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Motivation for Evangelism

Unit 13 / Lesson 2

Motivation for Evangelism

Slides for the Lesson

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Teacher's Prep

  • Main Activity (Baking)

    • This lesson features a baking activity at the beginning of the lesson, to be enjoyed at the end of the lesson.

    • See this website for possible recipes and the amounts of time necessary to make the various recipes.

    • A typical recipe takes about 15 minutes of preparation and about 25 minutes of baking.

    • Assemble all the ingredients and baking supplies before the lesson starts, and print out several copies of the recipe

    • If you have a helper, have them in charge of operating the oven, and keeping track of the baking time. Delegating the baking to a helper will help you focus on teaching the lesson.

    • Please consider allergies and food aversions, and prepare a treat for those who cannot eat what is baked during the lesson.

  • Games


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 3

  • Main Activity Part 1 (Baking Prep)

    • For our main activity, we will be baking! This takes a while, so we will start our lesson by preparing our food for the oven. Then, we will learn our Bible lesson while it bakes.

    • Instructions for the Teacher

      • Preheat the oven

      • Have the children follow the recipe.

      • Bake the items and set a timer to prevent burning

      • Once the baked goods are in the oven and the alarm is set, have the class sit down in their usual teaching environment for the main part of the lesson.

  • Debrief and Relevance

    • I hope you had some fun getting everything ready for the oven!

    • The idea of baking helps us to understand our Bible lesson today. We will be talking about helping people to know Jesus.

    • Helping people to know Jesus is a bit like baking.

    SLIDE 3

    • Just like in baking, it can take a lot of steps to help people to know Jesus. It can be really messy, and you have to wait patiently. Because of this, not everyone wants to do the work.

    • In baking there are some easy recipes, but there are also some really hard recipes that have lots of steps. It's like that when we talk to people about Jesus. Sometimes it takes a lot of trouble to help someone to know Jesus.

  • Big Question

    SLIDE 4

    • Our big question today is: How much trouble should we be okay with if we want to help someone to know Jesus?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea today is: it's worth going through a lot of trouble if we can help someone to know Jesus.

      • 1. Sometimes it can take a lot of trouble to help someone to know Jesus, but

      • 2. When people know Jesus, they can join our team.

  • Bible Reference

    • We'll see this idea in our Bible story. Let's watch our story first. It’s about a time when Jesus met a scary man who had evil spirits inside of him.

    SLIDE 5


    Point 1

  • Our first point is, sometimes it can take a lot of trouble to help someone to know Jesus.

    SLIDE 6

  • Game: Limbo

    • Instructions

      • We'll start our point with a game of Limbo! We'll have two people holding a stick, and we'll all take turns walking under the stick.

      • The tricky part is, the stick will keep getting lower. So, you'll need to walk lower by bending your knees and leaning back

      • You can't touch the floor with your hands. If you do, or if you fall, you're out, and can cheer on your friends to see how low they can go.

      • Teacher: try to do a demonstration with two volunteers to the side holding the stick.

      • Let's all form a line and give it a try!

      • Teacher: Volunteers should hold the stick in cupped hands so that it will fall easily if touched. Also, you may want to play music during the game

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 7

    • We played this game because it pushes us to our limits. If we want to do well in the game, we need to really stretch ourselves and use all of our strength. We need to do things that are a bit uncomfortable, and we might look a bit silly. But, that's the only way to play!

    • That's a bit like helping people to know Jesus. Sometimes it really stretches us and makes us uncomfortable. Our Bible story talks about one of those uncomfortable times. It talks about a really scary man whom Jesus went to help. Let's read about the scary man again.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 8

    • Mark 5:5-13 (CEV)

      • 5 Night and day he was in the graveyard or on the hills, yelling and cutting himself with stones.

    SLIDE 9

    • 6 When the man saw Jesus in the distance, he ran up to him and knelt down.

    SLIDE 10

    • 7 He shouted, “Jesus, Son of God in heaven, what do you want with me? Promise me in God's name that you won't torture me!” 8 The man said this because Jesus had already told the evil spirit to come out of him.

    SLIDE 11

    • 9 Jesus asked, “What is your name?” The man answered, “My name is Lots, because I have ‘lots’ of evil spirits.” 10 He then begged Jesus not to send them away.

    SLIDE 12

    • 11 Over on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. 12 So the evil spirits begged Jesus, “Send us into those pigs! Let us go into them.”

    SLIDE 13

    • 13 Jesus let them go, and they went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd of about 2,000 pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 14

    • This man was really scary! He must have looked and smelled really bad. He was always shouting and acting super crazy. The scariest thing about him was that there were evil spirits inside of him.

    • You might have heard about Satan before. Satan is a spirit who hates God and hates people, and is always trying to stop the good things that God is doing. Well, there were things like Satan living inside of that man -- and those evil spirits gave him the power to break metal chains.

    SLIDE 15

    • Jesus was not afraid of the man, because Jesus was way more powerful. In fact all those evil spirits were super afraid of Jesus. They were so afraid of Jesus that they wanted to get away from Him.

