Rotation.org Writing Team
Jesus "Calls" the Disciples (and You)
Drama Workshop
Summary of Lesson Activity
Students will first participate in a "Director's Walk Through" drama of Luke 5:1-11, and then create and record "voicemails" from Jesus to his disciples —i.e. Jesus "calls" the disciples. 
Students will also create and perform "disciple text messages" —all to help them think about how disciples of Jesus can better follow him today.
Scripture
Passage: Luke 5:1-11, the story of Jesus calling the fishermen to come follow him.
Key/Memory Verse: “And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’” Luke 5:10 (NRSV)
Lesson Objectives
See Bible Background
Preparation and Materials
- Read the Bible passage, Bible background, and lesson plan.
- Blue tarp for the sea
- Brown/canvas tarp or long piece of brown paper for the boat
- Net (or brown cloth cut like a net)
- Fish (plastic or cardboard)
- See "How to Record a Voicemail" below for simple recording equipment suggestions.
- An old (broken) cellphone with a keyboard as a prop in the text-tweet drama.
- Print copies of the attached "cellphone graphic" for txt msgs and tweet activity.
Lesson Plan
Drama prep always seems to take more time than planned. Keep it short and sweet, especially if your class time is under 40 minutes. This lesson plays on the double-meaning of the word "call" —which has both a religious meaning, and modern meaning related to the ubiquitous cellphone. Have fun with that and you will create an indelible lesson upon which to hang some important ideas.
Opening "Director's" Drama
Welcome your students and tell them how the lesson plan is going to go today.
Do a quick "What's Next?" humorous re-enactment of the Luke 5 story.
Here's how: Pretend you are "the Director" and ask several students to quickly construct the scene with the following props: A blue tarp for water, on which you place a circle of chairs covered with a tan tarp to make it look like a boat, and give them a net or brown cloth that looks like a net. Now pull a student into the boat and tell them they are Jesus. Pull others and make them Peter, James and John.
Tell the actors that they are to "pantomime" (act out silently) their roles "with feeling" as you read them from "the script" (Luke 5:1-11). As "The Director," it is your job to read, and then pause to prompt the actors in a humorous way. For example, when you read that Peter caught nothing, yell "stop the camera" and tell the actor portraying Peter that he "has to look more bummed-out." And when they are hauling in the full nets, stop your reading and start prompting the actors to "pull harder...like it weighs a million tons." When Jesus says, "follow me...." and your actors just sort of stumble after Jesus, yell "cut" and re-stage the scene telling the actors to look at each other, thrown down their nets, and jump happily out of the boat to follow Jesus who pats them all on the back. (You make this up as you go, pretty much rejecting their first attempt, yelling "cut" and goading them to do it "bigger and with more feeling." All of this is to create a strong and fun memory of the story before you move into the life application in the next step.)
"The Call to the Disciples" a Cellphone Drama
Working individually or in pairs, divide up the following "suggested voicemails" and have the students write a voicemail script based on the suggestion. Then they practice them, complete with the "Beep" in preparation for recording them in front of the class for playback afterwards. With non-readers, have them tell you what to write down, then, when it comes time to record, whisper their written words in their ear as they speak to record it.
Note to the teacher: These are not easy and will take some thinking and talking, which is a perfect opportunity for you to help your students think about these subjects.
- Jesus leaves you voicemail to get out of bed on Sunday to come learn in Sunday School.
- Jesus leaves you voicemail to ask you to bring that un-churched friend with you to fellowship group.
- Jesus leaves you voicemail to ask you to stop acting like __________ because you're actions are giving Christians a bad name.
- Jesus leaves you voicemail describing something he wants you to "give up" in order to become a better disciple of his.
How to Record the "Voicemails"
Use the record software on your laptop computer, or a voice recorder, or the recorder on a cellphone (that's connected to a speaker for playback).
Have the kids come up with their own fun "beep" to signal the beginning of their voicemail.
Disciple Texting & Tweeting
Using the graphic of a cellphone attached to this lesson at rotation.org, assign a text and a tweet to each student and have them first write it on the graphic, and then read it out loud in front of the class as they pretend to type it into the keyboard of a real (prop) cellphone. Post their tweets/texts on the wall outside the classroom when finished.
Cellphone Text Messages:
Jesus, it's me _______, and I realize that I need to start _____________ in order to follow you more closely. Could use some help with that! <3
Brother-Sister, I'm concerned that ________ and I want to help you with ___________.
Coach, it's me _____ txting about team practice time interfering with church. Here's how I think Jesus feels about it: ____________________________.
Pastor: If you can change this one thing in worship: _______________, then I will stop complaining about ______________ in church. Deal?
Twitter "Tweets" (140 letters or less)
@MyFamily We need to improve our Sunday mornings by doing/changing the following things: _____________________________ #AwesomeFamily
@MyChurch: We need to be doing more to help _____________ in our town. I also think I can raise $5 to help others by doing this: ___________________ #MissionRocks!
@JesusChrist: Following you would be a lot easier if you would do this for me: __________________. #HelpMyFaith
@FakeChristians: If you really believe in Jesus, you will stop _____________and start ______________ #WalktheWalk
Closing Voicemail (Prayer) to Jesus
Gather in a circle and tell each disciple that when it is their turn to pray, they are to first say "beep," and then address Jesus as if they were leaving him voicemail. In their voicemail to Jesus, they are to (1) thank him for calling them to be disciples, (2) ask for his help, and pray for anything else they'd like to. You might want to write out those three things so they can refer to them. In keeping with a voicemail drama theme, you might end with something like, "Beep...Dear Lord, thank you for calling us to follow you and we look forward to getting more instructions in our prayers. Amen."
Record this prayer and play it back.
Written by: Neil MacQueen for the Rotation.org Writing Team
