Making a Plan: Bible Lesson Ideas | Peppermint Stick Learning Company

The purpose of today’s post is to provide more ideas for parents, Christian school teachers, and children’s ministry leaders who’d like to prayerfully plan something on paper, to outline a lesson plan, to organize this differently, at least for part of the year.

Planning to teach the Bible isn’t about getting a “good education” by studying a great piece of literature – it’s about getting to know the Author!

Planning to teach isn’t about memorizing lists of things we must do to earn God’s favour – it’s about growing in grace and expressing our gratefulness to the One Who has mercifully paid for our failures and sinful choices.

And we, in turn, seek to give Him first place in our attitudes, words, and actions (even though we continue to sometimes disappoint, fail, and come back – 1 John 1:9).

Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, love to grow in their relationship with God and delight to study the Bible!

It isn’t about making Bible teaching something on a “to do” checklist – it’s about having joy in the opportunities we have now to share more about our wonderful God to people, and committing to take the time for something really worthwhile!

“…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4b (NKJV)

“But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6 (NKJV)

And a number of Christians (parents, Sunday School teachers, VBS leaders) like to teach the Bible with some kind of plan or outline, at least some of the time. You can make this plan or outline yourself, instead of purchasing a plan.

Making a Plan to Teach the Bible

Preparation = Simple

Some people like to simply go through a portion of the Scripture (or a topic together using reference tools) for Bible time – without a written plan. That is very good too and continues to be one of my favourite methods of teaching the Bible to our children at home. You can see more about that at this post link.

You can also read about some simple-to-use ideas in part 1 of this series of posts, here.

Preparation = More Complex

So for “the planner” who likes to plan teaching and is looking for some outline ideas…

Here are some of ideas you might like to try:

Chronological

In a notebook, make columned lists or charts, leaving room for corresponding activities, song ideas, and cross-referenced verses you’d like to remember. With a chronological study plan, you’ll also likely want to have a set of maps and perhaps a timeline (or make one yourself). (We have a downloadable resource in our shop called “Pictorial Bible History Cards” which our kids have liked to pin up across a living room on a string with clothespins!)

You could…

1. Start at Creation and go chronologically through the entire Bible. First the entire Old Testament, then the New Testament. (This is a great method for older children or adults but seems long for the preschoolers.) A number of curriculum companies produce excellent materials for this option.

2. A similar plan is to take a “Book-by-Book” approach which is to start at chapter 1 and follow it through in numerical order to the end. Then, a different section/book (not necessarily the next book of the Bible) would be studied.

3. Sometimes people want to go “through the entire Bible” within a specific period of time (e.g. a year, 2 years, 5 years). This can be done either “chronologically” in the sense of lists of passages according to history or just simply reading full 66 books of the Bible in their general order as traditionally arranged.

One Theme or Topic at a Time

Just pick and choose a variety of stories along a theme such as the character of God (e.g. love, protection, justice, sovereignty, etc.).

I find that teaching on a theme can be quite good with preschoolers (e.g. God Cares, God Heals). But, if you also have older children who would like a more chronological style and are teaching them together with the littles, a whole year of picking and choosing passages to study can feel somewhat scattered.

Topical studies can be good for a multi-grade discussion but not as helpful if you have tiny tots who want a story to draw about rather than a topic, say, about how to best use our tongue or about various proverbs. It can be hard for young students to draw “proverbs” compared to “Bible stories”.

Topical studies can be self-designed by using a concordance or a topical reference tool to find applicable verses and passages.

Special 5-day Themes, VBS

Over many years, my aunt (a gifted, long-time Christian worker in Evangelical Missionary churches) has often organized VBS (Vacation Bible School) programs for her church(es) or camps where she has taught.

She encourages the team to prayerfully choose a Bible-based theme or topic to plan for VBS and then use their Bible study skills, memory of Bible stories, and reference tools (e.g. a concordance) to come up with the number of lessons needed. Then build the visuals and crafts and games around that outline.

Everyone on the VBS team gets a blank chart with column headings and they fill it in together during their meeting(s). I made easily made one like how my aunt told me to and you could fill in. That printable can be downloaded here.

A Bible Story with Visuals
A Related Memory Verse
A Craft That Reinforces the Lesson
A Game That Reinforces the Lesson

The theme is BIBLE-BASED!

Example 1:
Trees – 5 stories which include trees in the Bible, one for each day – start at the Garden of Eden story and finish either with a story about the Tree of Life in heaven or with the tree/cross that Jesus died on and a salvation message.

