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Reply to "Sunday School Lessons & Ideas on the Theme of Renewal, Recommitment, Rally"

Sunday School is like Buried Treasure

Sunday School is a Pearl Worth the Price!

It's also like a small mustard seed—spending one hour a week in Sunday School learning about Jesus can help make Jesus a BIG part of your life.

Our Writing Team has a YUMMY Cooking Workshop activity that turns a cinnamon roll-making activity into a tasty lesson about Jesus' four short parables about the Kingdom of God. We add "teacher patter" and extra ingredients to the preparation to link the activity to the stories and their meaning, and then do a "yeast in a bottle" science experiment during the baking to talk about how small things can turn into BIG things.   

The Team's lesson is easily adaptable to your "renew" or "why come to Sunday School" lesson or theme, and could be done by an intergenerational group, or at home.

rolls

The full lesson and set are open to our amazing Supporting Members (join today), but we're posting enough of the lesson here for you to get the idea and adapt this fun cooking activity to renewing everyone's commitment to the importance and promise of Sunday School!



Scripture for the Lesson

  • Parable of the Mustard Seed - Matthew 13:31-32
  • Parable of the Leaven (Yeast) - Matthew 13:33
  • Parable of the Treasure in the Field - Matthew 13:44
  • Parable of the Pearl - Matthew 13:45-46
  • Additional Scripture:  "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it?" Luke 13:18 (NRSV)

Notes about the Recipe & Process

There are many recipes for cinnamon rolls. The recipe we've chosen (and shared below) can be assembled, baked, and ready to eat within 30-35 minutes.  By using ready-to-bake crescent roll dough, you don't have to wait for the bread to rise. We added plumped raisins to the recipe to visually and tastily represent the mustard seed and pearls from the parables. In your renewal lesson, these can represent the small things that you can do (like committing yourself to an hour a week Sunday School) that can do big things for your faith!

Here's the Recipe from the Lesson:

The following recipe makes 8 cinnamon rolls. Multiply based on the size of your class and desired number of rolls. It is based on the "30 minute cinnamon roll recipe" from the Pop Sugar Food website.

The Dough
1 package crescent roll dough (makes 8 cinnamon rolls)

The Cinnamon Spread
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 packed cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Raisins to represent seeds and pearls  (plump in a bowl of warm water 15 minutes ahead of time)

Sugar Glaze for 8 Rolls
2 tablespoons soft salted butter
2 tablespoons softened cream cheese
2 to 3 tablespoons of lemon or orange juice (adjust to thin the glaze)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar to sprinkle over the finished rolls (if desired)


The teacher shares insights and ideas during the preparation:

Here is the suggested "script" of things from the Kingdom Parables lesson plan. It's a sort of "tabletop re-telling" of the parable that assigns meaning to the ingredients and prep steps.

You will have to rephrase these ideas for your chosen renewal theme. We've included them as an example of how the teacher in a Cooking Workshop connects the ingredients to the lesson content. No moments or ingredients go unused.

As students help unroll the dough in one big sheet...
Jesus talked a lot about the coming of God's Kingdom into the world. And in fact, he said it was already here —IF you knew what to look for. Our dough is like the world.

As students drop plump raisins onto the dough...
Jesus told many stories called parables to describe the Kingdom. One of parables said that the Kingdom was like small mustard seeds that were being sown into the world. And those tiny Kingdom seeds would grow into a large tree that birds could safely nest in. Our raisins are like a small mustard seed sown into the dough which represents the world.

As students spread the butter on the dough...
Then Jesus said that the Kingdom was kind of like a woman who mixed yeast (or leaven) into bread dough to make it rise. We'll learn more about this parable of the yeast while our cinnamon rolls are baking.

As students mix and spread the cinnamon and sugar onto the dough...
Then Jesus told another parable saying the Kingdom was like a treasure someone had hidden in a field. Let's spread our treasure onto the dough.

As students roll the dough...
The Kingdom was hidden in the field, kind of like we're hiding the cinnamon sugar in the dough. Not everyone believed in God's Kingdom. They didn't think God was real. They ignored the idea that God was around them. But then one day, someone like you stumbled upon the treasure, and knew it was the most important thing in the whole world. So you bought the cinnamon rolls—I mean "field."

Cut the roll into slices, and put the slices into a greased baking dish.

As students add either a raisin "pearl" or extra bit of cinnamon/sugar/butter to the middle of each roll...
Jesus also said that God's Kingdom was like someone who bought and sold pearls, but was always looking for the BEST pearl ever. And then one day, the pearl merchant FOUND the Kingdom of God, I mean –great pearl, and gave up everything they owned to own that pearl. I think what that means is this:  when you find God and find God's goodness and mercy, you want to give your whole life to it.

Now let's put our Cinnamon Parable into the oven.

Note: If you do not have time or the facilities to bake the rolls, place them in foil tins to be baked at home. In lieu of baking, mix the topping and scoop it into sealable sandwich-sized bags to go home with the unbaked rolls. Include a note about the "Kingdom Rolls" and baking time. (Smaller batches in foil tins will bake faster.)

During the Baking Time

Writing Team Cooking Workshops always have a Bible story-related activity or game to play when things are in the oven.  In this Kingdom Rolls Cooking Workshop, the lesson plan calls for a quick "yeast, sugar, and water" experiment/demonstration to show how something small can do big things—like inflate a balloon.

yeast-sugar-expand-experiment

You can find descriptions of this experiment at various science websites. The Writing Team's detailed description and explanation is in their lesson plan with suggested teaching content to connect the activity and action to the Bible story. The Team is thorough!

For a renewal theme...
What "ingredients" will help you follow through on your renewed commitment to learning more about Jesus?

Attachments

Images (3)
  • Kingdom of God Cinnamon Rolls
  • Pearl of Great Price
  • yeast-sugar-expand-experiment
Last edited by Amy Crane
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