Take a look at our FREE Pumpkin Sunday School Lesson! Teach kids that the first step to becoming a new creation is to let God clean the "gunk" out of our hearts. By the end of this lesson, kids will learn to submit to God and allow him to forgive their sins. This lesson is great for every Children's Ministry, Kids Church, and Sunday School!
Pumpkins are full of goop and gunk when we first open them. In order to use a pumpkin, we have to clean them out.In ourlives, when we accept Jesus, he cleans out the gunk we call sin and makes us into something new!Cleaning out the gunk isn’t as easy as it sounds. Even after we accept Jesus, we are still sinful people. We have trouble letting go of the sinful habits that we had before, and sometimes, we even whine like Linus. “Oh, you didn’t tell me I’d have to give all this up!” Accepting Jesus doesn’t mean we get to go on livingaswe did before. When we accept Jesus, we say goodbye to our sinful life, and we commit ourselves tolivethe way Christ taught us. We put God first, and we put loving others ahead of loving ourselves. We commit ourselves tofollowJesus every day, which means spending time alone with Him and looking for opportunities to share His love with others.Check out our
Pumpkin Patch 4-Week Children's Ministry Curriculum.And, if you like this lesson we have over 100 more free Sunday School Lessons for Kids!
BOTTOM LINE:
The first step to becoming a new creation is to let God clean the “gunk” out of our hearts.
OBJECTIVE:
Kids will learn to submit to God and allow him to forgive their sins.
KEY PASSAGE:
2 Corinthians 5:16-21. A new creation.
MEMORY VERSE:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
SUMMARY:
Pumpkins are full of goop and gunk when we first open them. In order to use a pumpkin, we have to clean them out. In our lives, when we accept Jesus, he cleans out the gunk we call sin and makes us into something new!
SIMPLE PRAYER:
Dear God,
Thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sins. Please clean the sin from our lives and make us into something new.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
MEMORY VERSE
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
“Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone! The new has come!” - 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIrV)
LARGE GROUP:
Divide the room into girls and boys. Have the girls and boys read the verse aloud, alternating every other word, so girls say the first word, boys say the second word, girls third, etc.
SMALL GROUP:
Ask the kids what they think the writer was trying to say when he wrote these words. Then ask them how this verse is connected to today’s lesson.
SKIT
EXTREME PUMPKIN MAKEOVER PART 1
ITEMS NEEDED:
A table, pumpkins, a knife
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN:
2M/2F
CHARACTERS:
Ty- A TV host
Billy- A pumpkin farmer
Jeanie- Billy’s wife
Sue- Billy’s daughter
The table is set up on stage with pumpkins on and around it. Ty enters.
TY: Hi there! Welcome to Extreme Makeover: Pumpkin Edition! It’s almost Halloween time, and here on the Cornpicker Pumpkin Farm, all the pumpkins are ripe and waiting to become something extraordinary. But these pumpkins aren’t going to make over themselves. They’re going to need a little help from me and my team. But first, let’s wake up the Cornpicker family. (yells) Hello, Cornpickers!!!
Billy, Jeanie, and Sue enter.
BILLY: What in the wide wide world of sports is goin’ on out here?
JEANIE: Hey, Billy! I think we is on the TV!
SUE: Hot dog! I always wanted to be on TV!
JEANIE: Come on, Sue, let’s go watch ourselves!
Sue and Jeanie run off.
BILLY: Come back, you goons! You can’t see yourself on TV if you ain’t in front of the cameras!
TY: Billy Cornpicker, we’re here to give your pumpkins a makeover.
BILLY: You are? Boy you TV types really are out of ideas. You couldn’t just bring back Dukes of Hazzard?
Ty sets a pumpkin on the table.
TY: Why don’t we start with this guy right here?
BILLY: Who, Little Joe?
TY: Little Joe here’s going to be a shiny, happy jack-o-lantern when we’re done with him. But before we can get him there, we need to do a little work inside.
