Assembly Objective:

What difference does love make? This assembly explores the idea that the capacity to love others is what makes human beings different from other creatures. Through some verses from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, pupils will consider how love is lived in practice and how love is the defining characteristic of who God is. The assembly will encourage pupils to think about ways to love others through acts of service and everyday kindness, and to consider what love looks like in practice.

Film:

Lilo & Stitch (Disney) certificate U, click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (New International Reader’s Version)

Supporting Values Education:

The value of mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith is built on the understanding that our shared humanity includes an ability to empathise and behave lovingly towards those who are different. This assembly helps pupils think about how their choice to act kindly and empathetically towards others impacts society as a whole.

OPENING ACTIVITY

Corners of Love (illustration)

In advance of the assembly, write the phrase ‘God’s love’ on a piece of A4 or A3 paper.

Before you begin, remind the group that when you give something away you are left with less. So, if you have four pieces of chocolate and you give one away you are left with three pieces.

Show the pupils the sign and ask them to count the number of corners on the sign (four). Tell the group that you are going to give some of God’s love away. God’s love is like the corners on the sign.

Cut one of the corners from the paper and give it to someone in the group. As you do this, you can give reasons for giving ‘God’s love’, but make sure they are not linked to achievements e.g. being kind, being happy, asking good questions, letting other people go first, being a good friend etc.

Once you’ve done this, ask the group to count how many corners the sign now has. There are five!

Repeat the action as many times as you like. Each time the corner is cut, the paper gains another corner.

Explain to the group that God’s love is like the corners. When it is given away it doesn’t reduce, it multiplies! In the same way, when people love one another, it encourages everyone to love. There isn’t less love to go round.

Film clip

Play film clip from Lilo & Stitch (Disney) certificate U.

• Start time: 01:09:44 (“Wait, why would I know where your sister is?”)
• End time: 01:15:36 (“Let’s get off this planet, huh?”)
• Clip length: 5 minutes, 52 seconds.

If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say:

Lilo (Maia Kealoha) lives with her sister Nani (Sydney Elizebeth Agudong). After losing their parents, the sisters are struggling to survive, and are faced with the fact that Lilo may have to be taken into care. Meanwhile, Lilo has adopted Stitch, a small creature she thinks is a dog but who is, in fact, an alien. Since being adopted by Lilo, Stitch has caused endless amounts of trouble. He is being pursued by Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), also an alien, and Stitch’s inventor. Jumba arrives at the family home to capture Stitch. Stitch and Lilo hide from Jumba and then jump out of the window. However, as Jumba moves through the house, Lilo overhears him complaining about humans are attached to each other, to their things and to their memories. He says that ‘attachment means you care, and caring causes people to make very stupid decisions’. He reaches the door to Lilo’s parents’ room, which is the final straw for her. She stands at the door and tells Jumba to ‘stop it or else’. As he moves menacingly towards her, Stitch arrives to rescue her. Meanwhile Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) appears at the door and Lilo sprays his face with mace. He is also revealed as an alien. After a fight, Jumba tries to reason with Stitch, telling him that he is built to destroy. He tells Stitch that the only reason he picked Lilo at the animal shelter is because he wanted to use her to protect himself. Lilo asks Stitch if this is true. Realising he has hurt Lilo, Stitch allows Jumba to take him captive. As Jumba and Stitch go through a portal into the spaceship Lilo’s house collapses. Jumba says this is for the best, and Stitch shouts to Lilo to run. Nani, who has been hunting for Lilo, arrives at the ruined house with her neighbours and a CIA agent. They discover from Pleakley that Lilo is on the alien ship travelling to space. On board the ship, Jumba tells Stitch that seeing him with Lilo made him realise he’s not the heartless monster he thought he was, but that by removing his capacity for love he’ll be perfect. As he sets course for outer space, we discover that Lilo has followed them on to the spaceship and plans to rescue Stitch.

TALK

Scripted Talk

Download the Lilo & Stitch PowerPoint for use with this talk.

