"Fishing for people"
Children's Activity
Object:
Teachers or Parents: We are all in the people catching business
if we are Christ's followers. Even children can learn the
importance of sharing the good news of Jesus.
* Have an "Invite a Friend" Sunday in your Sunday church
school.
* Make "Fishing for an answer" cards your children can give
as invitations to Sunday church school and worship.
* Make a drawing of Jesus and the disciples fishing. Have
the children color it.
* Make fishing poles out of sticks and string. Attach to
the hook end of the string a cutout of a fish. Ask the children
who they know among their friends and family who normally don't
come to Sunday school or church. Ask for names. Then ask the
children if you could write the name of that person on the "fish"
at the end of the pole. Older children could do this themselves.
At the end of class, take the "fish" off the end of the line and
give it back to the child. Explain: "Go to this person and tell
him or her the story we learned today about Jesus and Peter.
Say, 'I want to invite you to come with me next Sunday. Would
you do so?' " On the back of the "fish" you could have place,
time, and events at your church.
* List the names of the twelve disciples and point out the
ones noted in today's text: Peter, James, and John.
* Find out how many people in the congregation are named
after one of the disciples mentioned in today's text. "Would we
have remembered these disciples if they had decided to disobey
Jesus and remain as fishers of fish?" Explore that concept.
* Make fish symbols in class utilizing the word ICHTHUS
(Greek for "fish") or the symbols for the Greek letters iota,
chi, theta, upsilon, and sigma. The Greek letter symbols used
together stand for Jesus, Christ, God, Son of, Savior.
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Give fish symbols to everyone at today's opening.
* Sing "Fishers of People" or some evangelistic hymn (in the
"Witness" section of your church's hymnal).
if we are Christ's followers. Even children can learn the
importance of sharing the good news of Jesus.
* Have an "Invite a Friend" Sunday in your Sunday church
school.
* Make "Fishing for an answer" cards your children can give
as invitations to Sunday church school and worship.
* Make a drawing of Jesus and the disciples fishing. Have
the children color it.
* Make fishing poles out of sticks and string. Attach to
the hook end of the string a cutout of a fish. Ask the children
who they know among their friends and family who normally don't
come to Sunday school or church. Ask for names. Then ask the
children if you could write the name of that person on the "fish"
at the end of the pole. Older children could do this themselves.
At the end of class, take the "fish" off the end of the line and
give it back to the child. Explain: "Go to this person and tell
him or her the story we learned today about Jesus and Peter.
Say, 'I want to invite you to come with me next Sunday. Would
you do so?' " On the back of the "fish" you could have place,
time, and events at your church.
* List the names of the twelve disciples and point out the
ones noted in today's text: Peter, James, and John.
* Find out how many people in the congregation are named
after one of the disciples mentioned in today's text. "Would we
have remembered these disciples if they had decided to disobey
Jesus and remain as fishers of fish?" Explore that concept.
* Make fish symbols in class utilizing the word ICHTHUS
(Greek for "fish") or the symbols for the Greek letters iota,
chi, theta, upsilon, and sigma. The Greek letter symbols used
together stand for Jesus, Christ, God, Son of, Savior.
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Give fish symbols to everyone at today's opening.
* Sing "Fishers of People" or some evangelistic hymn (in the
"Witness" section of your church's hymnal).
