes … Prayer changes everything!
Your prayers are powerful
Your prayers can change people’s lives
Your prayers can change this world and change you!
We are called to pray!
We won’t stop!
We can’t stop!
As our prayers go up – it’s Jesus who provides!
This video was about ending World Poverty but whatever is in your heard and mind I was to set you a challenge to pray about it!
Maybe you want to pray for someone who is sick, but not just once, but again and again! With faith until they are well!
Maybe you want to pray for someone who is sad, mad happy or glad.
Maybe you want to pray for someone to find Jesus?
Maybe you want to pray for people without homes?
Maybe you want to pray for your friends at school?
I ask you today – to choose to pray! Even when you feel nothing is happening. Jesus hears your prayers and listens! Does prayer change anything? Absolutely yes!
Worship:
Oak Youth
Summer break
25th July 2021
Oak Youth will be taking a break over the summer. We'd encourage you to connect with all that is happening during our Sunday Gatherings and we'll see you back with us in September.
Stories & songsWatch all
We sing songs and tell stories in all our Sunday gatherings of children and young people and encourage our families to sing and tell them during the week. (Double click once you've pressed play to put the video into full-screen.)
The Nest
Guess what, God loves you
A fantastic song about how God loves us no matter how we feel.
Treehouse
Wake
Oak Youth
Jesus You Are
Books & resourcesView all
There are so many resources available for us to use to help our families grow in God together. Here are a few that we have found helpful.
Five Minute Bible Stories
This is a new book we are using in the Nest for our 'Easter', 'Christmas' and 'God's wonderful world' sessions. A perfect Bible for young children, filled with great retellings of Bible stories that everyone will love.
Noah’s Ark
A fantastic book we are using in the Nest for our 'Noah's Ark' sessions. It is a bright and colourful retelling of this well known Bible story, which is very suitable for young children.
My Very First Prayers
This book is designed to help teach young children how they can talk to God. With fun rhyming text and beautiful illustrations, it describes how, where, when and why we should pray.
The Story of Easter
The story is told in rhyme and uses beautiful illustrations to engage and inspire little minds as they explore the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.
This Is Easter (Our Daily Bread for Little Hearts)
Introduce your little ones to Jesus and the true meaning of Easter through colourful images and rhyming text. This captivating book draws you into the story of Jesus - from telling fishermen to "come and follow me!" to giving His life on the cross. Perfect for toddlers, this engaging little book shows how Easter is all about God's amazing love!
God Knows All About Me
This is a new book we are using in the Nest for our 'God made me' sessions. Using fun, engaging rhyme, this book shows our little ones from an early age that God knows everything about them. It goes through the different parts of the body and feelings and reminds us that whatever happens 'God knows all about me'!
God Loves Little Me
Another book we are using in the Nest for our 'God made me' sessions. This short board book reminds us of some of the things God loves about his creations, complete with actions for children to join in with.
This Is Christmas (Our Daily Bread for Little Hearts)
With lovely pictures and rhyming text, this book helps toddlers learn the true meaning of Christmas. Based on Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, this adorable book leads young children straight to Jesus - the best gift of all!
God Made Me This Way
We loved naming all the animals in this book in our Nest sessions about creation. From a monkey's swing to a zebra's stripes, God made all of us just the way we are! Using adorable animals, this book explores how fearfully and wonderfully God has made all of His creations.
Stories Jesus Told
We have used this book in the Nest and the stories are fantastic for young children. With delightful illustrations and easy to read text, these simple, short and often funny stories are great for sharing truth with our children.
Diary of a Disciple: Luke’s Story
Dr Luke has a story to tell. It's a super incredible, massively, mind-boggling totally AMAZING, absolutely awesome, epically HUGE story. Luke wrote down everything that happened because he wanted everyone, everywhere in the whole world to hear what he had to say.Luke's story tells you who Jesus is, what he did, the people he met, all the super interesting things he had to say, and it has a pretty jaw-dropping twist right at the end...Diary of a disciple: Luke's story is a contemporary retelling of Luke's Gospel. Written in a quirky, contemporary, accessible style, Diary of a disciple offers a way into the Bible for the next generation.
Diary of a Disciple: Peter and Paul’s Story
Sheep falling from the sky, bald heads, fiery heads and wrinkly noses, boys falling out of windows, people throwing rocks, storms and shipwrecks, prisons and fish biscuits?! How could all of this be part of just one story? Well. Dr Luke has a story to tell a story about a man called Peter and a man called Paul. It s a totally epic tale, a stunning super-saga, a page-turning, jaw-dropping dazzler of a yarn and it s all here, in one book, just waiting for you to get stuck in... Diary of a Disciple: Peter and Paul s story is a contemporary retelling of the book of Acts. Written in a quirky, contemporary, accessible style, Diary of a Disciple offers a way into the Bible for the next generation.
The NCV Youth bible
The New Century Youth Bible, first published in 1993, has consistently been among the top three selling Bibles in the UK. Contemporary and easy to read, with lots of great explanatory notes and 'extra' bits to help young people relate the word to school, home, relationship issues etc. Ideal for any young person from around the age of 11 years, through the teen years and beyond. Boys might prefer the alternative colour cover design available here.
The Jesus Storybook Bible
This children's bible is told in 44 stories- 21 from the Old Testament and 23 from the New Testament and is a firm favorite here at The Oak. Every story links to the ongoing plan of God's "Never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love." It does this by linking every bible story to Jesus's death and resurrection.
"I like this Bible because the stories are long enough for a 9 or 10 year old not to feel patronized, but explanatory enough for a 5 year old to understand."
Action Bible
This is a great bible for children and younger teens to enjoy the bible through the use of a comic strip. It doesn’t mince its words and with 200 stories doesn’t shortcut some of the more difficult stories.
“We’ve found this to be so helpful for our boys, they’ve enjoyed it so much and have read the whole thing several times.” Chris & Lisa Mason
