Free Children’s Church Lesson Plan From Luke 1:5-25 - The Birth of John The Baptist

This is the children’s church lesson plan I wrote for our children’s church. If you added some activities, you could modify this plan for children’s Sunday school. This is the first lesson I’ve written based on LeRoy Ford’s Design for Teaching and Training.

You can download this Bible lesson plan as a Microsoft Word document. I will be posting new children’s church curriculum each week as I teach them. So be sure to sign up for my free children’s ministry email newsletter. I would love to hear your feedback in the comments. I’ll post future lesson plans to my Free Children’s Church Lesson Plans page.

God promises the birth of John the Baptist.

Curriculum Text: Luke 1:5-25
Time: 20 minutes

Learning Objectives: After this lesson . . .

1. Children will demonstrate knowledge of the key people and events in this passage … by retelling the story back to the teacher at the end of the session.
2. Children will demonstrate an understanding of what this story teaches about God … by identifying from a list of possible themes, which the story actually teaches.
3. Children will demonstrate understanding of the role of John the Baptist … by explaining in their own words his special mission.

Curriculum Target Age: Kindergarten – 5th
Material Needed:

• Bible: Luke 1:5-25 Prepare a copy in advance by highlighting the significant points to emphasize and underlining items that will need additional explanation.
• Visual Aids: Pictures of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Gabriel, a baby and the Temple.

Children’s Church Teaching Plan:

Introduce the lesson by showing the children pictures of Zechariah, Elizabeth, Gabriel, baby John and the Temple. Very briefly, explain who they are and how they fit into the story. Have the children repeat their names.

Immediately, use the pictures as flash cards to help the children review what you just told them. Call on volunteers to answer. Repeat all pictures two times.

Before your read the story, ask half the children to listen for what this story teaches about God. Ask the other half the children to listen for the special job God was going to give John.

Read (and Summarize) Luke 1:5-25. Read with emotion and pause often to engage the children with the reading. Pause to reinforce the God-centered themes by prompting them as questions.
· Does God answer prayer? YES. God answers prayer.
Say that with me … “God answers prayer.”
· Is anything too hard for God? NO. Nothing is too hard for God.
Say that with me … “Nothing is too hard for God.”
· Does faith please God? YES, faith pleases God.
Say that with me … “Faith pleases God.”

Immediately after reading the story, use the pictures to conduct a quick review of the key people and events in the story.

Ask the children to report on their listening assignments.
· What does this story teach about God?
· What is the special job God is giving to John the Baptist?

Call on a volunteer to demonstrate the ministry of John. Have the child walk across the room indicating walking away from God. Then shout STOP! TURN AROUND! COME BACK! Explain that was John’s special job was to call God’s people to turn back to Him. This is an appropriate time to briefly reinforce the Gospel message.

Children’s Church Lesson Evaluation:

1. Ask five volunteers to retell the story to the class through role-play. Assign the children roles as Zechariah, Elizabeth, Gabriel and two others as the crowd standing outside the Temple. The remaining children will direct the story by taking turns telling the story back at the teacher’s prompting. “OK, good and then what happened?”
2. Ask a volunteer to explain the special mission God was going to give John.
3. Read the following themes, ask the children to stand if the theme the story says or remain seated if the theme is not from this story.

o God answers prayer. — YES
o God is a Trinity. – True, but not really a part of this story.
o Jesus loves sinners. – True, but not really a part of this story.
o Nothing is too hard for God. — YES
o Faith pleases God. — YES
o God created all things. – True, but not really a part of this story.

Please feel free to leave a comment to make suggestions about this lesson plan.

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