all boys aged 8-10 (yes, it was rather loud! :) )
Parables
Introduction
When Jesus taught he typically taught by using parables.
Parables are attention grabbing –
Jesus took everyday occurrences and made them into object
lessons. Often Jesus' parables are about the land or the sea - fishing,
farming. The people listening to Jesus could have followed his gaze and
watched, for instance, a distant farmer sowing his seed as Jesus told the
parable of the sower. They would have seen fishermen at work as Jesus told them
the parable of the dragnet. This immediacy would have caught his audiences'
attention and made his teaching relevant to their lives.
Q Why did Jesus use parables? / while keeping the interest
of the audience, were not completely easy to understand - only those whom the
holy Spirit wanted to understand would understand. Jesus used parables to keep
his meaning slightly hidden from those who were not ready to understand him!
Game – Time
Stand the children at one side of the hall and
ask them to cross in their own time to the other side.
Say that they should aim to take two minutes to
get there - and time them!
See who manages to do the journey in the
closest time to 1 minute.. repeat with different times. They enjoyed this game!
Object Lesson – use of objects in parables
Telephone
2 parts to hand piece, we need to listen and talk. Eg phone
convo with somebody. Like when we talk to God, when we pray we upload our
problems… but it’s good to be quiet and listen too
Coins
different size piles of different values, but all worth the
same. God sees us all the same, doesn’t matter if you are tall or fat or
different…
Toothpaste
“many ways to squeeze” from the top from the end. Kid sq ueezes out toothpaste, then another
tries to get it back in the tube. This is a bit like our words, easy to come
out, but hard to take back. Brief talk about power of the tongue etc…
2 fizzy Cans
open a can, yum, how
do we get the drink out, we need to tip it up… what would happen if we just
left the can on a table? It would taste
really blahh. New Can – have you ever
shaken a can first and then opened it.. what happens? Demonstrate.. God wants us to be like that in our praise,
he wants us to be bubbling and overflowing, too often we wait for others to be
excited… could I have kept the shaken drink in the can If I put my thumb over
the hole/? No. and what happens if I just stay on the table, I go all yucky.
Sweet Banana
Eating a banana – tasty, have banana inside, a bit like what
we watch or do… we take it in and it
sits in us.
On this occasion the boy who ate the banana has bright
yellow crocks on. An obvious link to eating a yellow banana J
Summed up the object lessons for them to remember next time
they eat a banana, use toothpaste etc
TEACHING STYLES
Kids in to small groups, with pen and paper slips.
Kids write down different teaching methods, and order them
in terms of most interesting…
Eg talking, asking them to
copy down writing, reading to themselves, doing experiments, generally chatting
and so on.
Re order in terms of the easiest to
learn from is at the top
Discussed..
PROCLAIM A MESSAGE
Kids in groups of 2, each pair has a message to
proclaim for 1 minute. This was very loud. At end see who heard what.. example
of proclaiming a message, discuss what worked. In practice the most successful
was the boy who constantly repeated the phrase. Others wrote
·
Watch the news tonight because there is an
important event going to take place.
·
The church is bugged and everything we say is
heard by all your Parents
·
The world will blow up tomorrow, but we are ok,
because Ipswich will be saved!
·
Tomorrow is national PlayStation
day, and all children have to play on a PlayStation or other games console all
day
FISHING!
Large blue sheet out to represent water, with paper fish
underneath. Kids asked to race under the sheet and collect a fish and put in
the “bad fish” pile or “good fish” pile
Read the Bible passage from Matthew 13:47-50.
The children have just acted the parable out!
Kids asked about the parable, and why it wasn’t
more direct.
Final games
Ladders
