FAITH QUEST
Parable of the Talents
April 18 –
Creation Station
Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 NSRV
Key Scripture Verse: Matthew
25:14-15a – The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put
his three servants in charge of all that he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. (Contemporary English Version)
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 gifts well.” 1 Peter
Concepts:
· Jesus taught us about God’s kingdom using parables.
· God has given each of us special gifts and talents to
use, not hoard.
· God’s faithful followers use their gifts to serve God
and others.
· Everything in life is a gift from God so we must use
our gifts responsibly (spiritual
abilities, time, skills, possessions).
Objectives:
1. Understand how and why
Jesus spoke in parables.
2. Learn that God has given
us differing gifts and talents that we must discover and share to help make a
better world.
3. Know that be using our
talents, we can glorify God.
4. Children will draw their own God-given hand
showing their talents.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
1. Welcome the children and introduce
yourself. Wear your nametag. Make sure
that everyone is in the right classroom!
Children will either already have name tags on, or will get a nametag
from their shepherd. Make sure that you know everyone’s name and greet the
students individually. Remember you are interacting with a different group of
students each week that may not know you.
2. Start the “lesson time”
with prayer. Ask for volunteers, but plan on praying yourself. A short prayer
thanking God for sending Jesus to teach us would be appropriate.
Bible Story:
1. This Bible lesson is a parable that Jesus
told. A parable is a short story that
uses examples that everyone is familiar with to teach a spiritual lesson. The message of this parable is that even
though Jesus may be away, we have a responsibility to use our God given gifts
and abilities creatively. God expects us
to use the gifts he has given us to help others and to share the lessons that
Jesus taught. Taking responsibility
means being a steward.
2. Jesus told of an important man who was
getting ready for a long trip. Before he
left he called his three workers. He
gave them different amounts of money – each according to their ability to
manage it. One worker received five sums
called talents. A second worker received
two talents. And the third worker
received one talent. Then the man left
on a long journey.
3. Now the first servant may have used the five
talents to buy sheep. If he did that he
would be able to sell their lambs, wool and cheese. Whatever he did, when the man returned, this
worker now had earned five talents with the original five talents, so he had
ten. The second worker may have spent
his two talents to buy seed. When he
sold the grain that grew, he earned two more talents, so he had four. The third worker was afraid to try to earn
money so he buried his talent and it did no good.
4. When the man returned from his journey, he
was so pleased with the first two workers for doubling their talents that he
rewarded them. When he listened to the
third worker he was very disappointed to get back the one talent and no
more. He called the worker lazy and
wasteful. He said “why didn’t you at
least give it to a banker so that he could return it with interest?” The man knew that this third worker could
have earned something with his talent.
So he took the talent away and gave it to the first worker.
5. Let’s think about this lesson for a few
minutes. Why do you think Jesus told
it? What gifts can you think of that God
has given you? Are you strong, talented
in art, music, writing, arithmetic, running fast, dancing, speaking or some
other talent? Whatever gifts we have,
they came from God and God expects us to use them for good purposes and not
hide them. It doesn’t matter how much we
have but that we use what we do have for good purposes. When we use them, we are really serving
God. Once we start to use them, we will
never run out because God will see that we have a continuing supply. Now let’s show our hands and our talents to
represent what gifts we have to share.
Application:
1. Create!
READ the Bible story (1-5 above) with expression. Encourage discussion of story.
2. Show the sample of what they will be
creating. Demonstrate the technique and
tell them that they should think carefully about their differing gifts.
3. Steps:
Pass out paper with pre-printed message “I have gifts to use as God’s
steward”. Tell them to lay the hand
that they do not write with, palm up, on the paper. Have them trace their hand lightly with
pencil. Removing their hands, tell them
to look closely and then make the picture look like their hand – not what they
think all hands look like. Explain that
drawing nail tips and shading shadows will make their hands look more
real. Their hands were given to them by
God to use wisely for good things. Each
of us also has different things to offer.
Let’s draw some coins overlapping or spilling down. Each one should be labeled with a gift that
we have to share. Print one talent on
each coin.
4. Clean up!
Involve everyone in cleaning up so that you will have time to share
together in the closing. You may want to have a prearranged signal for clean up
and tell them at beginning of art project what that will be - perhaps giving
them a 5 minute warning and then the final clean up notice to allow those who
need a bit more warning that they need to complete whatever they are working
on.
5. Turn out lights and lock the classroom door
when leaving.
Reflection Time:
1. Ask the shepherds to pass out Journals and
pencils/markers. The children should
spend a few minutes reflecting upon the morning's lesson –What is a
parable? Who do you think the master
represents in this story? Who do the
servants represent? What are
talents? When God trusts us by giving us
special gifts, what should we do with them?
2. At
Closing:
1. Encourage them to think about what we learn
from Jesus and how that can guide our lives.
2. Tell them that their Pennies will be
given to the New Vision Home to help children in an orphanage in
3. Say the Memory Verse together. You may want
to have this verse printed on a banner and hung in the room, write it on the
white board in the room, or have it on slips of paper that each child can take
home.
4. Pray! Ask the children if they have any
prayer requests. Pray: Thank God for the
different gifts that each of us has received.
Help us not to waste them but to learn the ways that we can use them to
serve others. Amen.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1. Read the scripture passage
and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Workshop.
2. Practice reading the Bible story (above) with
expression.
3. Prepare an opening prayer in case nobody volunteers to pray.
4. Check the art room and the supply closet to
see what supplies exist. Experiment with
what the children will be doing. Make
enough copies of the drawing sheet.
5. Prepare all the materials you will need for
the creation process. Have the materials
ready to go. There will be limited time
for the creation process, so do everything you can to conserve time.
6. Decide how you want to close the lesson.
Prepare a prayer or ask for suggestions.
Materials:
Sample
9 X 12 paper with large
message printed at top – I have gifts to use as God’s steward
Pencils
References:
Sample and blanks will be
provided.