BILLY: Oh you don’t want to come in our house. That place is a mess. We’ve got a python and ten cats. Well, we had ten cats, but then we got the python, and the cats keep disappearing.
TY: I don’t mean in the house. I mean inside the pumpkin!
Jeanie and Sue run on stage.
SUE: No, they’re still here, Mom!
JEANIE: Well land sakes, so they are! I wonder how come we can’t see ourselves on the TV!
SUE: Let’s go look again! Maybe we’re on now!
Sue and Jeanie run off.
TY: Billy, to make this pumpkin over, we’re going to have to clean out the gunk. And there’s only one way to do that.
Ty stabs the pumpkin. Billy lets out a hillbilly squall of anguish as Ty opens the pumpkin.
BILLY: You rotten TV guy! You killed Little Joe! We got laws in this here county! I’ll sue! I’ll have your money, and your fancy car, and your cement pond!
TY: Relax, Billy. Little Joe’s fine. I’m just going to clean him out a little.
BILLY: You are?
TY: Sure. The first step to making a new creation is to clean out the gunk. If we want a jack-o-lantern that’s gonna shine in the darkness, we’re going to have to make room for the light inside. That’s why all this gunk has to come out.
Ty pulls out some of the gunk.
BILLY: Holy Toledo! All that was inside Little Joe?
TY: Yes it was.
BILLY: Dadgummit, boy, what did you eat?
TY: We’ll be back after this word from our sponsors!
OBJECT LESSON
ITEMS NEEDED:
A pumpkin opened up
Spoons/scoops
Open the lesson by allowing some of the kids to come up and scoop out some of the insides from the pumpkin. As you do this, ask them why we need to clean pumpkins out, and what would it be like if we did not clean them?
If we left pumpkins in their natural state, filled with seeds and gunk, they would not be as bright as we want them to be. The gunk and seeds would block the light. They’d make it hard even to put a light inside. So before we can do anything else, we have to clean out the pumpkin.
As people, we need to be cleaned out too. Cleaning us out is the first step to God making us into a new person. When we invite Jesus into our heart, he begins to cleanse us. All our sins, all the bad stuff we’ve done, he scoops it out so his light can shine through.
As people, we have to choose to stay cleaned out. We can stray away from God and let ourselves be filled again with sin. With Jesus now living in us, we should choose to follow God, and no longer be full of sin and gunk.
Let Jesus clean out your heart, and ask him to keep that heart clean. Stay close to the Lord, and he will keep you clean - like a new creation.
LARGE GROUP GAME
PUMPKIN BALLS
ITEMS NEEDED:
Two opened pumpkins
Ten ping pong balls
INSTRUCTIONS:
Set five ping pong balls inside the each pumpkin.
Choose two players for this game. Set a pumpkin in front of each player. Players must reach into the pumpkinsand pull out their five ping pong balls without looking inside. First one to get all five balls wins.
VARIATION:
Let smaller kids look inside, and cut the number of balls from 5 to 3.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
God has to clean us out so he can make is new. Let God scrape the gunk from your heart so he can complete his work in you!
LARGE GROUP LESSON
BOTTOM LINE:
The first step to becoming a new creation is to let God clean the “gunk” out of our hearts.
OBJECTIVE:
Kids will learn to submit to God and allow him to forgive their sins.
KEY PASSAGE:
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
INTRO
As an alternative to this intro, you can play the opening scene of “The Great Pumpkin” for the kids.
How many of you have watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” this year? Kids and parents have been enjoying the story of the Great Pumpkin for decades. It’s a timeless classic that brings back childhood memories and creates new ones every year.
If you haven’t seen it, the cartoon begins with Lucy and her brother Linus making a trek out to the pumpkin patch. Lucy carefully selects the best pumpkin she can and then has her brother carry it back to the house. When Linus reaches the living room, Lucy has some newspaper already spread out on the floor for the pumpkin. She feels around on top of the pumpkin while Linus watches on with a smile. Then suddenly, she plunges a giant knife into the top of the pumpkin!
