Video, A-V Lessons, Ideas, Activities, and Resources for the Parable of the Sower

Post your Sunday School video, A-V lessons, ideas, activities, and resources for the Parable of the Sower.

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Originally posted by CreativeCarol...

Video Short by max7.org

Here is a very well done short animated video on the Parable of the Sower.
It is 3 minutes long and is done without words, just music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...rRvY&feature=related

You can download this in HD for free at Max7.org here.
It's from a South African missionary organization's media resources (max7.org).
Great animation!  Gotta love the faces on the seed.

Parable of the Sower

Video Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:
Uses a video clip from the Visual Bible's Matthew Video Series and a game.

Leader Preparation:

• Read the story ahead of time.
• Preview the video clip.
• Gather the materials.
  
  

Supplies List:

• Tape
• Plastic Cups
• Questions
• Visual Bible's Series - Matthew Video (Cue to Clip ~ found on Disk 1 - Event #33, length of clip approx. 4 mins. 81 seconds)
  

Presentation

Opening - Welcome and Lesson Introduction:

Greet the children and introduce yourself.

Open with a prayer,

Begin class with "voting" questions where kids answer by standing in a certain spot along a line in the room. One end of the room could be YES, the other NO. and so on. As the kids line up to respond on the continuum, interview some of them about their answers.

Possible questions:

1. How good do you feel right now?
2. Hungry? Tired?
3. When you woke up and thought about going to church, how did you feel about it?
4. On most Sunday mornings when you come to learn about God and worship him, what kind of attitude do you come with?
5. How do you think God is feeling this morning about you?

Feel free to add/modify questions based on the discussion or age group.

Dig - Main Content and Reflection:

Say:
Jesus told stories that had slightly secret meanings.
Do you know what that kind of story is called? (parable)
Today we are going to study Jesus' parable of the Sower.
What's a sower?

(By the second week of the Rotation ask the kids to try and tell you the parable --if they know it).

It's a story about how well we receive God's word into our hearts.

Show the video clip from the Visual Bible's Matthew Video Series of Jesus teaching the Parable of the Sower .  This video's Jesus is known as the "laughing Jesus". He's very warm and engaging. The retelling is a direct quote from Matthew.

Alternately, the Parable of the Sower is one of three parables found on Nest Entertainment's Kingdom of Heaven video DVD.

Scattering Seed Game:

Tape the following questions inside plastic cups. Do this with about 7 to 10 questions. Place the cups across the room, and have students try to KNOCK the cups over with a walnut or other similar size seed.  When they knock over a cup, they get to answer the question in the cup.

1. Who is the Sower?  and.What is the Seed?  
2. What is the Word Jesus scatters?  That God forgives and welcomes us home.
3. Why would Jesus care to scatter the Word even on the bad ground?  
4. Name a bad attitude that can grow up and choke off the Word of God in your heart.
5. What chapter of Matthew is the Parable of the Sower found in?
6. What makes someone not want to hear or obey God's Word?
7. Name two things that can help the Word grown in your life?

Want to play again?

Use these 5 questions for Round 2:

1. Name a favorite excuse for not going to church, and a good reason to go to church
2. Name a nasty bird that tries to pull young people away from their faith.
3. Name something a person could do that would make God's Word grow in them.
4. Name a weedy problem in a person's life that could keep them from loving God.
5. Name one way you can help Jesus scatter the Word.

Say: Soil can be conditioned, -made more fertile. Hard soil can be broken up. Thorns and weeds can be pulled up.  The Sower who sows his Word around us, is also at work within us, changing us, if we let him. Let's pray for God to be at work within us.

A lesson by Neil MacQueen