Especially for Younger Students: Keeping Everybody Happy

(10 minutes, easy set-up)
Students will consider how difficult it would be for the Greeks to keep all of their gods happy all the time.
Provide a dry erase board and markers.

Learning Goal: Students will discover that God has always existed and needs nothing.

Ask: How many people in your life do you have to keep happy? List identities on the board, such as: mother, father, sibling, teacher, coach, teammates, friends, BFF, girlfriend or boyfriend. Ask: Is it possible to keep them all happy all the time? Why? What do you have to do to keep them all happy? After a couple of responses, read Acts 17:22-23, say: Paul realized that the Greek philosophers were trying to keep all their gods happy and were going overboard trying not to offend a god they didn’t even know about.

Share the following information about the Greek gods:

There were many Greek gods, and each was in charge of one area of human life.
Each god was given its own temple or altar.
Each god was worshipped individually, many with their own feasts and celebrations, and through sacrifices and gifts.

Ask: How is the worship of God drastically different than that of the Greek gods? (There is only one God and He is the focus of our worship; God created everything and is over all things, not just little parts of the universe and/or our lives.) Point out that, for the Greeks, trying to keep all their gods happy would have been just as difficult as trying to keep all the people in our lives happy all the time.