Leader guide cover art

The Lost Son

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Marvel (4-5)Year 1Unit 1 (Marvel at God’s Love)Session 2
2

The Lost Son

This is a FREE sample session of DWELL. The entire session is below, except for accompanying PDFs (song lyrics, printable resources). To receive an email with links to PDF samples of all DWELL leader and children resources, please use our Get Samples form.

Scripture
Focus
God is the loving Father who welcomes his lost children home.
Faith Nurture Goals
  • Identify with the lost son and imagine his joy at being welcomed home
  • Tell what the parable teaches about God.
  • Show and express the Father's love.
  • Worship God, our heavenly Father.
Memory Challenge

Session Outline

Leader Reflection

Steps

Step 1 Gathering for God's Story

  • music smart
  • number smart
  • word smart
  • ​​people smart
Materials
  • None needed

Warmly greet students as they enter the room. Briefly touch base with each child (both those who attended last time and any who are new). You may want to invite the kids to tell you something funny or exciting or special that happened to them during the week. Give positive feedback to those who’ve remembered to bring their Bibles with them today.

Invite the group to think about ways in which they’ve seen God in their lives during the past week. Maybe it’s just in day-to-day things—like having enough to eat. Maybe something more extraordinary happened this week (safety during an accident or near-accident or healing from a bout with strep throat, for example). Be prepared to mention a few of the ways in which you’ve seen God at work in your own life too—and in the beauty of the world around you.

Hand out pencils and one or two note cards to each person. Ask kids to close their eyes and take a deep breath, and then to write down one or two words that describe who God is or what God is like (for example, a loving Father or a mighty protector). Tell kids that you will be using their own descriptive words—often called attributes—in an opening prayer. (You may wish to play music from the Dwell CD—especially the song “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”—as group members think and write. After two minutes or so, collect the cards.

Begin your time of prayer by saying “God, we thank you for being . . .” Then read the attributes on each card. (Or cue group members to read their own cards.) During the prayer encourage everyone to reflect quietly on God’s goodness.

Conclude your prayer time by inviting the group to say the sign language prayer from Session 1, “Speak, Lord, your people are listening,” as they prepare to hear God’s story.

Re*formed

The Reformed way of looking at the Bible involves understanding that God is always the main character in the overarching story. Seen in that light, this story is ultimately about the love and forgiveness of the father—not about sibling rivalry or teenage rebellion.

Step 2 Entering the Story

  • picture smart
  • word smart
Materials
  • Story symbol from previous session

  • Notebooks

Display or draw the symbol for today’s story. Ask the group to guess what the story might be about. Explain that Jesus told today’s story to the same group of people he told last week’s story to: Pharisees, tax collectors, and sinners. Invite them to tell you what they remember about that audience, especially the Pharisees. (Note the invitation on today’s Storymark to find out more about the Pharisees.)

Ask children to open their Bibles to Luke 15:11-32, commenting that this story, the story of a father and two sons, is another part of God’s big story. Choose a few volunteers to read the story out loud. If your group wrote in their notebooks during the last session, hand out the mini notebooks and pencils again (or invite group members to get them from their “mailboxes”). As they listen to the story, invite them to write down words that describe how each character might have felt, or to draw a picture that helps them visualize the story.

Step 3 Living into the Story

  • body smart
  • picture smart
  • word smart
Materials
  • Story symbol, session 2 printable page

  • Spontaneous Drama printable pages

  • Character Nametags printable page

Next invite the group to retell the story by performing it as a spontaneous melodrama. A melodrama is a type of skit that uses exaggerated acting to emphasize the action and emotion of the story. Since this story is loaded with emotions, both sad and joyful, and action all the way from feeding pigs to celebrating at a feast, it should be easy to dramatize. Use your copy of the story script (printable pages) and assign everyone a part in the script by passing out character tags (printable page) along with a piece of tape. Choose outgoing kids who enjoy being the center of attention to take the three main roles.

  • Father
  • Older Son
  • Younger Son
  • Servants (optional)
  • Friends (optional)
  • Farmer (optional)
  • Pigs (optional)

Make sure everyone has a role (you can include as many servants, friends, and pigs as needed!).

Choose a space in your room (or move to a larger room) so that everyone can stand and move around for the skit. You may want to hang signs to identify where the father’s house and the distant country are in your room. Tell the children to listen for their cues and to act out the story as it’s being read. Let them know that when their character has a line, they’ll need to repeat after you with intense emotion and expression. Encourage the younger son and his friends to really get into their wild living, the father to welcome his son back dramatically, and the pigs to snort a lot. The kids will get into it quite quickly! The key word is “exaggerate!”

Tip

Open-ended questions are a very important part of Dwell. We want 4th and 5th graders to find themselves in the story and to wonder about God, to imagine God’s love and forgiveness. Instead of just providing answers for the group, give them time and space to come up with their own answers. Trust the Holy Spirit to guide your discussion in meaningful directions. This story is probably one of the most vivid pictures in the Bible of our loving, forgiving Father God!

You may want to practice by reading a few lines and coaching your actors a bit. When everyone understands their role, read the story from the script slowly (but enthusiastically), emphasizing each character or animal’s name. Some small prompts from you may still be necessary as the story moves along. Have fun as you narrate the story! The group will follow your enthusiastic lead.

