Parable of the Sower - Luke 8:1-15

Idea 1

Plant something.

Give each of the kids a small pot.
They can decorate the pot with markers or paint. Ask them to draw things about God on their pot.
Let each of the kids fill their pots with soil and plant some seeds.
Talk with the kids about seeds, being planted in good soil.
What would happen if we planted our seeds in a bunch of rocks? What would happen if some birds came and ate our seeds? What would happen if we planted lots of seeds and there there isn’t enough space for all of them to grow up? What happens if we plant our seeds in good soil and give them enough sun light and water?

Idea 2

Parable of the Sower Scenarios.

Go through the four scenarios of the seeds, write each of them on the board so the kids can remember the four scenarios.
Read through the scenarios of Tim. Ask the kids to relate Tim’s scenarios to the scenarios in the bible.
Ask the kids to make up their own scenarios, or talk about things that they have seen or something that has happened in their own lives that they can relate to. (an example would be going to a christian camp or a retreat and getting all excited about Jesus, but after a while that excitement fades)

Idea 3

Read this story with the kids

point to the different pictures and ask the kids what is happening to the seeds.

Idea 4

Read “The Sower” on page 292 in the Spark Bible

Idea 5

Read Luke 8:1-15 in the bible

Ask all the kids to go off by themselves and read Luke 8:1-15
Ask them to write down two or three questions they have about the passage.
Come back as a group and get the kids to ask the questions. Let them talk about each of them as a group and answer each others questions. If no one can answer the question, either guide them to the right answer or tell them that was a good question and move on.

Idea 6

Play a large group game

Divide the group into four teams (birds, stones, thorns and good soil)
Divide the room into four sections so that each team gets their own section with a hula hoop at the corner of their section.
The object of the game is run to the centre of the room where there are a number of balls, take one of the balls and put it in your own teams hula hoop. The team at the end of the game who has the most balls wins.
Teams can also go to another teams hula hoop, take a ball and put it in their own hula hoop. The catch is that no one can steal from the good soils hula hoop.
players can only take one ball at a time from any location, and they can not throw balls.
Play a few rounds of the game, until the kids complain about the unfair advantage the Good Soil team has over the rest.
Sit down afterwards and talk about what it means to be in good soil and why we should all want to be in good soil. How can we stay close to God, how can we put God first in our lives?

Idea 7

Parable of the Sower - Colouring sheet

Idea 8

Set up different stations in the room.

have a bible reading, praying, and going to church station
You can set up a number of bibles in the bible reading station, pillows in the praying station and maybe let the kids build a small church for their going to church station.
Play some music and let the kids dance around, stop the music and random times and yell out one of the stations.
The kids need to go to the station, and either read the bible, pray or pretend they are in church.
After the game is over have a talk with the kids about growing up strong by reading out bibles, praying and going to church.

Click on the links below for formal lessons.