• [PowerPoint slide 1]
  • Welcome to our assembly today.
• [PowerPoint slide 2]
  • Today we are going to think about something that human beings can choose to give. It’s something that God has an infinite amount of. Can anyone guess what it might be?
• [PowerPoint slide 3]
  • The answer is LOVE. The Bible says that God IS love. Love is the most important part of who God is. God loves the world, he loves the people in it and he has created people with the ability to love one another.
• [PowerPoint slide 4]
  • Can anyone think of any examples of how human beings show love to one another? Take suggestions – being kind, saying nice things, helping one another, including others, saying sorry when we hurt someone, forgiving someone who hurts us etc.
• [PowerPoint slide 5]
  • Humans talk about love a lot! We sing songs about it, we make movies about it, we tell special people that we love them. Sometimes, though, we’re not very good at showing people that we love them. We’re going to watch a clip from Lilo & Stitch to help us think about it. If you haven’t seen the film, you will need to know a few things before you watch this clip!
• [PowerPoint slide 6]
  • Lilo lives in Hawaii with her sister, Nani. Sadly, their parents have died, and Nani is struggling to take care of Lilo.
• [PowerPoint slide 7]
  • Meanwhile, Lilo has adopted a creature called Stitch. Everyone thinks that Stitch is a dog, but he’s actually an alien!
• [PowerPoint slide 8]
  • Stitch is being hunted by an alien called Jumba who is disguised as a human being. Jumba is prepared to destroy Lilo’s house and possessions to capture Stitch. Watch the clip and pay careful attention to what Jumba says about human beings, and to what he says to Stitch about love.
  • Play film clip from Lilo & Stitch (Disney) certificate U.
    • Start time: 01:09:44 (“Wait, why would I know where your sister is?”)
    • End time: 01:15:36 (“Let’s get off this planet, huh?”)
    • Clip length: 5 minutes, 52 seconds.
  • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, instead say:
  • Lilo (Maia Kealoha) lives with her sister Nani (Sydney Elizabeth Agudong). After losing their parents, the sisters are struggling to survive, and are faced with the fact that Lilo may have to be taken into care. Meanwhile, Lilo has adopted Stitch, a small creature she thinks is a dog but who is, in fact, an alien. Since being adopted by Lilo, Stitch has caused endless amounts of trouble. He is being pursued by Jumba (Zach Galifianakis), also an alien, and Stitch’s inventor. Jumba arrives at the family home to capture Stitch. Stitch and Lilo hide from Jumba and then jump out of the window. However, as Jumba moves through the house, Lilo overhears him complaining about humans are attached to each other, to their things and to their memories. He says that ‘attachment means you care, and caring causes people to make very stupid decisions’. He reaches the door to Lilo’s parents’ room, which is the final straw for her. She stands at the door and tells Jumba to ‘stop it or else’. As he moves menacingly towards her, Stitch arrives to rescue her. Meanwhile Pleakley (Billy Magnussen) appears at the door and Lilo sprays his face with mace. He is also revealed as an alien. After a fight, Jumba tries to reason with Stitch, telling him that he is built to destroy. He tells Stitch that the only reason he picked Lilo at the animal shelter is because he wanted to use her to protect himself. Lilo asks Stitch if this is true. Realising he has hurt Lilo, Stitch allows Jumba to take him captive. As Jumba and Stitch go through a portal into the spaceship Lilo’s house collapses. Jumba says this is for the best, and Stitch shouts to Lilo to run. Nani, who has been hunting for Lilo, arrives at the ruined house with her neighbours and a CIA agent. They discover from Pleakley that Lilo is on the alien ship travelling to space. On board the ship, Jumba tells Stitch that seeing him with Lilo made him realise he’s not the heartless monster he thought he was, but that by removing his capacity for love he’ll be perfect. As he sets course for outer space, we discover that Lilo has followed them on to the spaceship and plans to rescue Stitch.
• [PowerPoint slide 9]
  • Did you notice what Jumba said about human beings? He said that they are attached to each other, and to their memories. He said that ‘attachment means you care, and caring causes people to make very stupid decisions.’ Jumba doesn’t think much of the fact that human beings love one another.
• [PowerPoint slide 10]
  • Did you notice what Jumba said to Stitch after he captured him?
  • He told him that once he removed his capacity for love he would be perfect.
• [PowerPoint slide 11]
  • Do you think that it’s true that Stitch would be perfect if he didn’t love Lilo? If Stitch didn’t have any love then he wouldn’t have any friends, he wouldn’t have his adopted family of Lilo and Nani and he would feel very lonely. What Jumba meant was that if he removed all the love from Stitch then Stitch could then be the perfect destructor, but being destructive doesn’t make you perfect does it?
• [PowerPoint slide 12]
  • In the Bible, love is mentioned a lot because, as we said at the beginning, God IS love. Because God is love, he created people with the ability to love him back and to love one another. The Bible is full of stories about how much God loves all people, and how he wants people he has made to live.
  • At the beginning of our assembly, we talked about some of the things we can do to show that we love other people. We said that love meant being kind, saying nice things, helping one another, including others, saying sorry when we hurt someone, forgiving someone who hurts us.
  • There are some verses in the Bible that tell us what love is like.  Let’s read those verses.
• [PowerPoint slide 13]
  • Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIRV)
  • Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up.
• [PowerPoint slide 14]
  • God is love, so when we describe what love is like, we are describing what God is like.
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • God is not like Jumba, wanting power and willing to cause destruction to get it. God doesn’t think that to be perfect you need to get rid of all love. In fact, it’s the opposite. God wants people to learn to love one another, and to love him back.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • I wonder what you or I could do today to be more loving to one another. Perhaps we could include someone who feels left out. Perhaps we could choose to be kind to someone we’re not usually friends with. Perhaps we could forgive people when they upset us or let us down. That way we can show what love is like.

Headings and Bullets

Download the Lilo & Stitch PowerPoint for use with this talk.

