This past week I had a chance to help out with our UnCrowded House vacation camp program. My job was mostly around the bible teaching time -- helping connect the key pieces of the theme with the minds, hearts and bodies of 7-12 yr olds (and a couple of 4yr olds thrown into the mix). That's something I've been doing for 40 years - VBS, Sunday School, Junior Church, and lots of camping programs over the years. As I posted on FB, if you can't help kids make sense of the Story, we'll have a hard time with adults...
We were working with Lifeway's packaged program - Journey Off the Map. Great stuff, well designed for child pedagogy. Except, in my humble opinion, for the gospel/good news sharing component. The approach taken, in my mind, may reflect some of the problem we are having with teen faith maturity and transition. [Granted, Lifeway is produced by Southern Baptists, so you get what you pay for :) ]
In light of work I have been doing with James Choung's retelling of the Good News synopsis, and NT Wright's recent book, Simply Good News, I thought it might be helpful to see how the kids did with it.
Here's what Lifeway wanted us to teach, contrasted with what I used this past week.
- God Rules
- We Sinned
- God Provides
- Jesus Gives
- We Respond
Each of those had a nice proposition you had to find a way to communicate with kids.
I used this:
- God created good things
- We messed up
- Jesus gave his life
- God makes everything new
- We respond
Each of those was accompanied by a scripture discovery process, where the kids had to describe in their own words what the verses said and compare it with the short phrase I wrote on the board. Creating a story with key points highlighted, rather than a set of propositions to be adhered to. By Friday we were having good, free flowing conversations about "how did things get messed up?" "What if we still mess up after God makes us a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)?" "I thought we went up to heaven, this says heaven comes to earth?" All with 7-12 yr olds. Go figure.
Comments