Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 NSRV
Memory Verse:
“Each of you has
been blessed with one of God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service
of others. So use your gift well.” 1 Peter
4:10 (CEV)
Concepts:
Objectives:
1. Older children will locate the parable of the talents
in their Bibles. Younger children will learn that the story is in Matthew.
2. The children will become familiar with the details of
the story.
3. The children will understand the symbolism in the
story and think about using their gifts to serve God.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions: (10:00)
1. Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your name tag. Make sure the children
are wearing name-tags. If not, ask the shepherd to supply a temporary badge.
Remember you are interacting with a different group of students each week who
may not know you.
2.
Open with a brief
prayer (optional, as they have just prayed in Great Hall).
3. Explain the purpose of this workshop. Today we’ll hear the Parable of the Talents
and play some games that help us understand the story.
Scripture/Bible Story: (10:05)
1.
Grades 1-2 will
not use Bibles, but do open yours to show them where the story is located. For
grades 3-5, make sure everybody has a Bible. The shepherds will have extra
Bibles. Help the students find Matthew,
the first book in the New Testament. (Get the shepherds to go around the room
and help with this.)
After
they’ve found Matthew, help them find chapter 25, then verse 14. Some of the
children will confuse chapters and verses. Show them that chapter numbers are
the big ones, and also are at top of every page.
3.
Read the story or
tell it, using the summary below as a guide. If you read it, use the New
Revised Standard Version. (Note: the kids will have the CEV, so this is not a
good time for them to follow along in their Bibles.) Unless this is the first
Sunday of the rotation, let the children help you tell the story. This will
give you an idea of how much they already know. Other ideas for reviewing the
story in later weeks are:
Introduction
Jesus
used stories called parables to teach people about God. Our story today, the
parable of the talents, didn’t really happen. It’s a story Jesus told to help
people understand what God is like and how God wants us to live.
In Jesus’ time, “talent” was a word for a
certain amount of money. We don’t know exactly how much, but we know it was a
lot. Some scholars say it was 1,000 coins, or 15 years wages for a laborer.
Today, “talent” means a natural ability.
Story Summary
This is the story that Jesus told: The
As soon as the man had gone, the servant with
the five talents went off and used them to buy and sell things, and he earned
five more talents. The servant who had two talents did the same with his money
and earned two more. But the servant with one talent dug a hole and hid his
master's money in the ground.
A long time later the master of the servants
returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. The
servant who had been given five talents brought them in with the five talents
that he had earned. He said, "Sir, you gave me five talents, and I’ve
doubled your money."
“Well done!" his master replied.
"You are a good and faithful servant. You have been trustworthy with a few
things, so now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my
happiness!"
Next, the servant who had been given two
talents came in and said, "Sir, you gave me two talents, and I have earned
two more."
"Well done!" his master replied.
"You are a good and faithful servant. You have been trustworthy in a few
things, so now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my
happiness!"
Then the servant who had been given one
talent then came in and said, "Sir, I know that you are hard to get along
with. You harvest what you don't plant and gather crops where you haven't
scattered seed. I was scared of losing your money, so I hid it in the ground.
Here is all your money!"
The master of the servant told him, "You
are lazy and wicked! You know that I harvest what I don't plant and gather
crops where I haven't scattered seed. You could have at least put my money in
the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it."
Then the master said, "Now I’ll give
your money to the servant with ten talents! Everyone who has something will be
given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken
from those who don't have anything. You are a worthless servant, and you will
be thrown out into the dark where people will weep and gnash their teeth."
Application: (10:15)
1. Activity
1 - Hand each child a small
bag containing about a dozen pennies. Tell them: In this game, you’re going to
go around and give your pennies away, one by one. When someone gives you a
penny, you must give that person two pennies in return. Let’s see what happens.
Play for 3 minutes,
then call time and ask what happened. See who has the most and who has the
least pennies.
2.
Activity 2 - Have the buzzer box set up on a
table. (One of the round tables from the main room is good for this. See end of
lesson plan for instructions on using the buzzer box.) Divide the children into
four lines, with the first person in each line holding a buzzer.
3.
Explain
that you will call out a question and the first player to press the buzzer gets
to answer. (If more than one person buzzes, the one who buzzed first will have
both lights on.) After each question, the four players move to the end of their
line and the next four in line take the buzzers. Keep the game moving. (See end
of lesson plan for questions; feel free to add some of your own.)
Be sure they know the answer before buzzing. If they are buzzing and
then taking too long to think of the answer, use the timer in the supply bin
and give 5 seconds to answer after buzzing (this has not been a problem in the
past).
4.
After
everybody has had a turn, mix up the lines for the next round so the most
knowledgeable or fastest-fingered kids will be not be competing against the
same three players every time.
