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Prayer / Worship Activity
Option 1
Resources needed: sugar or coloured paper, felt pens, scissors, Blu-tac and a noticeboard or wall
10 mins
Invite everyone to draw around their hands using paper and pens and then cut them out. In small groups they then need to share different words that come to mind when they think about worshipping God (for example: awesome, powerful, mighty or provider). Having decided on some words, ask people to write one letter from these words on a separate cut-out hand to spell out some words. Invite people to then fix these to the noticeboard or wall.
Option 2
Resources needed: flipchart / large sheet of paper and pens, or the ability to type onto a slide and project instantaneously
5 mins
Ask people to shout out the names of the roads or streets they live on, having someone write them up or type them in – make sure all ages get to share. Once everyone has shared the road or street they live on, have a time of prayer, bringing the community to God. Don’t feel you have to specifically reference the roads or streets that have been written down.
Story
10 mins
This story is acted out - the characters being two friends who meet after the account of Jesus feeding the 5000 has happened. It is based on Matthew 11:1-9.
This story is acted out - the characters being two friends who meet after the account of Jesus feeding the five thousand has happened. It is based on Matthew 11:1-9.
Two friends pass by each and strike up a conversation.
Friend 1 Good to see you my friend, you alright?
Friend 2 Yeah not bad thanks, I was just going out to grab a bite, get some dinner. Want to come, it’s on me?
Friend 1 To be honest I…am…stuffed.
Friend 2 What, like a cuddly toy?
Friend 1 No, I’m full.
Friend 2 Oh, Full?
Friend 1 Yes, full, I couldn’t eat another thing.
Friend 2 Really? Where have you eaten? You’re entering town, there must have been nowhere to eat for a few miles?
Friend 1 I know.
Friend 2 Well, then what happened?
Friend 1 Jesus was in town earlier.
Friend 2 Oh, yeah I know, some of the things he’s been doing and saying are epic.
Friend 1 Totally, to see him at work is amazing.
Friend 2 I can imagine, but what’s that got to do with you and your belly though?
Friend 1 Everything.
Friend 2 Go on.
Friend 1 As I understand it Jesus had headed out of town, I think he might have been trying to get a bit of time by himself, but people weren’t having it and they followed him.
Friend 2 You too?
Friend 1 Well, yeah, I saw a crowd gathering and wanted to see what was going on.
Friend 2 And?
Friend 1 Well I figured he was probably going to tell everyone where to go, you know he’s clocked off for the day, done his hours, he’d worked hard, but no.
Friend 2 What did he do then?
Friend 1 Get this, he started healing people, it was amazing!
Friend 2 That’s great, but I still don’t see what any of this has got to do with you being full.
Friend 1 I’m getting to it. Before everyone knew it, it was getting late, and we’d all followed Jesus out of the town. There was nowhere nearby to get anything to eat. Plus I forgot to mention, by now the crowd had really grown in size.
Friend 2 What like to a few hundred of you?
Friend 1 No, a few thousand at least, by my guess.
Friend 2 You’re making it up.
Friend 1 No seriously, the place was packed, people were everywhere.
Friend 2 Well, what happened?
Friend 1 Jesus’s disciples, his little group of followers, were talking to him, I think about the whole lack of food and saying that Jesus should send everyone home.
Friend 2 Makes sense.
Friend 1 Indeed, but he doesn’t.
Friend 2 What?
Friend 1 Next I see he’s motioning to his disciples to feed us all - how crazy is that. All they can come up with is some boy with his lunch he’d obviously not eaten.
Friend 2 Did you get a look at it? (Sarcastically) Didn’t happen to contain a few thousand bread rolls and fish did it?
Friend 1 Apparently so I was told, there were five loaves and two fish in.
Friend 2 Well that wasn’t going to be enough.
Friend 1 No, but Jesus says some words, prays a prayer and hands it to the disciples to give out.
Friend 2 For them to eat.
Friend 1 No, for us all. The craziest thing though, happens next, as they pass the food round, it kind of, well I can’t describe, it kept going.
Friend 2 What do you mean kept going?
Friend 1 I know, that’s what I thought, but it didn’t. The food was passed round and everyone, all however many thousands of us were there, got something to eat. Not just a little bit a scrap or a crumb, but a stomach full. I’ve never eaten such a satisfying meal.
Friend 2 Sounds like the ultimate picnic service.
Friend 1 Well, there were a load of basketfuls left over too, someone said maybe 12, I didn’t see, but no one went hungry that’s for sure.
Friend 2 And the boy, who’s packed lunch it, was.
Friend 1 I don’t know what he would have made of it all?
Friend 1 Anyway, that all said, I am not hungry in the slightest - don’t feel like I need to eat for a week!
Friend 2 Oh, it’s alright for you isn’t it.
Friend 1 If you head out quickly enough you might get your hands on some of those leftovers.
Friend 2 (Getting up) Good thinking, I’m out of here. See you around.
Friend 1 Yeah, I’ll take you up on that offer of dinner some time.
Friend 2 Won’t need to if Jesus is around.
The friends go their separate ways.
Reflective response to the story
Option 1
Resources needed: enough paper plates for everyone to have one, felt-tip pens, tissue or coloured paper, glue and other craft materials on different tables around the room
5 mins
Hand out the paper plates and invite people to gather around the different tables, to create their favourite meal on the plate using the different resources. While they are doing this encourage them to think about how the disciples would have felt being faced with just the boy’s packed lunch and thousands of people to feed.
Option 2
Resources needed: a selection of different lunch boxes, with different packed lunches in them
5 mins
Set the packed lunches out around the room on different tables. Invite people to walk around, gathering in small groups around the tables. Encourage them to think about what it would have been like to have been given the food and realise that it just kept going – everyone was being fed!
Group discussion questions
10 mins
Split your group into smaller allage groups, to discuss the following questions:
• I wonder what your favourite part of the story was…
• I wonder what the most important part of this story is…
• I wonder how the boy whose packed lunch it was would have felt at the end of the story…
• I wonder if there is any part of this story we could take away and still have all the story we need…
