Lesson Outline for Paul's Prison Workshop

from Neil MacQueen

Summary of Lesson Activities:

A Roman Jailer will thrown your students into jail with Paul and Silas.
A Drama/Storytelling lesson will ensue.

I've done this rotation story and workshop TWICE and it was a lot of fun both times. The key is to go all out with the jail design, and the gruff jailer. Yes, put (swag) chains on the kids. this takes time and let's the jailer accuse them of all sorts of things. The chain serves as a nice takehome reminder too.

The Point:

1. God helped Paul and Silas spread the good news about Jesus to new places, even places where it was dangerous to talk about Jesus and were unwelcome. We too should be prepared to help others know about Jesus.
2. Paul and Silas message about Jesus was for everyone, even the jailer and prisoners.
3. God did things which helped the message win over people, such as the earthquake and jail experience.
4. We are called to share the Good News, and encourage people to believe in Jesus and be baptized. We can do this by believing ourselves! ...and practicing telling the message.

Lesson Plan:

1. Kids arrive and are chained. Paul and Silas start singing.
   While kids are being chained, the Soldier/Jailer tells them this story:
   
   In the town of Philippi: Paul and Silas were beaten thrown into prison. They were accused of teaching strange ideas about a man who was crucified and then resurrected, and they say he is God and we must worship only him.
   
   
2. Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns and the prisoners were listening. Kids are invited to join in singing.
3. Paul and Silas argue with the other prisoner. They try to explain their message for a few minutes, and ask the kids if they can explain it to the prisoner.
4. After a while an earthquake shook the prison, doors were opened and chains fell off the prisoners. The Jailer awoke and went to check the prisoners. Seeing the door open and thinking they had escaped he thought to kill himself. But Paul shouted to him we are all here.
   
   (Our jailer shook the outer walls of the jail and shouted. It was very surprising and convincing.)
   
   The jailer rushed in and said what must I do to be a follower of Jesus and be saved. Paul said believe in Jesus and you and your whole family can be his followers.
5. The jailer washed their wounds and was baptized and gave them food. (Paul and Silas celebrate communion with the children and jailer). The jailer leaves and then comes back and tells Paul: "The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace." (This should happen at end of lesson time.)
   
   Kids get unchained and Paul and Silas head back to Lydias house.

Teaching in the Jail:
Whoever is Paul has to know the story and have plenty of questions to ask the kids. The younger kids may try to say "this isn't real" and in fact one very young boy said it because he was afraid it was!

Our soldier was very convincing. He and Paul banter/spar/argue about WHY Christians must be put in jail. He tries to keep Paul from singing. The soldier is quite gruff about Paul's "love" message. Occasionally Paul or Silas ask the kids to respond to the jailer.

We also had a PRISONER in the jail give us some trouble and try to put down the "Jesus message" as "wierd and unbelieveable." She asked the kids why they believed in Jesus.

Just before the earthquake and baptisms we had some pita bread and grapes. Paul and Silas kept talking to the kids about the place where THEY worship. What is it like?

One kid talked about singing organ music and Paul said "what's an organ?"

The kids had a fun time in the chains as well. The younger ones wanted OUT of the chains. Paul warned them not to take them off lest the guard see.

Paul asked them what it was like to be a Christian where THEY lived. He was quite astounded that they worship in safety. Of course, he hadn't heard of the USA was. He asked them how they spread the good news in THEIR country. Their responses helped create new discussion possibilities. Paul and Silas had to be on their toes!!!

How to Build the Jail:

Pick a 9x12 corner of a room. Most drop cloths are 9x12. It will hold 3 adults and about 10 kids.

Cover two of the four jail walls with brown paper drop cloths. We bought ours at a local Home Improvement center. They come folded and the creases look like mortar lines. You can add painted mortar lines. We trimmed certain parts of the walls with grey duct tape which looks like mortar. Put a canvas on the floor with some straw.

Heres how we made the other two walls: We stood our standard long fellowship hall style table (with metal folding legs) on end with the tabletop pointing inward to the cell. 

Tables lean back a bit and were more than sturdy. Then we covered the tables with more paper drop cloth. The paper and tables are easy to "shake" for the earthquake too.

Suggestion: use thumbtacks to hold paper to wall. Tape will give way week to week. Put a piece of packing tape behind the section of the paper you are pushing the thumbtack through to reinforce paper at tack point.

DuctTape prison bars to the paper covering any windows and then cut out paper in-between the tape. The tape acts to reinforce the thin paper bars and looks surprisingly good.

How we made our prison door:
These are black plastic pipes from the local hardware that we duct-taped together. We DuctTaped the bar door to one of the tables. The black ornamental chain was added for effect. Simple and quick. The kids thought it was neat.

The first time we did this workshop we had a real room. We took the door off the hinges and put in a cardboard door with bars and chains. Very effective.