Live Stream:
22nd August 2021View past Sundays

Hi. We hope you enjoy catching up!

Welcome and thank you for joining us. If this is your first time at The Oak, hello, we hope you enjoy our time together today.

Our plan today is to start by worshipping together (song words will be on-screen). After that, there'll be a time of prayer and news, followed by a short talk.

There are materials on this page for our 0-3's (The Nest), Preschool to Year 6 (Treehouse) and Year 7+ (Oak Youth) to help the whole family grow together.

Happy Sunday, see you at 10.30am!

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You can also catch up to all our talks via our podcast here.

News

COVID restrictions lifting: Sundays at The Oak moving forward

In light of Government restrictions being lifted, we'll be starting to slowly make changes to how we do things on Sundays.

We want to be very aware of everybody, and fully recognise that everyone is responding differently to the lifting of the restrictions. We want to care for and respect each other in how we gather and connect as a church during this next season.

We'll be keeping the marquee live stream going throughout the summer so that those who'd prefer to remain outside can. Inside we'll be encouraging space where possible (although if you'd like to sit with others you are welcome to move a chair), and we'll be encouraging masks to be worn when moving around! We are also able to start singing together inside which is great news, especially for after the talk when we are inside rather than in the marquee. Although please wear your mask when singing!

Treehouse will remain in the marquee over the summer, when our Treehouse team will be taking a break (songs and content will still be provided on the TV), but our hope is to transition back to 'normal' kids work from September.

Finally - we are no longer required to take bookings - one less thing to think about on your Saturday evening!

Staycation - SAVE THE DATE

We hope to have a Staycation later in the year on the 16th October. Please put the date in your diary!

Ways to connect

Click here to see all our community WhatsApp and Facebook groups.

Family resources

You can view all of our resources by clicking here, including content from previous weeks, songs, videos and recommended books!

The NestPrayer Week 4
0-3's

Today we are going to be 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 Decorate biscuits (any shop bought biscuits would work or you can make some if you’d like to) with icing and smarties (or any multicoloured chocolates/sweets). As your child puts each smartie on their biscuit, pray for the associated item on the list below. If you don’t want to do biscuits you could get some coloured balls, pieces of paper or material and pick one out of a bag and then pray for the related item.

BLUE A family member - thank God for them, ask God to look after them.
RED Someone who is poorly - that God would make them better.
BROWN Yourself - tell God something you need help with, ask Him to be with you.

GREEN The Oak - thank God for our church family, ask God to help our church leaders.

YELLOW A friend - thank God for them, ask God to look after them.

PINK Something we want to praise God for.

ORANGE Where we live - ask God to look after the place we live in.

PURPLE Someone who doesn’t know Jesus yet - that they would know God loves them.