Example 2:
Angels – 5 stories which teach truths about angels from the Bible, both from the O.T. and the N.T..

Example 3:
“Broken Things” – I hope to link here to a post about this one shortly. It is one my aunt developed partly because she had children in her ministry who were dealing with deep disappointments. But it is also very good for children who are not currently facing tough situations because everyone will, at some point, experience broken-heartedness over one kind of loss or another. That outline points children (and us as leaders too) back to finding all we need in Christ.

An important point of teaching topically like she has done: the topics and themes come from the Bible, and not “everyday life” or popular culture. She felt that this helps to keep the emphasis on learning the Bible rather than putting so much time and energy into other types of fun themes. (In other words, there are no “pandas”, no “castles”, etc..)

Beyond the “chart”, each team member looks after the details of their role (e.g. preparing supplies) and together they pray for God to use this opportunity to touch lives with His love and grace.

(Going to VBS with her when I was a kid was really a lot of fun too!)

Here is that link again (in the green, below) for Aunt Gloria’s planning chart printable, if you haven’t downloaded it yet:

AUNT GLORIA’S CHART FOR PLANNING BIBLE-BASED THEMES.

Just “Familiar” Bible Stories

Start at Creation and go chronologically through the Old Testament until the end of Moses or David and then skip over to the New Testament except perhaps Daniel and Jonah, ignoring other Old Testament lessons until “sometime later”.

An easy way to arrange a list of these is simply to look through a children’s Bible storybook for titles to choose perhaps 20-60 more-familiar-in-general Bible stories.

Morning and Evening Tracks

Example 1: Old Testament stories in the morning with “mom leading”.
New Testament in the evening with “dad leading”.
This means simultaneously following along two timelines so-to-speak.

Example 2: A similar idea is to follow along in two separate devotionals or use a devotional in the morning and a different track of readings in the evening.

Example 3: Another idea is to have personal Bible time in the morning (or evening) and family Bible time in the evening (or morning). That means that each child/teen/adult has a levelled resource to compliment their own Bible studies (i.e. written at an appropriate level).

Grouped Bible Stories (Themes or Topical)

In 1974, Scripture Union (U.K.) published a series of children’s Bible study materials which my mom sometimes read with me. Each booklet had a page at the beginning with a drawing which included 30 stepping stones to colour in for each day, a similar idea to using stickers on Bible memory chart. (Each booklet was to take about a month to complete if used daily.) This is how they described their booklets on the back cover and beginning pages:

“This series takes the major stories and characters of the Bible… The readings help the 6-8-year-old to understand the Bible in terms related to his everyday experience. Each day covers a small section from the Bible, direct quotations being printed in italics…. A book about _______[topic, for example, kings]….In Stepping Stones [number], we are going to read about some of them… You can colour the stepping stone with the right number when you have finished your reading for each day.”

Below, I’ve listed their series of booklet topics since you could also take these themes to teach topically through a significant portion of the Bible with a family or class.

As you can see, for their order/arrangement of themes, every other booklet was based in the Old Testament versus the New Testament. And, like Grace’s Bible Study Outline (keep reading), it emphasizes learning about the Lord Jesus.

About the Lord Jesus – His birth, baptism, choosing disciples, and a bit about His life of ministry.
About Creation, Noah, and Abraham
About the teaching of the Lord Jesus (from Mark and John) – His teaching about God’s house, God His Father, about people, about boys and girls, about Himself
About Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph
About Jesus’ Friends (from Mark and John) – Jesus’ disciples, John the Baptist, six sick men, more disciples, and Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
About the life of Moses through to Joshua and the entrance into God’s Promised Land
About the Lord Jesus – His death and resurrection (from Luke’s Gospel) – “When we understand that Jesus loved us enough to die that our sins might be forgiven, we can be the happiest boys and girls in the world!”
About a few kings – stories of Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon and facing hard decisions, fights, questions.
About the first Christians (from the book of Acts) – about Luke, the beginning of the Church, about Peter, about Philip, about Stephen
About the prophets – Men who spoke for God. “Usually they spoke about how God wants us to live every day, but sometimes they had amazing things to say about the future. Some even explained how Jesus would come into the world.” – Jeremiah, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Isaiah and Micah, John the Baptist (John 1).
About Paul’s travels for the Lord Jesus – about the great enemy, the power of Jesus, dangers, journeys, and letters to Timothy.
About prisoners who trusted God even in danger and exile – Jeremiah, Daniel, Daniel’s friends, Nehemiah.

Grace’s Bible Study Outline

The outline is a free printable at this post – Grace’s outline was originally designed for toddlers and preschoolers.

