Resources Needed:
Resources Needed:
- Video – Pottery Lesson by Olive Us (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfz0WeNUL4)
- Projector & Speakers
- Enough clay for everyone to have a small piece (Or playdough if you want to be less messy)
- PowerPoint slide with liturgy (see below for liturgy)
Overview:
We used this video as the basis for a joint gathering/confession activity – The video is available from Vimeo via the link above.
Giving people a piece of clay to play with whilst they are watching the video can be a really helpful way of helping them to engage more with what they are seeing.
If you are using real modeling clay then provide baby wipes or damp cloths for people to wipe their hands with afterwards and warn parents that it might be messy before they start!
Activity:
Make sure that everyone has a piece of clay or playdough and encourage them to play with it whilst they are watching the clip.
Show the clip.
Once you’ve shown the clip ask if anyone has ever used a pottery wheel – follow that up with a couple of questions about what it was like: What did it feel like? Was it messy? How hard was it to shape and mould the clay?
Read Isaiah 64:8 – This version from the NLT is great:
We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
Remind the congregation that in the video the kids really enjoyed the process of creating things from the clay and, at the end, were really proud of the things that they had made.
Explain that God feels the same way about us – he took great joy in creating us, is proud of us and loves us.
Clay can be soft and easily shaped or get hard and difficult to work with. In the same way we sometimes choose to be hard and to be difficult to shape because we resist the potter.
Encourage the congregation to take a few moments in silence to think about the times that they have resisted God – the times where they have refused to be shaped and moulded by him.
Use the following words on the PowerPoint to allow people to bring these things to God and to ask for his forgiveness (congregation reads the words in bold):
Forgive us Lord when we harden our hearts against you, unwilling to hear your word or to be shaped and moulded by you.
You are the potter, we are the clay.
Forgive us when we harden our hearts against each other, unwilling to love one another in they way that you designed us to.
You are the potter, we are the clay.
May the God who created us, shaped us and loves us, forgive us and bring us back to himself. May we allow him to shape us and mould us today.
Amen
Encourage the congregation to be ready to allow God to shape and mould them as they move into worship this morning.