Feeding The People, Children's Ministry Lesson

With the holidays upon us, we are very into the giving spirit! But then again, we do that year round.

We love to give and serve. By doing this we really show each other what love is.

I feel, you're never too young to start.

I thought this lesson was really fun! We used the story of Jesus Feds 5,000 people.
We used Matthew 14:13-21 (NLT)

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
That evening the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves."
But Jesus said, "That isn't necessary - you feed them."
"But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!" they answered.
"Bring them here, he said.
Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples who distributed it to the people.
They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelves baskets of leftovers.
About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

I had baked a whole bunch of sugar cookies to bring to class to be decorated and handed out. (A few to be eaten as a snack as well!)

Each of the children decorated about 3-5 cookies each.

After each cookie was decorated, we prayed over the cookies and blessed them.

Then, just as the disciples started to hand out the food that Jesus had given, the children had to pick people to hand the cookies out too, after class.

They couldn't all be handed out to one family member, but each child choose a few different people in the church to pass out their goodies too!

Everyone was blessed by the kind outreach of the children! Like I said, never too early to start!

If you've enjoyed this lesson, like we did, check out some of my other children's lessons!

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Finding Your Flock, Children's Ministry Lesson

I know it's been a long time since I've done any posting. I mean a LOOOOOOOOONG time. We've legitimately been quite busy. Good busy. Productive busy.

I've also become really involved in our amazing local church. I love it! Our kids love it! We all love it!

I have been having a lot of fun creating fun lessons for the kids. Hands on activities to help relate the stories.

Here is one that went over really, REALLY well!

Jesus is our Shepherd. We are the flock.

John 10:14-16 (NLT)
"I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me,
just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep."

Luke 15:3-5 (NLT)
So Jesus told them this story:
"If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?
And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders."

After talking to the kids about Jesus being our shepherd. How a good shepherd always looks after his flock and takes care of them. Protecting them, and providing for them. If one gets lost, he always goes looking for them.

I dyed cotton balls all different colors. See below.

After the story and the discussion, I put all the different colors of cotton balls into a paper bag and let the kids each pick one.

That color "cotton ball" was actually their color of sheep. They had a "missing" herd hidden all over the room and they were in charge of going and collecting all of their lost sheep.

The kids really enjoyed finding them, and not only that, they really took care to help out one another.

After all the sheep had been collected, we played a few more games with them sheep.

We played "Popcorn Sheep." Where all the sheep get tossed into the air, and everyone has to gather their sheep as fast as they can.

We also had a little relay where we put the sheep at one end of the room and their cups or "homes" at the other end. They were allowed to race each other and only pick up one sheep at a time and bring it home.

After you play all the games of finding your herds of sheep, follow up with the questions of what a shepherd is and does, and how Jesus is our amazing shepherd.

Hope you've enjoyed this lesson!

Check out the other kids ministry lessons I've got on my blog!

You have the POWER!

Prayer Excitment

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Breaking the Chains in Jesus' Name: Children's Ministry Lesson/Craft

I've really started to get involved with my local church and I absolutely love it. I've never felt better, and more secure about who I am and what I am supposed to be doing.

As David once said, "One day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I'd rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God, than live the good life in the homes of the wicked." (Psalm 84:10 NLT)

Serving in the Children's Ministry, just helps me to keep my focus and priority on God. I love him, and this is how I can show him that I do. I can serve his people with gladness.

Ok, so with that, I was blessed with this idea about using Jesus Name to Break the Chains in our lives.

Have you ever heard that song Break Every Chain, by Jesus Culture? You should. Click on the title for the YouTube link. For me, I find it to be a very powerful song.

Lyrics to the Song

There is power in the name of Jesus, to break every chain! Powerful, isn't it! Praise the Lord for that ability! Can you ever learn that soon enough?

I wanted to teach the children about being able to use the power and authority of Jesus name. How we, as believers, are more than over comers.

There are so many bible verses to look at where it talks about using Jesus name for power and authority. I chose these two as an example, and yes, there are more and probably better ones to use, but I chose these two.

I have really started to enjoy looking at the meanings of words. Especially in how they apply to the bible. I looked up the the English and Greek words for power and defined them.

Each kid, got a copy of all three of these items. We read them aloud and discussed them as a class. I wanted them to understand how to apply this to them. I remember when I was younger, that I would read something and sometimes I never really took the time to understand what it was I actually read. Then other times, I just kind of sat puzzled at what I had just read and then dismissed looking into it further.

After we had talked about the verse and what it means to have the power to use Jesus name, we then applied it to breaking the chains!