“Oh!!” Linus cries. “You didn’t tell me you were going to kill it!”
Linus didn’t understand what Lucy was doing, but Lucy knew that the first step to turning a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern was to clean out the inside. If you don’t remove all the gunk and seeds inside, your jack-o-lantern won’t shine!
In this way the pumpkin is a beautiful reminder of what God does for us when we accept Jesus as our Savior. Paul wrote about this transformation in his second letter to the church of the Corinthians.
READ 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (If possible, consider reading this passage from the NIrV translation, since the NIV includes complex words like “reconciliation”, “implore”, and “ambassadors”.
MAIN POINT
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. We are no longer pumpkins filled with gunk and sin; we are jack-o-lanterns, remade in the image of Christ.
Jesus alone has the power to remove our sins and make us new. Because Jesus died and rose from the grave, he has the power to forgive our sins and give us a new life. When we invite Jesus into our heart, he cleans out the gunk and makes us new so that we can live a life that glorifies Him!
DRIVE IT HOME
Cleaning out the gunk isn’t as easy as it sounds. Even after we accept Jesus, we are still sinful people. We have trouble letting go of the sinful habits that we had before, and sometimes, we even whine like Linus. “Oh, you didn’t tell me I’d have to give all this up!”
Accepting Jesus doesn’t mean we get to go on living like we did before. When we accept Jesus, we say goodbye to our sinful life, and we commit ourselves to living the way Christ taught us. We put God first, and we put loving others ahead of loving ourselves. We commit ourselves to following Jesus every day, which means spending time alone with Him and looking for opportunities to share His love with others.
When Jesus becomes Lord of our life, other people will notice. When we no longer tell lies, when we no longer behave selfishly, when we refuse to cheat in school or in sports, when we refuse to gossip, other people will take notice. They may not like it, not at first, but if you stay faithful to Christ, you will win people over. Your friends will see the difference Christ has made, and they may want to be a new creation also.
If you’ve never committed your heart to Jesus, this is a great day to talk with your parents or small group leader about it. Jesus wants to come into your heart. He wants to clean out the gunk, and he wants to make you a new creation. Jesus can forgive your sins and make you into something new!
CLOSE WITH A SIMPLE PRAYER
Dear God,
Thank you for sending Jesus to die for our sins. Please clean the sin from our lives and make us into something new.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (K-2ND)
ICEBREAKER
What is your favorite pumpkin treat?
MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ask the kids what they think the writer was trying to say when he wrote these words. Then ask them how this verse is connected to today’s lesson.
SMALL GROUP GAME/ACTIVITY
Have the kids introduce themselves, then have them tell the other kids who they plan to be for Halloween.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
What’s the first thing you do to turn a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern?
What does cleaning out a pumpkin have in common with us becoming a new creation in Christ?
What did Jesus do for us so he could forgive our sins?
How can we become a new creation?
How can we live for Jesus as a new creation?
SIMPLE PRAYER
Dear God,
Thank you for all you have done for us. I pray that everyone here will accept you as their Savior and become a new creation.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
All sedentary activities
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (3RD-5TH)
ICEBREAKER
What is your favorite pumpkin treat?
MEMORY VERSE ACTIVITY
2 Corinthians 5:17
Ask the kids what they think the writer was trying to say when he wrote these words. Then ask them how this verse is connected to today’s lesson.
SMALL GROUP GAME/ACTIVITY
Have the kids introduce themselves, then have them play charades to see if the other kids can guess who they will be for Halloween.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
What does cleaning out a pumpkin have in common with us becoming a new creation in Christ?
Why did Jesus die on the cross?
Why does Paul say we are a new creation when we accept Jesus?
How can we become a new creation?
How can we live for Jesus as a new creation?
SIMPLE PRAYER
Dear God,
Thank you for all you have done for us. I pray that everyone here will accept you as their Savior and become a new creation.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
For your convenience, you can also download the entire PDF version of thisPumpkin Children's Ministry Lesson(just click the link).