• [PowerPoint slide 1]
  • Welcome.
• [PowerPoint slide 2]
  • Today we are thinking about…
  • Something that human beings can choose to give.
  • Something that God has an infinite amount of.
  • Can anyone guess what it might be?
• [PowerPoint slide 3]
  • The answer is LOVE.
  • The Bible says that God IS love.
  • Love is the most important part of who God is. God loves the world, he loves the people in it and he has created people with the ability to love one another.
• [PowerPoint slide 4]
  • Can anyone think of any examples of how human beings show love to one another?
  • Suggestions – being kind, saying nice things, helping one another, including others, saying sorry when we hurt someone, forgiving someone who hurts us etc.
• [PowerPoint slide 5]
  • Humans talk about love a lot!
  • Songs, movies, telling people we love them.
  • Sometimes, though, we’re not very good at showing people that we love them.
  • Introduce the clip from Lilo and Stitch.
• [PowerPoint slide 6]
  • Lilo and Nani.
  • Lilo lives in Hawaii with her sister, Nani.
  • Sadly, their parents have died, and Nani is struggling to take care of Lilo.
• [PowerPoint slide 7]
  • Lilo has adopted a creature called Stitch.
  • Everyone thinks that Stitch is a dog, but he’s actually an alien!
• [PowerPoint slide 8]
  • Stitch is being hunted by an alien called Jumba who is disguised as a human being.
  • Jumba is prepared to destroy Lilo’s house and possessions to capture Stitch.
  • Pay careful attention to what Jumba says about human beings, and to what he says to Stitch about love.
  • Play film clip from Lilo & Stitch (Disney) certificate U.
    • Start time: 01:09:44 (“Wait, why would I know where your sister is?”)
    • End time: 01:15:36 (“Let’s get off this planet, huh?”)
    • Clip length: 5 minutes, 52 seconds.
• [PowerPoint slide 9]
  • Did you notice what Jumba said about human beings?
  • They are attached to each other, and to their memories.
  • ‘Attachment means you care, and caring causes people to make very stupid decisions.’
  • Jumba doesn’t think much of the fact that human beings love one another.
• [PowerPoint slide 10]
  • Did you notice what Jumba said to Stitch after he captured him?
  • He told him that once he removed his capacity for love he would be perfect.
• [PowerPoint slide 11]
  • Do you think that it’s true that Stitch would be perfect if he didn’t love Lilo?
  • If Stitch didn’t have any love then he wouldn’t have any friends.
  • He wouldn’t have his adopted family of Lilo and Nani.
  • He would feel very lonely.
• [PowerPoint slide 12]
  • In the Bible, love is mentioned a lot because God IS love. Because God is love, he created people with the ability to love him back and to love one another.
  • The Bible is full of stories about how much God loves people, and how he wants the people he has made to live.
  • We said that love meant being kind, saying nice things, helping one another, including others, saying sorry when we hurt someone, forgiving someone who hurts us.
  • There are some verses in the Bible that tell us what love is like.
• [PowerPoint slide 13]
  • Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIRV).
• [PowerPoint slide 14]
  • God is love.
  • When we describe what love is like, we are describing what God is like.
• [PowerPoint slide 15]
  • God is not like Jumba.
  • God doesn’t think that to be perfect you need to get rid of all love. In fact, it’s the opposite.
  • God wants people to learn to love one another, and to love him back.
• [PowerPoint slide 16]
  • How could you or I be more loving today?
  • Include someone who feels left out.
  • Choose to be kind to someone we’re not usually friends with.
  • Forgive people when they upset us or let us down.

Photo copyright for Lilo & Stitch powerpoint: Slide 1 Freeimages.com / Slide 2 Pixabay.com / Slide 3 Pixabay.com / Slide 4 image 1 Pixabay.com image 2 Freeimages.com image 3 Freeimages.com image 4 Pixabay.com / Slide 5 Disney / Slide 6 Disney / Slide 7 Disney / Slide 8 Disney / Slide 9 Disney / Slide 10 Disney / Slide 11 Disney / Slide 12 Pixabay.com / Slide 13 Pixabay.com / Slide 14 image 12 Courtesy of Lumo Project Films – www.lumoproject.com / Slide 15 Pixabay.com / Slide 16 Pixabay.com / Slide 17 Pixabay.com

RESPOND

Reflection: I am…

• [PowerPoint slide 17]
  • Look at the words on the slide. Instead of the word ‘love’ or the word ‘God’, how would it feel to use your name?
  • Take a moment to read the verses quietly, and where it says ‘Name’ imagine your own name.
  • [If appropriate, invite the group to read the verses aloud substituting their own names].
  • [NAME] is patient. [NAME] is kind. [NAME] does not want what belongs to others. [NAME] does not brag. [NAME] is not proud. [NAME] is not rude. [NAME] does not look out for their own interests. [NAME] does not easily become angry. [NAME] does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. [NAME] is not happy with evil. But [NAME] is full of joy when the truth is spoken. [NAME] always protects. [NAME] always trusts. [NAME] always hopes. [NAME] never gives up.

Prayer

• Father God. Thank you that you are full of love because you ARE love. Help us to love you and one another today. Help us to be patient, kind and joyful. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Lilo & Stitch PowerPoint.
• Lilo & Stitch (Disney) certificate U, click here to buy the DVD online.
• A piece of A4 or A3 paper with the phrase ‘God’s love’ written on it.