Training Disciples
Spring 2022: Stewards of Creation
Week 1: May 4, 2022, 6pm
The “Faith5” practice from the Faith Inkubators ministry is designed for use at home, to build up families in faith through sharing joys and concerns, reading scripture together, and blessing and praying for one another. Below are the five steps that we will practice this evening. If you’re gathered at home with family, you can practice this, or if you live alone, you might call a friend or family member.
Step 1: Share your highs and lows
Listen attentively, especially to the person to your right – you will be praying for them later. If you did the Creation Appreciation activity last week, you might share this now too!
Step 2: Read a bible verse, passage, or story
At home you might choose something from the lectionary or another meaningful portion of scripture; tonight we will read from the creation stories in Genesis 1-2 and also Psalm 8.
Step 3: Talk about the bible reading
Tonight we’ll do this with words and an activity!
• What words or phrases catch your attention?
• How does this scripture connect with your highs and lows?
• What do you think it means to be made in God’s image? What does it mean to you?
• What is stewardship – what does it mean to be a steward?
Take home (or stay home!) activity: Homemade Play-Dough
We are created in the image of our loving Creator!
You can find the recipe we used for making play-dough here.
To keep your play-dough soft and moldable, put it in a ziploc baggie and store it in an airtight container at room temperature (no need to refrigerate).
Or, if you want to make more long-lasting art, mold your play-dough into the shape(s) you want and let it dry – once completely dry, you can apply a protective coating/varnish to keep it even longer. You could make a cross to hang on your wall, a small pot/dish, a pendant, beads – the possibilities are as limitless as your imagination!
Step 4: Pray for one another
Starting with Pastor, we will each pray for the person on our right. It doesn’t need to be long or elaborate; it can be as simple as giving thanks for what they lifted up as their highs and asking God to care for them in whatever they listed as their lows
Step 5: Bless one another
Turning to the person on our left, we will mark the sign of the cross on their forehead as we bless them. Tonight, we will use this blessing:
[name], beloved child of God, you are made in the image of our Creator, called to be a faithful steward.
READING: Genesis 1:26-31, 2:4b-9, 15
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
27 So God created humankind in God’s image,
in the image of God they were created;
people of all genders God created them.
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
2:4b In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; 6 but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the first human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the human became a living being.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there God put the human who had been formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
15 The Lord God took the human and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
READING: Psalm 8
1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
St. John's Lutheran Church 