Here is the VIDEO Lesson for our Zombies Lesson Set
About the Lesson Set:
Written by Rev. Neil MacQueen for www.sundaysoftware.com, these lessons can be used in SEVERAL ways: individually, or all together, over several Sundays, or in succession during a VBS, or in a Rotation Model Sunday School as different “workshops.” Your choice!
Not gonna fib. I write for 3rd grade and up. You will have to adapt-down these lessons for younger children, …which is easier than adapting-up younger children lessons.
Note: The Attack of the Sunday School Zombies software referenced in this lesson set is now available as a FREE DOWNLOAD to the supporting members of Rotation.org.
Go back to the Lesson Set Menu
Summary:
Students will watch the video “Reasons Why People Don’t Go to Church” and then make their own version of it for use in your church.
The “Reasons” video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJpJyth3J4. You can watch it online or download it for playback on any computer and projector. [For pre-teens and teens you can add or substitute another interesting short film titled, “Jesus vs the Zombies.” It’s a discussion-starter that addresses the underlying question of church goers “eating” the flesh of Jesus at the Eucharist, and can be taken in several different directions.]
Here’s a link to the “Reasons” script. It can be printed and used by students to fill-out as they watch the video a second time. The script outline will become a sort of outline for producing your own video similar to the one you will begin the lesson with.
The “church zombies” featured in our software game, and upon which this lesson set is based, represent people and their WRONG attitudes about why they think they shouldn’t go to church. The “Reasons” video in this lesson presents some very different ideas than the software game did.
Video Lesson Plan:
(1) Open with the question: “What do you like and don’t like about going to church?” Listen to their answers, help refine what it is they don’t like, but don’t stop to ‘counter’ their objections. Important: Write down their comments on the board. You’ll refer back to them in the videotaping session. (5 minutes)
(2) View the video, “Reasons Why People Don’t Go to Church.” The video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJpJyth3J4 You can watch it online or download it for playback on any computer and projector. (5 minutes)
(3) After viewing it once, give students a copy of the ‘script’ linked here, and ask them to view the video again, this time filling in the responses which the people on the video give to the reasons why not to go to church. (5 minutes)
*You can skip Steps 2 and 3 for young children, and simply go right to Step 4.*
(4) Review the Bible Verse:
Hebrews 10:24-25 “Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more….” (5 minutes)
Ask: What does this Bible verse tell us is the REASONS we should be together? (keywords: to show concern, help, love, do good, encourage).
Ask: Does it say anything about judging others? telling others what to do? (No.)
**Write down the keywords from this verse on cue cards which students will hold up during the end of the video. If you’re short on time, do this in advance of the lesson.
(5) Make your own video: “Reasons Why We Go to Church” (20 minutes)
Working in Pairs, one student will stand in front of another in front of the video camera. On “action” start recording and the first student states their “reason why not to go to church,” after which the second student pops out from behind and immediately offer a counter-point “reason why TO go to church!” Do this for 4 or 5 different ‘reasons’.
To create their pairs of 4 or 5 different reasons/responses, consult the list the kids made at the beginning of the lesson. Mix them with some of the reasons you heard on the video to come up with four or five “CUE CARDS” on which the students are to write their “reason/response” for each pair to quote during the videotaping.
For fun, vary how the students stand in the frame and how the one pops up in front of the other. Press the “pause” button on your camera while it’s recording so that a new pair can step onto the stage and be videotaped.
On the final shot of the video, have all your student pairs in the shot, and have the kids in front read the first half of the video, and then have their partners pop up and read the second half of the scripture to the camera. Keep it tight and fun.
Suggestion: Practice Once, then shoot your Video and Review it, talk it over and make adjustments, then repeat Videotaping again for the final product.
Share it with your congregation!