Lesson Plans Zone

"If you don't have a plan for the kids, they'll have a plan for you!"

Here you will find complete lessons designed for the class or children's church.  If you are looking for children's church lesson, be sure to visit Kid's Church Lessons. (All of those lessons are included here - but that zone is exclusively children's church.) This zone includes ALL complete lesson plans.

These are basic bible lessons that were used for a 5-day VBS, based on Philippians.

This is a sample lesson from the Awesome Adventure Children's Discipleship Series. If you have 3D glasses - you can view the awesome background! This lesson introduces children to the character of God and the trinity.

This lesson is a review of creation, but more importantly, the purpose of this lesson is to excite kids about the fact that the God who made everything – also loves and wants to know them. By grade school, children may be tired of ‘creation lessons.’ It is important to approach it as a ‘review’ of creation and then focus on God’s love for them. Kids often feel very small, the scope of creation can make them feel even smaller. Help them see that the point of creation was us – that God wanted to create a wonderful place for people, so that we could know and love Him.

This lesson introduces children to the origin of sin into our world, but also touches on the appeal of sin that remains even today. The creation lesson laid the foundation for our creation and our being made ‘free’ and the last lesson on being made in the image of God that is stained, this lesson will bring them together with Adam and Eve’s fall with a two-fold application. First, that Jesus has provided salvation, and secondly, that we need to fight temptation daily so that we don’t also make mistakes (sin) that can have long lasting consequences.

Have son or daughters asking for a certain need of theirs. Then give them the complete opposite. Teaching that God would not do this to anyone of us.

LOTS of ideas for teaching about the Bible. This is the chapter I wrote for Group's Ulitimate Bible Guide for Kids!

Explore hope by studying the life of Daniel, who continually put his hope in God no matter what trial faced him!

Grade school lesson with songs that can be made into overhead transparencies.

Preschool service complete with songs you can make as overhead transparencies.

Lesson on Worship, including verses

A complete lesson with MANY activities on the theme of the "new year". Use the whole lesson or just parts of it. Teachs children how to make realistic New Year's Resolutions.

These lessons are part of a four week class that Pastor Karl does annually at his church. The lessons cover Salvation, Baptism, Communion and Discipleship.

Lesson on how we are the salt of the earth

This is a guide on how to prepare a written salvation testimony with the Kidologist's as a sample. Written for kids, but good for all ages. See the PDF for printing and the sample.

The story of Cain and Abel is usually used as a lesson on the proper gifts to give to God, however, there is not much in the text to explain why God was more pleased with Abel’s gift than Cain’s – we just see that Abel did what was right. Whether it was because Abel’s was ‘first fruits’ and Cain’s was ‘left overs’ – or whether Cain was supposed to also offer an animal is not clear. What is clear is that Cain failed, he messed up, or perhaps even made a mistake. (though not likely) Kids fail a lot. They mess up. They make mistakes. Sometimes it is on purpose, often it is by mistake. The important thing for kids to learn is that while failure is a part of life, how we RESPOND when we fail is very important. We have a choice, we can learn from our mistake, or make a bigger mistake. We can attack or learn. Cain chose to attack. We need to learn to say, “I’m sorry” and learn from the failure.

Noah and the Ark is a very familiar Bible story to most kids. Don’t treat this story as something new, instead, have fun with it, and make the point that we should obey God, even when he asks for a lot. This story is also a powerful illustration of just how much God hates sin. While he has promised never to flood the earth again, he has not changed his opinion of sin!

The Tower of Babel illustrates so clearly man’s core desire to ‘make a name for himself.’ At the center of “sIn” is the letter “I” – pride is the root of all sin. The issue of this story is not the mere building of a tower, but the motive for which to do so. Pride caused them to focus their resources and energy on building something that would bring them glory. We may not build physical towers, but we can often find ourselves building our own ‘towers of glory’ – we can have a tendency to devote time, energy and resources on things that will make us look good, instead of furthering the Kingdom of God. Kids can relate to the pressure to be ‘popular’ – but they can learn that it is more important to focus on the difference you can make in the world, rather than how many people you.