When you’re finished acting out the story, talk about it together with some or all of the following questions:

  • What do you suppose the younger son thought would happen when he got to his father’s house? What ideas ran through his mind as he took those last steps?
  • Can you think of a time when you were forgiven for something very wrong or hurtful you had done? How did it feel?
  • The groups listening to the story were Pharisees, tax collectors, and sinners. How do you imagine each group of people reacted to this story? Why? What do you imagine members of each of these groups said to Jesus?
  • Where do you see yourself in the story? Are you a younger son? An older son? Why?
  • What does this story show you about God?
Faith Modeling

You may want to use this opportunity to tell your group how much it means to you personally to know that God forgives you—even when you really mess up!

Step 4 Living Out of the Story

  • body smart
  • picture smart
  • word smart
Materials
  • Storymark 2

  • Song: “My Shepherd Is Near”

Remind the group that the stories Jesus told weren’t just for the people in his day. They’re for you and me too. Pass out the Storymark and invite group members to spend a few minutes filling out the sentence starter on the front of their Storymark:

This story makes me feel . . .

I think Jesus wants me to know that . . .

Invite them to write a prayer to God in their notebooks or in the “My Prayer” section of their Storymark, using these prayer starters:

Dear Father, thank you for being my loving Father, even when . . .

Help me to show your love to others, even when . . .

Amen.

Encourage the children to use their Storymarks to mark today’s passage Luke 15:11-32 in their Bibles. Challenge them to do some of the activities on their Storymark throughout the week and to look for today’s symbol in the God’s Big Story cards. Assure them that you will be doing the same.

Close the session by reading Psalm 23 together or by playing “My Shepherd Is Near” from the CD. Encourage the group to learn verses 1 and 2 of the psalm by next week.

Easy Extras

1. Get the Ball Rolling!

  • body smart
  • word smart
  • ​​people smart
Time
5-10 minutes
Materials
  • note cards

  • pencils

  • small ball or beanbag

Option for Step 1: Gathering for God’s Story.

Hand out the note cards and pencils and ask each student to write down one word that describes who God is (holy, powerful, compassionate, and so on). Collect the cards, shuffle, and redistribute them. Then have group members read their new cards and remember the word they have been given.

Gather the group in a circle and toss a beanbag or ball to one person. Have that person start the game by saying “God is . . . ” and then tossing the ball to another person in the circle. That person will say the word on the card they were given, and then toss the ball to another person, who will in turn share the word they were assigned. Continue playing until everyone has had a chance to share their word. Then try the game again, this time a little faster! End with a prayer thanking God for having all the characteristics everyone has mentioned. Tell the kids that today’s story will remind them that God is a loving Father.

2. Pop-Up Scenes

  • picture smart
  • self smart
Time
20-30 minutes
Materials
  • construction paper

  • magazines

  • scissors

  • glue

  • markers

Option for Step 3: Living into the Story.

Hand out the materials listed above and ask group members to create a pop-up scene of a part of the story that was especially meaningful to them. Feel free to make suggestions: perhaps the moment when the lost son “came to his senses” while feeding the pigs or the party the father threw for his son. If you have magazines available, group members could cut out pictures to help make their scenes come alive. Invite them to use contemporary scenes and characters, as this story could just as well have taken place in our own day.

Before they begin, demonstrate how to create a pop-up scene, as follows:

  • Fold the sheet of construction paper in half, as though making a card.
  • Cut two slits on the folded part of the paper.
  • Pull the slits forward so that the scene pops out.
  • Create as many slits as needed, depending on how many images you want to have pop out from your scenes.
  • Either draw images on your pop-outs or cut them from magazines and glue them to the scene.

Give group members time to work on their scenes. Leave the last few minutes for volunteers to share their scenes and explain why the part of the story they chose was meaningful for them. If you have time, challenge the group to put all of the scenes they’ve created in sequential order to retell the story.

3. “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”

  • music smart
  • picture smart
  • self smart
  • word smart
Time
5 minutes
Materials
  • “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” lyrics

  • Dwell CD

  • notebooks

Play this moving version of “Amazing Grace.” Invite group members to draw or write in their notebooks some of their reactions to the words of the song. Ask them to comment on how this song fits with the story Jesus told about the father and the two sons.

4. Memory Challenge Mural

  • earth smart
  • music smart
  • picture smart
  • word smart
Time
10-15 minutes
Materials
  • Posterboard or construction paper

  • Dwell CD

Option for Step 4: Living Out of the Story.

Psalm 23 is chock-full of vibrant and colorful word pictures. Challenge your group to create visual images of Psalm 23:1-2 to help them memorize this beautiful psalm. Suggest the following word pictures they might want to use: shepherd, green pastures, and quiet waters. Form small groups to create a poster or mural for the psalm, or have kids work individually on separate sheets of paper.

Encourage the kids to write out the verses at the bottom of the pages, mural paper, or posterboard. If you choose either of the cooperative options (mural or poster), have the same groups work on a different verse each week (instructions included for each additional session of this unit). By the end of the unit, your group will have a colorful display of Psalm 23. As they work, play “My Shepherd Is Near” rap from the CD.