(What is quite different than any other outline I’ve known of is bolded for you.)

Start at Creation and teach a selection of Bible stories up to the Ten Commandments.
Around that time, it could be the Christmas season. So of course, learn about the Christmas story.
Then teach a selection of stories on the life of Christ up to John 3 and the gospel.
- One of the reasons it is good to go as far as John 3 in teaching about the life of Christ on earth, instead of stopping at the end of the Christmas story, is so that the children get a better concept that Jesus wasn’t just a baby who somehow comes back into the Bible lessons by Easter time to die and rise again. Jesus’ ministry years are very important because it was how God showed Who He was to people on earth. So teach that the little Baby grew, became an adult, taught, did miracles, and cared for people. It helps children to understand Who Jesus was/is.
In the story of Nicodemus (in the stories of the life of Christ), note that John 3 also mentions Moses. So at that point, you can easily (and meaningfully) go back to continue O.T. stories.
But this time, teach it more-so along with insights from the N.T. paralleled to knowing Jesus more, throughout the remaining studies…. all the way to the end of the N.T..
- For example, in stories of David, point out that the Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd (e.g. John 10), in the stories of the wisdom and greatness of Solomon, that Jesus told people that “a greater than Solomon” was there among them. *

* A resource which can help teachers understand the parallels to Jesus in the Old Testament is a reference book by Henrietta C. Mears called, “What the Bible is All About”, especially the chapter subtitles.

Ages/Stages Take Turns Having Lessons Geared to Them

Some parents gear family Bible time to the various ages/stages in their home, choosing to focus more on teaching one of the age groups, not all groups each time, even though everyone is included overall.

This might look like a series or devotional book geared to the older age group (with the younger ones listening in) followed by a series of lessons geared to the younger age group (with the older ones listening it).
Or this might look like certain days of the week are geared towards a younger stage of topics/lessons while other days of the week are more so designed with the older stage of kids/teens in mind.

For the parents, children’s ministry leaders, or Christian school teachers who like more complex or creative plans, here are a few more ideas:

A Prayer Book Outline

Daily Prayer Time: This pattern is indicated in a sermon by Ian Leitch that I heard online about his “personal prayer book”.

Praise God for His ___ (characteristics – Who He is, What He’s done).
Ask for own growth: related to Scripture reading.
Pray for 1-3 ministries/people.
Pray for family.
Pray for specific situations.

(Note: It was preached at Moody Church, Chicago a number of years ago at a pastors’ conference, but the video is not currently working on the website I watched it from. I have since found an audio version available at this link.)

Other Bible Teaching Outlines

(Permission is granted to use these outlines for non-commercial, ministry purposes. They are ones which I personally have developed. – Joy D.)

A Theme A Day

Here is my example:

Choose ONE point or Bible story for each day’s emphasis:

God Is! Praise Him for a specific character trait (e.g. His power, His omnipresence, His justice, His love, etc.) and illustrate the lesson with an example and set of verses from Scripture. Emphasis: WORSHIP
God Made! Choose one specific thing that God made and find out what the Bible says about it (or the general type of thing that it is, for example, zebra- animals). Emphasis: DISCOVERY
God Did! The Bible reports many events and works of what God did. History (both general history and personal history) show God at work in our world too. Choose to learn more about something that God has done. Emphasis: NOTICE God’s care and mercy throughout all generations
God Says! There is much instruction in the Word of God. Choose to discuss what the Gospel is, wisdom, commands/principles, proverbs for how to live a life of honour and service to our God and Saviour, etc.! Emphasis: INSTRUCTION
God Will! God has a plan for the future. His promises are trustworthy. He cares for us today too! Choose to learn more about a promise or prophecy found in Scripture. Emphasis: the PROMISES and comfort of God

A Study Skills-Based Theme

Sometimes I like using morning Bible time to teach, through example, “how to” study the Bible and to give an overview of what we can find in the Bible. This is a theme that purposely includes those study skills:

Monday: Hiding Them In My Heart: Bible Verse Memorization

Verse to trace or colour or look up and highlight in Bible
Sticker rewards, etc.
Occasional games (e.g. Bible Memory Verse Match, erase words, sequence words in order, categorize into topics, make special plaques, etc.)
Could use D.W.Emke artwork (KJV) as memory cards (click here for info about the complete set we offer for sale) or as rewards (example: Psalm 121 in full-colour or black and white)
Possible Additional Topic: What is God’s Word? (Learning about the Bible, how it was written, scrolls, translated, the canon, etc.)

