The most important part of your spiritual based program is creating moving lessons that get kids involved. You can make your own lesson plans if you have the talent for that or there are a variety of resources you can choose from that have pre-written lesson plans. Your own denomination may have a website dedicated to various topics or lesson plans. The sites listed here take a non-denomination approach and serve the main purpose of introducing youth people to Jesus and making a connection with him. Here are some sites you may wish to check out:
If you wish to make your own lessons keep in mind the age of the audience, you are trying to reach. The younger the group the simpler your approach needs to be.
For preschoolers focus on bible stories that give a moral lesson or show how the character interacts with God and others in the stories.
For instance, when relating some stories, they may necessarily need to be broken down to several lessons over a few weeks. A good example is the story of Joseph. This story takes many twists and turns from his youth to his being elevated to the 2nd in command of Egypt.
For the younger set you can move through these various phases of the life of Joseph rather quickly, however as your audience becomes older you can dwell on the lessons he learns and how his relationships with both God and his fellow man and family matures.
As you know Joseph’s story begins as he is a young person and shows how he is a bit spoiled, getting the coat of many colors from his father Jacob. This causes his brothers to resent him.
This entire situation comes to a head once Joseph tells the brothers of his dreams of the sheaves of wheat and the stars in heaven and how they all bow down to him. Remember, he is one of the younger children and does not share the same mother as the others, so this causes a large amount of resentment. You can teach about jealousy and how someone approaches others with their attitudes as well as how to receive another individual.
Later on, Jacob sends Joseph out to see his brothers to bring them some much-needed supplies out in the field. The brothers look upon the situation as their father sent this kid to check up on them and Joseph somehow causes the situation to escalate so the brothers grab him and throw him down a well. The brothers want to kill him and be done with it but one suggest that they sell him to some traders as a slave. They all think this is better than committing murder, so they do it. Joseph is confused and sad at his situation. He feels forsaken by both his family and God. Yet, all the while God is working with him to set things up in the future. This part of the story shows a father’s love for his family even though they are far away from him. It also teach that we should not discount the help of others that are sent to us.
Joseph is sold to a high ranking official in Egypt and lives a good life for a slave until the mistress of the house falsely accuses him of terrible deeds. This gets him sent to jail for many years where he learns humility.
He excels as a prisoner, and he becomes friends with a few inmates who eventually are released to serve in Pharo’s court. Joseph asked them to put in a good word for him, but they forget about him as several more years go by. Friends may not always be able to help you in the moment but will come to your aid at the proper time.
Eventually one of the released inmates tells Pharo of Josephs talents of interpreting dreams and Pharo sends for him. Joseph tells Pharo of the dreams meanings and he is soon elevated to second in command of all of Egypt. Yet through all these trials God is working with him and setting him up to be able to help his family through a terrible famine and build the nation of Israel and they become prosperous.
This story contains many lessons of pride, humility and trusting in God even during the worst of times.
With the younger audience you must keep it simple but as the age group you are working with becomes older you can delve deeper into the bigger lessons of these events.
For more ideas and lessons check out the above websites for more details.