Abram had no idea where or why – but he obeyed. This lesson is not just about a man from long ago, but about God’s call to us everyday to GO when he says “GO” and to trust Him even when we can't see the reasons, the outcome or the situation before we get there. Try to get the children to sense the adventure there is when we follow God into the unknown.

The story of God’s promise to Abram is one of the most significant stories in the Bible in that it began the process of making the way for the Redeemer to come. For us today, Abram serves as a good example of how to respond to God’s promises and offers to us. Many times in the New Testament, Abram is used as an example of faith, because Abram believed and acted on his belief before he had any ‘proof.’ Faith is acting on what we believe, and trusting God with the outcome.

In this amazing story, God demanded the unthinkable - the sacrifice of the promised child. Sure, God had already fulfilled the promise of a son and could perhaps give another one, but this child was to be the one through whom the millions of descendants would come! To obey this demand would make it impossible for God to keep his bigger promise. Did Abraham question God? No, he simply assumed what made sense to assume at that time, that would raise his slain son from death! His absolute trust in God's promises enabled steadfast obedience - even when it looked like God had made a mistake! Do we trust God that much?

While the story of 'getting a wife' for Isaac may not immediately interest children, there are many practical applications for trusting God to meet our needs and how to determine God's Will. And while choosing a spouse is a loooong way off for kids, it is never to soon to establish in their thinking the understanding that God knows what is best for them and if they are to marry someday, He has a partner for them and that His timing is always best. (It is not necessary at this age to deal with 'the gift of singleness')

This is a story that many children are familiar with, and yet, it is one they may have a hard time relating to since ‘birthrights’ are not something we are familiar with in our culture, nor do we really understand the power and significance that came with them in the time of the patriarchs. However, kids can understand the concept of trading something valuable in the future for something of much less value now. Every day people choose the immediate over waiting for the best. Kids can and need to be challenged to choose the best over what might be merely ‘good’ right now.

The story of Jacob deceiving his father and cheating his brother of his birthright is an interesting story because it is not a straight forward ‘cheating is bad’ lesson. Why? Because Jacob was to be the rightful recipient of the birthright, it had been promised to him before he was born! So while the birthright belonged to him, the issue became how it was to come about since the birthright normally would go to the first born, and from all appearances, Isaac intended to give it to Esau. By getting it ‘his own way’ Jacob missed out on seeing how God would have kept his word. It became a matter of trust and obedience. The end was right, but that did not justify the means!

Biblical names often had significant meaning. Jacob was one of them. His name meant ‘grabber’ and he spent the early part of his life trying to ‘grab’ what was his instead of trusting God’s ways and timing. Eventually he learned, and instead of grabbing his way, he let God get a hold of him and finally he was able to be the man God needed to be the founder of Israel. Kids need to be challenged to not judge those they see make mistakes, but to learn from them, and to determine to live a life that is spared the costs of making bad decisions.

The story of Jacob’s vision of the stairway to heaven represents a turning point in Jacob’s life where he finally experiences God for himself. No longer is the God of Heaven the God of his fathers, but he has his own personal experience that forever changes him. However, even in this experience we still see the ‘grabber’ at work as he bargains with God. Kids can understand bargaining, “God give me what I want and I will live for you.” We need to notice that God’s promise here was non-conditional – neither should our promises be! Challenge kids to have their own personal experiences with God and not just live ‘their parent’s” faith and to promise to live for God no matter what!

“LOVE” is a topic that usually makes kids uncomfortable as they associate it with physical love, a topic our world bombards them with, and being unable to properly understand that, it makes them uncomfortable. The lesson of Jacob working seven years, and then seven more years for Rachel is a great illustration of a man who demonstrated that love was a decision to value her enough to work many years to be her husband. Indeed the text says that it seemed like only a few days to him. That kind of love even kids are capable of! We can challenge them to choose love.

