What happens if you multiply your own money?

In today's parable, an important person gives money to his servants with the instruction to multiply this money. This is an exciting form of work in which you invest in children in a very practical way, with the hope that it will generate something for a good cause.

What you need:

- money

What do you do:

Do:
After you have told the children the story about the talents, give them all 50 cents or 50 pence, or one dollar or pound or maybe five dollars or pounds (depending on your budget...).
Ask them to do something with this talent to see if they can multiply it. All the money they get from this goes to charity. They are not 'allowed' to put the money in a piggy bank or spend it on sweets for themselves! The intention is that in the coming week they will do something with this talent, with this money, to multiply it.

Exciting...

A fun and easy to do craft to finish this Sunday school lesson on following Jesus!

Jesus calls Peter and the others to become fishers of men. From now on they will be making lots of disciples, all people who are also going to follow Jesus.

What do you need:

- strips of white paper
- pens and coloured pencils
- pairs of scissors

What to do:

Fold the paper into a concertina and draw the shape of the people on the uppermost fold with their arms going right up to the edge.

The children can cut out the shape, and if you fold it open you will have a whole row of people holding hands. It would be a good idea to make an example to show the children beforehand. They can then colour in all the people different

Theme:

Fishers of men, come follow me, the calling of disciples, miraculous catch of fish, calling of Peter

A complete programme for your Sunday school

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school / kids ministry programme about the calling of the disciples and the miraculous catch of fish.

Idea 542.    Introductory game – seek the fish!
Idea 543.    Children’s moment / introduction: what is your job?
Idea 544.    Catch the balloon with your funnelatch the balloon with your funnel
Idea 545.    A fun way to tell the story of the miraculous catch of fish
Idea 546.    Creative activity / YouTube video - the calling of Peter
Idea 547.    Game – balloon crab!
Idea 548.    Craft activity – a row of disciples

How careful can we lower our paralyzed friend to Jesus?

The four friends have to work together to help the paralysed man get into the house through the roof. They had to lower him down very carefully at Jesus’ feet. Very carefully, so that nothing gets broken!
This game is a fun way of encouraging children to work together..

Theme:

The paralyzed man healed by Jesus, the story of the man through the roof 

What do you need:

- an egg (hardboiled or not!!)
- a plastic bag
- string
- an A4 piece of paper
- an elastic band
- glue
- cellotape
- empty toilet rolls

A complete programme for your Sunday school

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school / kids ministry programme about the story of the man lowered through the roof.

Idea 529.    How to tell the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man with four pieces of cardboard
Idea 530.    Is it a duck or a rabbit? - an objectlesson
Idea 531.    Bubble fight - a cool science experiment
Idea 532.    Never without my denture - a YouTube video
Idea 533.    It’s hard working together! - a creative way to have a group discussion
Idea 534.    Reaching your goal - a fun indoor game!
Idea 535.    Make a body - a fun indoor game!
Idea 536.    Create your own story sticks - a craft activity
Idea 537.    Make a parachute for the egg - a fun indoor game!
Idea 538.    The fifth friend in the story - a creative prayer idea

The game:

Divide the children into teams and give each team a raw or hardboiled egg (depending on how messy you mind things getting!

The children have to find a way of getting the egg safely to the ground when one of the leaders throws it out of a first floor window (if this is possible), or drops it from a height. They might make a parachute or something else with the materials provided, to help get the egg down safely. Which egg will survive the fall and stay whole?

Give each team all the materials listed above, and they can get thinking and building. The team(s) whose egg stays whole has won. You can give them 10 – 15 minutes to make their creations before throwing them out of the window/dropping them from a height.

A fun game to help the children think about being one, but also being different

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school lesson on Philippians 1: 1 - 11.

Paul writes in Philippians 2:2 that we have fellowship with and through the Spirit and urges us to be one in mind and spirit. What does it mean to be one? Does it mean that we should all be the same? Or is it actually a good thing that we’re different?

This is fun game on Philippians 2: 1 - 11 about being an unity together while still being all different. It will help the children in your Sunday school lesson, youth ministry, Bible lesson, children’s church or children’s ministry to reflect on this powerful Bible passage.

What do you need:

- a large play parachute

What do you do:

Tell:
In a few minutes we are going to play a fun game together. This game is all about being one and at the same time being completely different.

Ask:
- How can we be one and at the same time be completely different?
- Can you give an example? (like a sports team)
- Why is it important to be one in a sport team? (same goal / same objective / working together / using each other's different strengths)

Tell:
Paul tells the church in Philippi that they are one. They belong together. 

Ask:
- If the church in Philippi would be like a sports team - what would be their goal and their objective?
- If we are like a sports team - what would be our goal and our objective?
- How can we work together to reach that goal?
- Which unique strengths and gifts do we need?

Do:
Put the children in a large circle and get them to all hold on to a large parachute. Practise raising and lowering the parachute together.