Tuesday: Wise Builders on the Rock! (Obeying, Serving the Lord)

Discussion, cross-referencing
Stories
Possible worksheets or colouring page
Possible Topics: Examples of Bible Characters, Commands to Obey, Missions/Evangelism, Bee ___, diligence, serving with love, wisdom, conflict management, Fruit of the Spirit, etc.

Wednesday: Talking to God (teaching about prayer)

Discussion
Stories
Possible worksheets or copywork
Monthly summary page (optional)

Thursday: Two groups separated for part of the time and then all together for the time remaining.

Younger Group: Draw (or Colour A Page or Arrange Felts of) Bible Stories

In a workbook/colouring book OR
Quarter–a-page style (fold a page into 4 and draw 4 stories or 4 parts of a larger story in each “box”)
Betty Luken’s Felts (not sold by us) can be a way to engage little hands to retell a Bible story. Some families like to use small toys or paper dolls.

Older Group: Optional Ministry Prep Time (puppetry, object lessons, preparing to teach Sunday School, etc.)

All Together: Reading the Bible and praying together

Friday: Praise the LORD! God’s Character and Works (Praise and Worship Theme)

Provide a “Music Basket” to listen to (tapes, CDs…)
Optional theme-based list cards where students make lists on a page (e.g. God is more powerful than…, Thank You for winter things such as…)

A “Through the Bible with Music” Plan

This plan has in mind the Bible verse, “Come into His presence with singing…” Psalm 100:2b

This one takes a fair amount of time to outline. (I might someday provide mine because I don’t think many people would take the time to do this and God has given me a strong background in Christian music which was very helpful in working through that outline.)

Using songs can be very useful to teach Bible truths to any age!

If you’d like to put one of these kinds of plans together, here’s what to do:

Find or make a list of Bible stories and lessons from Genesis to Revelation. For each lesson, list a children’s chorus, a hymn, or a short song which fits with at least something taught in the story.

When our family did this plan, I chose from “key lessons” found in other Bible lesson outlines for children to make a list of around 150 lessons. Then I went through our various songbooks and my memory, songs which I knew well and which also fit well with specific lessons, to match them.

That plan took us personally around a year and a half to complete. We used it, in general, 5-days/week. But we also did not use that plan on some days for various reasons (e.g. sickness, rougher nights, or having children who were away at camp and I didn’t want them to miss something). So we read something else in the Bible those days.

Otherwise, that would take about 30 weeks to go through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, on key passages with music added. This is approximately the length of one school year (which is usually 36-40 weeks).

What plan(s) did we turn to once we had finished that one? A series of thematic lessons (e.g. key doctrines and apologetic topics, then a VBS theme or so from my aunt!

Ending Comments

David Guzik’s commentary (which is a compilation of various commentaries) on Isaiah 28:10-13 (and surrounding verses for context) says this:

“Precept upon precept: With this, the drunk, ungodly prophets and priests mock Isaiah’s teaching. “It is too simple. It is simply precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little, there a little. We are so smart and spiritually sophisticated and advanced that we can go on to deeper things.”

In their mocking of Isaiah’s message, they actually pay him a great compliment. It is a beautiful thing for God’s truth to be presented precept upon precept… line upon line… here a little, there a little.

When the word of God is properly presented, there is something for both the simple and immature to receive, and also something for the great saint to rejoice in and be fed.

This is the blessed way to present God’s word: precept upon precept, line upon line. Isaiah takes the taunt of the drunkards and receives it as a compliment. God’s messengers are to present all of God’s word (without skipping a line), and to present it simply.

…”we can’t receive all aspects of God’s message at once. “It is an excellent thing that the gospel is taught us by degrees. It is not forced home upon men’s minds all at once, but it comes thus, ‘Precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.’ God does not flash the everlasting daylight on weak eyes in one blaze of glory, but there is at first a dim dawn, and the soft incoming of a tender light for tender eyes, and so by degrees we see.”(Spurgeon)”

Teaching the Bible is like serving food – we eat over and over, growing and being nourished, day by day, meal by meal. We make grocery lists and sometimes menu plans to spread out the nutritious foods appropriately.

I remember my parents mentioning the story of a preacher who came to a little place one evening to teach. A farmer came and listened to a long sermon that seemed to include every point on the topic imaginable. At the end of service, the farmer shook the preacher’s hand at the door and remarked something like, “Thank-you for your efforts in teaching tonight. But sir, I’m a farmer. And when I feed my cows, I don’t feed them the whole hay load at once!”

Line upon line, precept upon precept, little by little…

“How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Psalm 119:103 (NKJV)

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