5.
Scoring
is optional. Be aware that this game encourages competition, since only the
quickest-thinking kids get to answer. The gentlest way to play is not to keep
score -- don’t treat the lines as teams, just lines of kids waiting their turn.
If you want to keep score, award 5 points for a correct answer. No points for a
wrong answer; let anyone who knows the correct answer tell it. Ask the shepherd
keep score on the white board. (You can use a different scoring system if you
prefer, but keep it simple.)
Note: First-graders sometimes have difficulty operating the buzzers – they especially get confused about turning
off the sound. You can turn the sound off entirely if you prefer. If you’d
rather not tackle using buzzers with first-graders, you can just divide them
into two teams and alternate asking questions of each team. Let children take
turns answering. (Or you might have a better idea! Feel free to devise your own
game for them.)
Grades 1-2: If you have younger children in
the early weeks of the rotation, skip the more difficult questions, e.g., Whom
does the master represent? and just ask the ones pertaining to the details of
the story. If you have them in later weeks, try the harder questions on them.
Reflection Time: (10:30)
Discuss: The
servants who used their talents wisely made more money for their master. The
one who buried his talent ended up with nothing. In our game with the pennies,
what happened when you used your pennies? You
got more. What happened if you didn’t use your pennies? You ended up with less. God has given each
of us special gifts and talents to use, not to hoard.
In the story, who does the
master represent? God. Who do the
servants represent? People. Just like
the master in the story, God has given us gifts to use. I wonder how many gifts
we can list that God has given us. Important:
Ask the shepherd to list the answers on the white board. The children will
refer to the list when they write their journals. Accept all answers but be sure to cover a range including abilities
(music, athletics, math), possessions (money, home, toys), personality
traits (fruits of the spirit – love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control), and relationships (family, friends).
Everything in life is a gift
from God. In the story, the faithful
servants used the master’s money to serve their master. To be faithful to God,
we must use our gifts to serve God and other people.
Recite the Bible memory verse learned in the
Great Hall. “Each of you has been blessed with one of
God’s many wonderful gifts to be used in the service of others. So use your gift well.” 1 Peter 4:10 (CEV)
Journals: At 10:35 a.m. pass out the journal pages and ask the
shepherds to pass out pencils/markers. Optional: Give the children a sticker or
some other memento (a penny) to paste onto the page as a reminder of the
workshop. Pennies can also be given to put in the Pennies for Hunger jar or
offering next Sunday.
Read the prompt out loud and encourage the
children to think of the whole range of gifts they have and various ways of
using them to help their grandfather. For inspiration, they can refer to the
list of gifts the class made. If they have artistic talent, they can make him a
card. If they have money, they can buy him a gift, like a tape to listen to, or
some flowers. If they have a good sense of humor, they can tell him jokes to
entertain him. If they have patience and kindness, they can stay nearby and
bring him food, drinks, books, and other things he needs, etc. Remind them that
no matter what they do, they will use kindness or one of the other spiritual
gifts.
Kids who finish their page early can turn it over and do the word
search on the back.
At 10:45 ask the students to close their journals and sit quietly.
Encourage the children to bring an offering next week. Remind them that
the offering from this rotation will go to New Vision Home, an orphanage in
Prayer:
Close with a brief prayer.
Suggestion: Go around the circle and ask each child to name one talent or other
gift God has given them. End by saying, “Thank you, God, for everything you
have given us. Show us how to use our gifts to serve you and other people.
Amen.”
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to collect pennies, papers, pencils,
Bibles, etc. When the room is tidy, dismiss the class.
Teacher preparation in
advance:
1. Read the scripture passages and attend the
Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
2. Prepare opening and closing prayers.
3. Practice reading or telling the story so it
will go smoothly and you can hold the children’s interest. Be dramatic.
4. Check out the room before your first Sunday
workshop so that you know where everything is located.
5. Optional: Bring a CD or taped music for background music while you are gathering or playing games, meditative music for Reflection time. Display the memory verse on the wall.
6. Practice using the buzzer box and be sure you
understand how it works.
Supply List
Extra Bibles
About 20 bags of pennies
Buzzer system
Timer
Dry-erase marker
Stickers or other mementos
for journals (optional)
Journal pages
Pencils
References
Susan Lingo, Kids-Tell-Em Bible Stories.
Sunday
School Sources, “Parables: The Talents.” http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/
Lessons/talents.htm
Desoto
Presbyterian Church, Dallas, “Parable of the Five
Talents, Mustard Seed and Yeast.” http://rotation.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=1206067121&f=2256088121&m
=4256088121
Storytelling ideas:
http://www.dennisdewey.org/Dennis8.htm
Questions
for game