Raise the parachute and call out a word, for example ‘boys’. Now all the boys have to run underneath the parachute to the other side.

Try to think of some things that only apply to one or two children, and others that apply to the whole group. Try to think of different gifts, strengths and talents.

Tell:
We can be very different to each other in some things and alike in others, but whether we’re alike or different, we can form one body, just as we are all holding the parachute. 

Make a large painting that consists out of lots of small paintings

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school lesson on Philippians 1: 1 - 11.

It is a fun crafts activity on Philippians 2: 1 - 11 about looking at what it means to be one in Christ.. It will help the children in your Sunday school lesson, youth ministry, Bible lesson, children’s church or children’s ministry to reflect on this powerful Bible passage.

What do you need:

- for each participant you need a small canvas of 10 x 10 cm, paint and brushes, or wax crayons.

What do you do:

Tell:
We are going to make a big painting together, consisting of lots of different small paintings. Paul tells the church in Philippi that they are one. They belong together.

Do:
Read the text again carefully.

Ask:
- What is it that binds the people in Philippi?
- Is that easy, do you think?

Tell:
We’re going to make a painting of a meadow of flowers together. Everyone is going to paint their own flower, but the edges of your painting must blend seamlessly with the painting next to it.

Tip:
Write the name of each child lightly in pencil on the canvases, then put them all on the floor to make one big canvas. Then write on the four edges of the canvases the names of the children whose canvas borders on the other canvases. In this way the children will know who they have to work with to make sure that their paintings blend together.

Do:
Depending on the age of the children you could draw the shapes of the flowers that overlap two canvases. Then at the end you can put them back together, like a puzzle.

Let's make some music together

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school lesson on Psalm 150.  It will help the children in your Sunday school lesson, youth ministry, Bible lesson, children’s church or children’s ministry to reflect on this powerful Bible passage.

What do you do:

Do:
Read psalm 150 together.

Tell:
The writer encourages us to sing for God and to make music for God. We’re going to do exactly that – we’re going to make an instrument. You can make many different instruments.

Do:
You can have the children make the same instruments or all sorts of different ones.

You can also give older children a harder challenge.

You could also make small groups of children that can form a ‘band’.

Then they can also think together about which instruments they need to make for the band.

Options to make:

- Drums
- Guitar
- Bottles filled with water
- Pan flute
- Samba balls
- Tambourine

This is a cool science experiment that you can use in a class room or Sunday school lesson

A rainbow is a symbol of hope. A symbol that God will keep his promises. So any time you are going to talk about hope, God's promises and God's faithfulness you can create this rainbow.

You can also use this experiment to tell the story of Noah and the rainbow.

But personally we also use this to talk about unity -  we are all different, but still one! 

And what do you think about the fruit of the Spirit? So many expressions of the same Spirit in different colours...

Watch the video below:

Probably one of the best object lessons of all time

We think that this toy is maybe one of the best object lessons of all time. You can buy it for a few dollars or pounds on Amazon.com or on Amazon.co.uk

It works very simply.

Invite a few children to come forward. Ask them to stand in a circle and hold hands. Take the energy stick in your right hand and take the hand of the child on your left. Leave the circle 'open' by not taking the hand of the child on your right. Then ask the child on your right to also take hold of the other end (the silver end) of the energy stick. When they do this, something amazing happens. Lights go on and you hear a funny noise. What's happening?

There is a small current that you don’t feel and that you can’t see. This current flows through the whole circle as long as everyone is holding hands. It connects through the circle of hands to the other side of the energy stick and then the electrical circuit is complete.

But how can use this in different ways within your kids ministry?

Multiple uses within Christian ministry

Some of the teaching points that you can make using the energy stick are...
- the importance and power of unity
- everybody belongs to the group
- everybody is important
- if one part of the body suffers, we all suffer
- the power of the Holy Spirit
- the existence of God
- God’s amazing love that flows through us

Rocky Raccoon and the ZigZag trick

We are always looking for new ways to tell Bible stories. One of these ways is through the use of Rocky the spring puppet. 

Rocky is very easy to bring him to life. Spring animals are puppets that consist of a large spring covered with fur. You hold the spring raccoon in one hand, moving the head with your thumb and first finger. It gives the animal a very realistic effective, and it's not uncommon for people to mistake it for a live animal!

In the video below we will show you how you use Rocky and the ZigZag trick tol tell the Bible story of Jesus healing the paralysed man who was lowered through a hole in the roof made by his four friends.

Themes: 

Jesus has the power to forgive sins, Jesus forgives sins, Jesus heals the paralysed man, finding new ways to bring people to Jesus, perseverance, don't give up, friendship, Jesus puts us on our feet

Buy your own spring puppet:

There are several places where you can buy your own spring puppet. You can buy them for example on Amazon. 

If you are looking for the ZigZag trick that we use 'to cut Rocky into three parts' have a search on Google.

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