Pentecost at home includes ‘Messy Church’ style activities that you can do at home to celebrate Pentecost- the birthday of the Church! This resource was found at the
UK Messy Church web site

Languages

You will need: pieces of card; pens

To celebrate Pentecost at home write the word ‘PEACE’ on a piece of card, then look up the word in other languages and write them on other pieces of card. Share out the cards and then read out the cards at the same time so you are all speaking in different languages. Here are a few to start:

Talk about why you think the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in different languages. After this momentous day, the good news of Jesus spread all around the world. The story of Paul’s missionary journeys and how he spreads the word and establishes churches is told in the Acts of the Apostles. From the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD he founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.

Bunting

You will need: paper/card/material; string/ribbon/washing line; scissors

To celebrate Pentecost at home make some flags out of paper, card or material and decorate them. Fasten them together and tie them up in your house or garden to prepare to celebrate Pentecost and the Messy Church Messtival.

Talk about whether you think Jesus enjoyed a party. Think about the story of Jesus at the wedding feast and how he turns water into wine so that the party can continue! There is the story of his visit to Martha, Mary and Lazarus. We are told he often ate with people that the religious leaders considered to be unsuitable. The Eucharist commemorates the last supper, which Jesus shared with his disciples when he told them to always remember him when they broke bread and drank wine. Before Jesus, much of the worship in the Old Testament involved feasting, and when people were especially thankful to God they showed that by gathering to celebrate with food and drink.

The Messy Church Messtival will be held on Saturday 22 May to celebrate Messy Church. This Is the day before we celebrate Pentecost, which is the birthday of the church. We therefore have a great excuse for a party – I am sure Jesus would approve! I am sure he did not want us to be solemn and miserable, just as I am sure he would have enjoyed Messy Church. When you think about it, most of his teaching was done in the form of stories, he would have loved the food and the celebration, and if some of our activities work properly it is a miracle!

Ballon rockets

You will need: balloons; sticky tape; card; scissors; paper straws (or paper that can be rolled into a narrow straw shape and stuck together with tape)

Cut the lip off the balloon and tape it to the end of the straw to the end of the straw – this must be done carefully to ensure that you can blow up the balloon using the straw. Cut some flights from a piece of card and tape them to the end of the straw, but again make sure you can still blow up the balloon through the straw. You are then ready for a test flight – blow up the balloon through the straw, pinch the end of the straw to stop the air escaping and then let go to launch it. For the best results, use large balloons and large (smoothie) drinking straws.

For video tutorial, see below.

Talk about how you need to keep blowing the balloon up for the rocket to work. Some people think of the Holy Spirit of the breath of God. Do you ever feel like the empty balloon? How do we get our energy for living God’s way? Some followers of Jesus need to keep on being filled up by praying and reading the Bible. Many people only think of the Holy Spirit in terms of the wind, fire and speaking in foreign languages at Pentecost, and therefore overlook the gentler aspects of the Holy Spirit’s character. The image of the fruit of God’s Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23) – is something to be built into everyday life and demonstrates a complementary aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work alongside the more dramatic images of Pentecost.

Bottle rockets

You will need: empty plastic bottles; card/paper; sticky tape; scissors; sticky tack or Play-Doh; paper straws (or paper that can be rolled into a narrow straw shape and stuck together with tape).

To celebrate Pentecost at home carefully cut a small hole on the bottle top that you can slide the straw into. If you make it too big, you can seal any gaps with a piece of sticky tack or Play-Doh. Make a small paper or carboard rocket. First make a tube which will fit just over the straw and seal one end of it so that it is airtight. You can then decorate the tube to make it look like a rocket by adding fins and a nosecone. Slide the completed rocket over the end of the straw and then squeeze the bottle to launch the rocket. You should get several launches out of the bottle before it eventually splits!

Talk about the story of the Ascension and also the science behind rockets. The balloon and bottle rockets are examples of turning ‘potential’ energy into ‘kinetic’ energy, the energy of motion. When you blow up the balloon, the expanding elastic material of the balloon stores the energy you are producing by blowing into it. The energy stored in the balloon is called potential energy. In the same way, the air in the bottle is potential energy. When you launch the rockets, this stored energy is converted into kinetic energy as the air pushes rocket. The force exerted by the expelled air is called ‘thrust’. This is the same way a real rocket works, where the thrust is produced by burning fuel to make hot gases which are pushed out of the bottom of the rocket, making it travel up into space.