Olympics Messy Church- Who is on your team? Talk and prayer response

After telling the story of Matthew's call to be on Jesus' team of disciples, we discussed the wider issue of being on a team and linked this to the excellence you needed to be on an Olympic team. 


This is the talk we gave and the prayer response we used...


Before the talk, give everyone a card disc with a 'J' written on the back.  All of them should be silver except for 5 which should be gold.  Distribute the gold ones randomly but make sure they are given out!

So who here is on a team? (discuss teams)

We’ve picked some teams today already.

Look at your medal.  Who’s got a gold one?  Well done.  You are the gold team!  Come up here to get your prize!

Present medals- applause

How does it feel to be chosen?

How does it feel not to be chosen?

When I was at school I never got chosen for teams.  I was really bad and always got picked last for PE.  I always felt like I was no good.  Has anyone else had that?

In the story people thought that Matthew didn’t deserve to be on Jesus’ team because he wasn’t good enough, but Jesus is a different type of team captain!  Anyone can be on his team.  Look on the back of your medals.  Some might be silver but they’ve all got a J on the back!  You don't have to be perfect or really good at something, you just have to want to follow him and let him be your captain.  

Prayer response

So who’s on your team?  Who do you help out and who helps you?  Who do you look after and who looks after you?  It could be family or friends or it could be someone on a real team you’re part of.  Let’s say thank you to God for everyone on our teams.  We’ve got some joined hoops here to represent people we’re joined to in our team.  During the music come and tie a ribbon to a hoop for each person you've thought of and say thank you to God for them. 

For more talks and ideas about a 'team' theme, I really recommend the book we used for Holiday Club earlier this year

On Your Marks (Scripture Union)