Fishers of Men

This week I am doing a lesson to help the children understand more deeply the way that Jesus called his apostles and how extraordinary it is that they gave up their livelihoods to follow this unknown man.

I began as follows:

Today, boys and girls, we are going to do things in a little bit different of an order. I know that we usually start with an opening song, then do our lesson. But today, the song that I want to do with you is actually a part of our lesson, so I need to wait a little bit until we've talked about some things before we get to the song. And then, as always, if you are great listeners, we will do our Minute to Win It at the end of the lesson. Is that a deal?

So, what I would like for you to do first today is to think for a moment about what you would like to be when you grow up. If you know what you want to be, raise your hand. (At this point I spend a few minutes getting a few children from all age levels to tell me what they want to be. I ask them some follow-up questions, such as 'what would you have to do for that to happen?' and I get some really cute responses. For example, one little boy told me that he'd have to climb lots and lots of stairs to be an astronaut when he grows up! lol!! After I've called on several individuals, I ask ALL of the children to shout out what they want to be on my count of three...1,2, 3... and this gives them all a chance to feel that they have contributed). Ok, those are some great goals that you've set for yourselves. Now, I want you to pretend that your dream has come true. You are doing that dream job of yours and you are LOVING it. You're making good money, supporting your family, and you really feel comfortable with your life. Can you imagine that? Ok, so now I want you to imagine that your best friend comes along and says to you, 'Hey! I met this really great guy who has a lot of great things to say! I left my job so that I can follow him around and hear what he has to say. I think you should quit your job and come with us!' Boys and girls, think about that! Would you want to leave this job that you have and that you love, a job that pays you good money, leave your family, and go follow this stranger just because your friend says that he has some very good and important ideas? Raise your hand if you think you'd walk away from your job and family like that. (Not one of my students raised a hand!) Well, now I am going to show you a little bit of a movie where some men did exactly that! They were fishermen, and made their living on the sea. I bet you can already guess who the man they were invited to follow is, but let's take a look at this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8iC1HYIT9A (I only showed the first 3:47 of the video, until the scene changes to the well.)
So, that is a great demonstration of what it might have been like for Jesus to gather his 12 apostles. As you saw in the video, Simon Peter was very unbelieving about this man as the Messiah, so Jesus took him out in the boat that he'd been fishing in all night with NO luck, and dropped his net, and BOOM, full of fish. You know that can't happen, right? It was one of Jesus's miracles, and it was enough to convince Simon Peter that Jesus was someone special and worth giving up everything to follow. Did you hear Jesus say, "I will make you fishers of men?" Obviously that doesn't mean he was going to go around throwing nets on people and catching them, does it? Of course not! It meant that they were going to tell people the Good News, and help them become followers. And I guess it worked, since all of us are sitting here today! We're certainly the followers, the 'men' that they were fishing for! If those 12 had not been brave enough to trust and follow Jesus, we wouldn't be here today and wouldn't have the wonderful blessing of knowing Christ!

Now it's time to teach you the song that I was talking to you about! It's called 'Fish With Me', and we've sung this in Mass before, so you might already know the motions. I took a moment to teach the children the hand motions that go along with the refrain of the song. This song is available on www.spiritandsong.com for download, but I actually had our children's choir director record it for me so that we could sing it without the bridge. Although I can't figure out how to upload that music into this blog, I have it on email as a music file and would be more than happy to email it to you if you request it from me! Another option is to view the You Tube video of Jesse Manibusan "Come Fish With Me"... he uses it as part of his talks. He teaches the motions in this video.

I also made a power point of the words so that the children could sing along with the verses. It's one of my favorites, and I think it does a great job of reinforcing the message of the lesson!

After the song, I asked a question of the children to select my Minute to Win It player. Today I asked how many followers Jesus initially called and what do we call them. (12 Apostles). The game keeps with our 'fish' theme: Fish Head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15XdVEGJhvQ

Be sure you use a 'soft' lampshade... they bang their face a bit! :-)
Feel free to contact me at jtruitt@stolivers.com with any questions!
Peace!