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Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand (Children’s Church Lesson) from John 6:1-14

Tony Kummer — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:59:18 +0000

This Sunday I continued my series of New Testament stories in children’s church. This Bible lesson plan for children can be used in Sunday school or children’s church. You can download this lesson plan as a Word document from the following link: Children’s Bible Lesson Plan: Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand from John 6:1-14.

You can also download my other Children’s Church Lesson Plans.

Children’s Church Bible Lesson: Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand

Text: John 26:1-14
(you can also find this story in Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17)

Learning Objectives: After this lesson, 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. Key points include:

Situation: Large crowd follows Jesus up the mountain.
Problem: No food for all the people.
Complication: Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd.
Complication: A young boy shares his lunch – but it’s not enough
Resolution: Jesus performs a miracle by multiplying a small boys gift.

Target Age: Kindergarten – 5^th

Items Needed:

Marked Bible for this passage. Prepare the copy in advance by highlighting the significant points to emphasize. Underlining words or ideas that will need additional explanation. I typically make small notes in the margin.
Snack. If you have snack in your children’s church this would be a perfect way to integrate the snack and the lesson. You could keep it basic with goldfish or go for something bigger with real bread and cooked fish.

Explanation: This story has several great themes to bring out for the children. Sometimes it has been reduced to a story about sharing, but the main focus is on Jesus supernaturally providing for his followers. There is a lesson in the fact that God chose to use the young boy’s gift, just don’t let that overshadow the main point about the divinity of Christ.

There is also the theme of compassion in this text. When Mark tells this story in Mark 6:34-44, he points out that the miracle was motivated by Jesus’ compassion for the crowd and a concern that they might faint without food returning home. There is certainly a lesson here about caring for the hungry.

This miracle is also a set-up for an upcoming lesson on Jesus as the “bread of life” in John 6:25-40. You might hint to the kids that Jesus is going to give the people something better than food next week.

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand, John 6:1-14
Sunday School Lesson For Children

One Page Teaching Plan

Hook

Take out your snack and begin to eat it in front of the class. Wait for someone to ask you to share. Assure them you will share after the lesson, but ask them to think about how they would feel it there wasn’t enough food for everyone. Say, “In today’s story, we are going to learn about a time when Jesus make food for 5,000 families out of one small snack.”

Book

Active Listening: Ask the children to listen carefully for the details of the story, so that they can re-tell it to you afterward.

Read (and summarize) John 6:1-14. Be sure to engage the children with good story telling. Key points include:

Situation: Large crowd follows Jesus up the mountain.
Problem: No food for all the people and they are getting really weak.
Complication: Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd.
Complication: A young boy shares his lunch – but it’s not enough
Resolution: Jesus performs a miracle by multiplying a small boys gift.

Review: Read the following statements. Have the children stand up if this was something that happened in this story. If it didn’t happen in this story they should sit with arms crossed – even if they are true statements taught in other parts of the Bible the children should remain seated.

Jesus turned regular water into wine to save a wedding party.
Jesus told his disciples to feed the 5,000 families.
A young boy offered to share his five loaves of bread and two fish.
Satan tried to get Jesus to turn stones into bread.
God sent down bread falling from the sky to feed the Israelites.
Jesus told the disciples to pick up all the leftover bread.

To use this lesson for Children’s Sunday School, you will want to add additional learning activities here like a craft to complement the Bible lesson.

Look/Took:

Talk About It: Ask the children to discuss the following questions to better understand the story.

Why do you think Jesus wanted to feed the 5,000 families?
What do you think the little boy was feeling when he saw Jesus use his gift for the miracle?
What does this story tell you about whom Jesus really was?

Test: Ask several volunteers to come up to the front to re-tell the story to the class. If they need help prompt them with questions like “what happened next.”

Sunday School Safety and Security

Tony Kummer — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:29:05 +0000

Safety and security is one of the biggest topics in children’s ministry today. This is true for both small and large churches. Keeping kids safe should be a priority in every church. In this article, I will discuss the leading concerns about Sunday school security and offer some ways to improve safety at your church.