    SLIDE 16

    • They asked to go into the pigs. Jesus allowed them to, and the pigs all ran into the water and died.

    • It's a really scary story and something terrible had to happen to all those pigs. But, at the end of the day, Jesus saved the man, and it was all worth it. One person is more important than two thousand pigs, and saving one person is more important than being comfortable.

  • Application

    SLIDE 17

    • That’s a lesson that we need to think about. Sometimes God gives us a chance to help someone. It might be uncomfortable, and it might take some trouble on your part. But, the other person is so important to God that we need to be okay with getting into a bit of trouble, if we can really help them. 

    • We don't have to be afraid of evil spirits, because Jesus is with us, and He is way more powerful than evil spirits.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 18

    • Let's pause for a couple of discussion questions:

      • 1. Do you have any ideas for how to help someone know Jesus?

      • 2. What would you do if it's really, really hard to help someone to know Jesus? (For example, you have nothing in common with them)

        • Suggested answer: Sometimes it's best to ask someone else to help you talk about Jesus if they're better at it than you, or they are better friends with the person who needs Jesus. But sometimes there's nobody to help, and we just have to try our best. If our best try doesn't work, we can learn from our mistakes. You just have to do your best, and even if they don't end up believing what you do, you can wait for God to keep working after you're done.

  • Baking Check

    • Teacher: remove baking from the oven if it’s ready so it can cool before the end of the lesson.


    Point 2

  • Our second point is, when people know Jesus, they can join our team.

    SLIDE 19

  • Game: Electricity

    • Instructions

      • Let's start this point with a game. It's called "Electricity." Let's see how it works

      • Teacher: play the first 1:30 of this video:

      • Teacher: While the video is playing, set up a chair at one end of the room with an easily grabbed object (e.g. paper cup, plastic water bottle, or stuffed animal)

      • The first thing you need to do is find a partner! You and your partner will go on opposite teams.

      • Your teams will line up so that I can squeeze your hand on one end, and you will be able to grab the object at the other end.

      • If your team is the first to grab the object, your team wins the round. BUT, if I don't squeeze, and you grab the object, the OTHER team wins the round. You need to be careful to only pass the squeeze when your hand has been squeezed.

      • Teacher: play several rounds. After each round, the person in front can rotate to the back of the line. That way, everyone will have a chance to be at the front and back of the line. If one team is consistently winning, you may want to add people to the fast team, because more people on a team makes for a slower signal. Or, you may want to shuffle the teams.

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it's about teamwork. If we play the game right, we can pass the squeeze a lot faster than a person can run.

      • The Christian life is like that too.

    SLIDE 20

    • When we are trying to help the world to know Jesus, the best way is to work together and not alone. That means helping other Christians to do the kinds of things we do.

    • We see this in our Bible story. Let’s read what happened after Jesus sent all the evil spirits away, and the man was healthy again.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 21

    • Mark 5:18-20 (CEV)

      • 18 When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man begged to go with him. 19 But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how good he has been to you.” 20 The man went away into the region near the ten cities known as Decapolis and began telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone who heard what had happened was amazed.

  • Explanation

    • Jesus went through all that trouble to get that man to join His team. Then, Jesus left for the other side of the lake. So, each of them could help people in a different place. Jesus was on one side of the lake, and the man was on the other side. The man was great. He went to ten cities, and he helped everyone by telling his story about Jesus.

    SLIDE 22

    • The man could talk about how Jesus is more powerful than all the evil spirits in the world. The man knew that Jesus loved people so much that He would go through so much trouble for just one person. The man had an amazing story to tell, and everyone who heard his story was amazed.

  • Application

    • All of us are supposed to be like Jesus in the story. We're not supposed to be the only one doing God's work. The best way to reach the world is to help other people to do God's work with us. That means helping other people to do the same things as we do.

    SLIDE 23

    • If you've learned amazing things at church, pass it on! If you have amazing ideas, pass them on! We need to work together and help each other to be the best we can be.

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question.

    SLIDE 24

    • What is a way that you can help someone else to become a stronger person?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 25

  • Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was: How much trouble should we be okay with, if we want to help someone to know Jesus?

  • Our big idea was:  it's worth going through a lot of trouble if we can help someone to know Jesus. Sometimes it can take a lot of trouble to help someone to know Jesus, but when they know Him, they can join our team and we can reach the world together.


    SLIDE 26

    Main Activity Part 2: Snack Time!

  • It's time to eat the baked goods that we made at the beginning of the lesson!

  • Our baked goods remind us that if we're willing to do the right things early on, we can really enjoy things later. That's how it works too if we're helping people to know Jesus. We go through the trouble first, and then later, we can enjoy having more people on our team.

  • Teacher: distribute the baked goods. If you have extra time, you may want to play games, do memory verses, or watch a short film together. 

    • One option for short films: search YouTube for the VeggieTales official channel, and select a film from there for free.


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