04 June 2013

2nd June 2013 - Parables


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


 Described how parables are like object lessons, let the kids guess an object lesson for each of the items I had, then I told them my version…

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

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