Security and Safety Concerns For Sunday School

Many of the articles I’ve read about children’s ministry safety do not clearly state what dangers we need to address. I believe that is a mistake. We need to be responsible when accessing threats so we can avoid extremes. Here are the dangers that churches must work to prevent:

Accidents: Kids can always find some way to get hurt. Accidents are the most common safety danger for children in Sunday school. Often they are minor, but we should be concerned that every ministry setting is a safe place to learn and play.
Food Allergies: This is an increasing concern, and rightly so. Many food allergies are life threatening if not treated properly. Kids love snacks, but we should always be aware of the dangers of food allergies.
Kidnapping: This is every parent’s worst nightmare. While it may be a rare, Sunday school programs should establish safeguards to make it impossible to steal a child from any church program.
Sexual Abuse: Few things are more devastating to a child, especially when the predator uses religious authority to accomplish their crime. Churches have not done enough to prevent the sexual abuse of children.
Other Children: It doesn’t make the news, but the most common threat for sexual abuse is one child abusing another child. This is devastating for everyone involved. Never allow children unattended in the church facility. Even Pastor’s kids should not be set free after the church program. We have a designated game room where volunteer’s children can play until their parents are free to go.

Sunday School Safety and Security Checklist

One way to think carefully about church safety is to audit your Sunday school program according to the following categories. We are also talking about safe kid check policies in our children’s ministry forums.

Are Your Sunday School Facilities Safe and Secure?

Classrooms should be in high traffic areas and have windows. We recently installed windows in every classroom door. Since we have a volunteer church handyman, the project cost was very reasonable.
If your Sunday school classrooms do not have windows, keep them open unless two adults are with the class.
Children’s ministry areas should be up to building and fire code. This would include emergency exits, smoke alarms, and fire extinguishers.
Is the furniture safe and appropriate for children? Make sure that bookcases are secured to the wall, desks do not have splinters, and chairs are in good repair.
Use safety plugs in all electrical outlets. This needs to be checked often, since these tend to get lost. Use safety plugs in the hallways and adult areas too.
If there is overhead storage, on a shelf or a cabinet, make sure it is secure and items will not fall on children if they bump up against the cabinet.
Control the access to your building. In larger churches this becomes a big concern. There should be a limited number of entrance points to your children’s ministry area.

Do You Insist On Safety For All Sunday School Activities, Snacks and Crafts?

Scissors, glues and craft materials should be safe for children.
Avoid object lessons that could be unsafe. We learned from experience not to burn anything inside the Sunday school classrooms!
Some games are not safe for small rooms. If you don’t have enough floor space for a suggested Sunday school game, go outside or substitute another activity.
Never serve a snack with nuts unless you have personally cleared it with every parent. With peanut allergies on the rise, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Do not serve hot liquids; it’s okay if the hot chocolate is a just warm.
Supervise children closely during snack time, even older children can choke on their food.

Have You Selected Volunteers And Teachers That Are Safe?

Every volunteer should be screened and interviewed by the church leadership. Many churches are even purchasing criminal background checks for all church volunteers, especially those that work with children. That is a good step, but don’t forget to use common sense and judgment. Many sexual predators abuse many children before they are caught, so the criminal background check is only a limited safeguard.
No one is every allowed to be alone with a child. Make this a rule with no exceptions.
Even in counseling situations have another adult volunteer present.
The best safeguard against abuse is preventing opportunity for abuse. As much as you can, make it impossible for children to be harmed at your church.

Do Your Policies And Guidelines Promote Security and Safety?

All the best policies won’t help unless you train your teachers. So, make training Sundays school teachers about safety and security a priority in your church.
Make 2-by-2 the rule. No child (or group of children) should even be alone with an adult volunteer.
Ask your volunteers to get trained on CPR and first aide. We have several retired nurses in our church who are great resources for minor accidents.
Establish a check-in and check-out procedure that gets every child back to the right parents after your program. This will help to prevent children from being unsupervised in the facility.
Do not allow children to be unattended before or after Sunday school programs. As one reader stated, “Children stay with parents and remain the parents’ responsibility.”
Have a definite drop-off and pick-up time. These should be clearly posted and enforced. The children of volunteers should remain with their parents or be supervised in one location. We do not allow early drop-offs.
Ask for hall monitors or greeters to patrol the facility during and after your ministry programs.
Do you have clear bathroom policies? This more of a concern for younger children, but

Resources For Improving Security and Safety In Your Sunday School

Read these articles about Children’s Ministry safety from ChildrensMinistry.com
Browse these resources for Children and Youth safety from one insurance company.
Read my post 5 Ways Christians Can Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect
Read the Southern Baptist Convention 2007 Resolution ON PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM ABUSE
Read the Statement on Abuse From the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
If you know of a good resource, leave me a comment below.