Subject: Good
Shepherd
Title:
The Found Sheep
Age: 3+ (second
year / with older children a few weeks after first
Good Shepherd presentation)
Sources: Luke 15: 4-6; John 10; Ezekiel 34; Isaiah 49: 9-10;
Psalm 23; RPC, ch 3;
SPSA Course Notes September 2007
Liturgical
Time:
Lent
Doctrinal
Content:
1. Jesus will always care for us and protect us.
2. Jesus knows each sheep by name, knows when one is missing, searches for, finds, cares for the sheep and brings it home.
3. Jesus rejoices when a lost sheep is found and invites us to rejoice with him.
4. The sheep belong to the Good Shepherd.
5. Jesus has a great, unconditional, forgiving, never-ending, joyous love for the sheep.
6. One day, all, including the lost, will be gathered into one flock
7. The love between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the source, model and reason for the Good Shepherd’s love
for us.
Direct
Aims:
1. To proclaim that because of the great love of the Good Shepherd for us, he will seek and find the lost and bring them
home with joy.
2. To further explore the relationship between the Good Shepherd and the sheep.
Indirect
Aims:
1. To enhance the relationship of love with the Good Shepherd.
2. To prepare for future Good Shepherd presentations.
3. To prepare for reconciliation and further moral considerations.
4. To increase the awareness of the community aspect of the Christian life.
Description
of Materials:
1. Good Shepherd table
2. Good Shepherd
3. 10 Sheep
4. Sheepfold
5. Scripture Booklet “Found Sheep”
6. Candle, snuffer, matches, holder for spent matches
Presentation:
Preparation
1. Gather around Good Shepherd table.
2. Children are front and center, catechist off to the side.
Introduction
1. “Jesus wants us to know so much how he loved us that he needed to find different
ways of saying it. We know one way was when he said, ‘I am the Good Shepherd. Do you remember’” Discuss with children.
2. “What did he say he would do for the sheep?” Discuss with children.
3. “How well does he know his sheep?” Discuss with children.
4. “He knows their names. I wonder what some of their names would be.”
5. “Jesus asks us to think about what it would be like if one of the sheep got lost.
We are going to listen to that scripture now.”
Light Candle
Solemn Reading of the Text
1. Read
“The Found Sheep.”
What man among you
with a hundred sheep,
losing one,
would not leave the ninety-nine
in the wilderness
and go after the missing one
‘till he found it?
And when he found it,
would he not joyfully
take it on his shoulders?
And then,
when he got home,
call together his friends
and neighbors?
He would say,
“Rejoice with me
I have found my sheep
that was lost.”
“Would
you like to set up the sheepfold and the Good Shepherd?” (children help set up the sheepfold, Good Shepherd and ten sheep.
Remember all the sheep pass through the gate. The Good Shepherd, then
the sheep. Catechist asks for one sheep in process.)
1. “Jesus asked us to think about what it would be like if one of the sheep
he loves so much and knows by name was lost. This will be that sheep. We’ll put it over here.” (take sheep and place by candle,
outside sheepfold.)
2. “Let’s listen to these words again.” (Read “Found Sheep” again)
What man among you
with a hundred sheep,
losing one,
would not leave the ninety-nine
in the wilderness
and go after the missing one
‘till he found it?
(Open gate, walk GS out of gate, latch gate, walk GS around looking for the lost sheep, walk over
to lost sheep.)
And when he found it,
would he not joyfully
take it on his shoulders?
(GS takes sheep and puts on his shoulders.)
And then,
when he got home,
call together his friends
and neighbors?
He would say,
“Rejoice with me
I have found my sheep
that was lost.”
(Open gate, walk into sheepfold, place lost sheep in sheepfold. Return to gate and face outward to call the neighbors.)
3. “So the Good Shepherd went looking and he searched and searched until what?”
4. “I wonder how that lost sheep felt.” (discuss with children)
5. “I wonder how the Good Shepherd felt when he found out that one of his sheep was lost. What did he do? (discuss
with children)
6. “How long did he look?” (discuss
with children)
7. “How did the sheep feel when he was found?” (discuss with children)
8. “I wonder what it felt like for the lost sheep to hear the Good Shepherd call his name over and over.” (discuss with children)
9. “So who do you think was happier? The Shepherd or the sheep?” (discuss with children)
10. “When the
Shepherd got to the sheep did he yell at him?” (discuss with children)
11. “What did
the Shepherd do?” (discuss with
children)
12. “We can
think about all the sheep who weren’t lost – who were all still together.
What was it like to have one of their friends lost?” (discuss with children)
13. “I wonder
what kind of rejoicing there was when the Shepherd arrived back with the lost sheep.”
(discuss with children)
14. “I wonder
how the Good Shepherd felt when he got back with the lost sheep.” (discuss with children)
15. “Do you
remember what he did when he got back with the lost sheep? (discuss with children)
16. “He called
all his friends and neighbors and said, ‘rejoice with me, my sheep who was lost has been found.’”
17. “How close
is the sheep to the Good Shepherd now?” (discuss with children)
18. “The scripture
talked about a lot of sheep. Do you remember how many?” (discuss with children)
19. “Can you imagine how many sheep are 100?” (discuss with children)
20. “The Good
Shepherd knew that one was missing. He knew which one was missing – by
name.”
Children’s
Responses: (possible response could be silence)
1. We could sing that song - “The Lord Is My Shepherd,
I will Walk with Him Always”
Restoration
of the Material:
1. Snuff the candles
2. Ask children to restore the Good Shepherd materials.
Children’s
Work with the Materials:
1. Copying the scripture story
2. Original artwork
3. Tracing Packet
4. Reading the scripture story with the materials
5. Work with materials
Children’s
Responses (notable things the children say or do):