We made up 20 paper chains before hand (we used craft glue to hold them together, because we thought staples might pose a cut risk).

We handed all the kids a few strands of chains, and had them name something they wanted broken off of their life. For example, one was afraid of the dark.

With his chain in hand we said together with him, "I break the chain of fear in the name of Jesus," and then he pulled apart the chain.

Of course, with kids, just pulling it apart isn't enough, they had to completely rip the chain to shreds. Which was completely fine by me!!!

BTW-If you LOVE the shirt, check out Sweet Pea ala Mode's shop!!!!

After all the chains had been broken we took all the remnants and threw them up in the air like party confetti! We just celebrated the fact that we had destroyed the chains and burdens in our lives. What an awesome day!

We all had such a wonderful time, and I hope that if you can use this activity and event for your church, that you enjoy it as much as we did!

Let me know if you enjoyed this, or have ideas to make them better! I love being able to share with all of you!

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Children's Ministry: Jesus Gets Excited When We Pray!

Looking for some fun lessons for teaching children (and getting them excited!) about Jesus, can kind of be difficult. Especially when you have children in your classroom that can range in age from three months to almost 6th grade.

I found this on Pinterest- Fizzy Forgiveness Prayer Station.

What I really loved about this was the fact that you can take something relatively easy to find (fizzy tablets) and turned it into something really cool!

Kids LOVE fizz. Even I as an adult, feel child like exuberance when I see fizz. There is something just so awesome about effervescence. 

I took this fizz idea and made it my own. Sometimes to come up with a cool idea, we just need a little help from above-and others!

My lesson was to teach children about prayer. I don't think you can stress enough, the importance of building a strong relationship with our Lord. Prayer does this along with reading His word.

Welcome to the lesson of:
 "Jesus Gets Excited When You Pray!"

I used 1 Timothy 2:1-6 (NLT). I wanted to stress that Jesus hears all prayers, not just prayers that come from adults, and we should pray for everyone!

Also, I wanted the children to understand what praying actually means. I looked up and printed out the definition, and some easier words, to help describe what it means to pray.

After we took turns reading and discussion what prayer means and how it applies to the verse I showed the kids what happens when we pray.

I used two glasses and filled them with some regular tap water and for extra "fizz" some sparkling water.

I went to our local City Market and bought these Alka Seltzer generic tablets. We got 30 tables for roughly $2. I wanted to make sure we had enough for two child, at the very least.

I allowed the children to pick what color we would make the water-they chose green, purple. My children at home chose orange.

I had them gather around and I said, "Tell me how this makes you feel." I dropped a tablet into the water and it immediately began to fizz.

The excitement on their faces was extremely evident and also, they said it was pretty cool.

I asked them if it was exciting to watch the fizz, and they all said, "Yes!"

I told them, that every time we pray to Jesus, that's how he feels. He feels excited, because we're building a relationship with him. We're talking to him, we're including him in our lives. Jesus loves us so much and he wants to be a part of our lives.

I handed each kid two tablets (there are two in each pack) and said that each one of us could pray together for someone or about something in their lives. I also gave them personal discretion that if they didn't feel comfortable praying out loud, we would just pray in agreement silently with them.

To watch the kids pray with excitement was just amazing! I know it partly had to do with the fizzy tablets they got to play with, but we also got to watch them gain understanding that praying is a good thing. Praying can be fun!

If it's fun to go to the movies, shouldn't it be fun to spend time praying to God too? I think so!

Also, I told the kids, after we had gotten into a few prayers, that we needed to be quiet and listen. They could hear the fizzing noise in action. I said sometimes that's how God works. He answers our prayers, but sometimes we have to be quiet and listen. God is a gentleman and he never forces us to do anything.

At the end of the class, I allowed the kids to save up their fizzes and they all dropped their remaining ones in together to see if they could over flow the water (which of course they managed to do! I'm pretty sure that was the one silent prayer we had!!).

We finished up the lesson with another coloring page from TwistyNoodle! I mentioned them before in our Lamb of God lesson we did over Resurrection Sunday.

I hope you found this fun and can some how use it to teach your kids about how awesome and amazing Jesus Christ is!

Just an FYI-I have a few left over tablets and I kept the orange glass out for our kids, and when they pray I let them drop a fizz into the water. 

Make sure to monitor your kids too! If you use the alka seltzer tablets, make sure they don't eat them or drink the water that you use. I'm not sure what exactly could happen, but we don't need to try to imagine it either!

Have fun sharing and learning about God! I'd love to hear your ideas or how you've incorporated this into your own lessons and teaching!

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