The story of Jacob and Esau is filled with deceit and betrayal. It is nice that unlike most such stories, this one has a happy ending, and Genesis chapter 31-33 tells the story of the renewed fellowship between two brothers who had every reason to hate each other for life. One tricked and betrayed, the other’s life threatened. There is some tense drama in this story as neither is sure of the other's intention, but the tension is broken by one offering an undeserved gift. Children need to be challenged not to let the arguments and differences that are a part of life be left unresolved. They need to learn to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. They can learn how good it feels to forgive and be forgiven.

Joseph's dreams and his brother's response.

The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife is a great example of a man who did what was right even though it cost him. He suffered for doing right, but in the end God worked it all out for good. Kids need to learn to not only “don’t sin” but to avoid, even run, from situations where they might be tempted to do the wrong thing. Running away sometimes seems like the wimpy thing to do, but when you are fleeing sin, it is the BRAVE thing to do!

Teaching children how to overcome "Giants" in their lives through the story of David and Goliath.

Sometimes God seems to let us down. We see an obvious chance for God to do what is ‘right’ or ‘best’ and He doesn’t do it. We feel confused, forgotten, unloved, or betrayed. Kids (as well as adults) need to be challenged and reminded that God’s love for us in incomprehensible, and not only does He know what is best – He DOES what is best for us.

Here are some ways to make your lessons fun and exciting. In so doing , you will overcome most discipline problems.

Joseph has every ‘right’ to be bitter and angry at God – he had been wrongfully attacked by his brothers, unlawfully sold as a slave, then wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit, and forgotten by those who knew of his good character, and yet he did not blame or get upset with God, he patiently accepted his ‘lot in life’ unaware that God was working to use him in a very significant way that would impact and help the entire world!

Kids often are ready to ‘do unto others as they did to them’ and we all can be guilty of hoping people ‘get what they deserve,’ despite the fact that we DID NOT ‘get what we deserve’ from God – we got forgiveness! We, too, need to forgive others, even when they don’t deserve it, like Joseph did for his own brothers who certainly deserved punishment for what they did to their own brother! But Joseph realized the higher truth – that while they meant it for harm, God had used it for good.

This lesson serves as both an introduction to the life of Moses as well as a lesson about God has a plan for each and every person he created, but that the fulfillment of that plan hinges on every person’s willingness to follow and obey their Creator.

In this lesson the children will hear the incredible story of the ‘burning bush’ – and a lesson the truth and identity of who God is and our need to obey Him when He gives us orders.

Sometimes life is like a jumbled mess of pieces, but God places all the parts there to make something cool out of it if we will follow His instructions. Trying to live our lives without following God's Word is like trying to build a model car without the instructions.

A number of ideas are shared that could be incorporated into lessons on the subject of Creation.

God will either "shower" us with large blessings or "squirt" us with big blessings for our giving to Him!

This activity goes along with the story of the rich young ruler. It explores the activities or possessions that get in the way of the children putting God first.

The story of Moses and the Exodus is one more to perseverance and patience and trust than it is merely a neat story filled with exciting plagues and adventure. To get kids to merely memorize the plagues in order is to miss the broader point – God keeps His word, but is more interested in teaching and growing us through trials than in merely ‘rescuing’ us.

Money doesn't last forever, so invest it in something that does last forever- the church!

This is a salvation lesson using a SpongeBob SquarePants episode called Hooky. The emphasis is about not getting "hooked into sin."

God has blessed some of us with a lot of things. God wants us to give some of it back, in proportion to what we get.

This interactive lesson helps kids understand that God's mercy shows us his love!

About what your Spirit is, and where your treasure should be....

God wants our heart to be focused on good things, not the things of the world!

The story of the Red Sea is a famous and favorite story. Most kids will have heard the story many times – but many may not know what relevance it has for TODAY. In teaching this fantastic story it is important to not only teach the story, but answer the question “SO WHAT?” Kids need to know and believe that the same God who parted the sea can and does still do amazing things today, and the same God the Israelites turned to for help – they can turn to as well!

A four-lesson unit on the virtue of fairness

A Kids Church unit with five lessons on determination using Paul, noah, Moses, Caleb and Joshua as examples of people who were determined to keep serving God despite many trials.