A Reading for Bible Distribution to Youth

We did this Bible distribution in lieu  of the Children's Message during a Sunday service.  Each member of the Board of Worship and Education took a different segment.  It is our church's tradition to hand out Bibles at the end of the 3rd grade year so that they may bring their Bible's to church in the future and deepen their understanding of the Bible from the children's bibles that many of them may have.  

The Bible also comes with a warranty that if they wear it out, they can exchange it at any time for a new one.

Bible Distribution

Invite recipients up

Today is an exciting day.  Today you will receive a gift that has been prized since the beginning of time. Does anyone have any idea what it might be?  Why do you think this book is so important?  

Those are all wonderful reasons and here are a few more:

This story originally came not on paper but in words.  Words that were passed down from generation to generation.  Words that were memorized and retold until the next generation memorized the same stories.

When paper was made from papyrus, the oldest stories began to be written down.  The books of Moses, called the Torah in the Judaic tradition, and then the entire Tenakh (Ten-ock).  The transcribing of these stories was so special and so important that if one letter was written incorrectly, the scribe would begin again.

These stories of the Old Testament were foundational teachings even to our Messiah, Jesus Christ.  After Jesus came and then was crucified, others wrote.  There were stories of Jesus’ life, the creation of the church and acts of the disciples after Jesus’ death, letters to the new churches that were growing up, and a revelation of future times.  More was written than you will find in this book and so as a newly formed Christian church we met to decide what were the most important pieces to be included in the New Christian Bible.

This book is so important that it was the first book to be printed on the first printing press and for many years and even in some places today, it is the only book in some homes.  It is such an important book that the Gideon’s work to make sure that anyone that wants one has one and in most hotels, you will find the Bible tucked carefully in the nightstand thanks to their work.

Some people have died or been persecuted for this book.  We hope that you too will hold this book with great reverence, but not with reverence like that you might care for a piece of fine china or crystal, but like the love that many of you have probably shown to a “blankie” or favorite stuffed animal.  This book is just a book until you read it, think on what God is saying to you through it, and share it with others.  I encourage you to not just read it once, but many times.  I encourage you to read it backwards, forwards, to find favorite stories or lines.  I empower you to write in it – to underline favorite verses or note comments in the side.  I pray that this book is not just an important book for all time, but the most important book in your particular life.  I pray that you find this a helpful tool to know and understand the God that loves you madly.

As representatives from the Board of Worship and Education on behalf of the whole First Congregational Church of XXXXXXX.  We would like to present these Bibles to XXXXXXXX, XXXXXXX . . .

Using Mandalas in your Lectio Divina Practice

I have found mandalas to be helpful in accessing scripture.  The drawing of the mandala helps me to be more open to the scripture's message and helps me to connect on a deeper level with the message and the words.

Lectio Divina is a process to internalize scripture.  There are a couple different ways to do it, but basically it entails reading the passage multiple times.  Between each reading, you are to focus on a piece of the passage that speaks to you and then connect it with something currently in your life.  I have been twisting its use by:

1.  Read a passage.  I have been focusing on the Psalms.

2. Find a section that speaks to me.

3.  Reread the passage.

4.  Begin the drawing of my mandala. (note: my mandalas are not as structured as this.  I begin only with the circle and a center.  And sometimes even the center is optional)

5. Read the passage again.

6. Write a short passage myself about how the scripture, the particular verse, and my drawing relate to me.

In, Go and Do Likewise: Jesus and Ethics by William C. Spohn,  Spohn writes, "The ancient practice of mediation read the text for transformation, not information.  The sacred texts of every tradition have to be read with a listening heart, not at 350 words per minute.  The early monks would hear the scripture read in common and commit phrases to memory so they could continue to be nourished by it in solitude." (pg 137)

I encourage you to try this practice, whether you draw or not.  Lectio Divina is a totally different way to read scripture than I had ever been taught.  While I would not use this as the only way to read scripture it is a usefull tool to deepen your understanding and to become active in your Bible studies.

Teaching Your Children Faith - Book Suggestion

If you are looking for a book to think about raising your children with faith, this is it.  It is easy to read, and more importantly easy to implement.  What you must know though is that teaching your children faith is best done by growing your own faith.  

If you want a deeper perspective on growing your own faith so that you can better instruct your children, check out Horace Bushnell's Christian Nurture.

Looking for a Sunday School Curriculum

Our church is unique in that our Sunday School is all in one.  There are no grades and not too much room to separate even if we wanted to, but I believe that a strong Sunday School makes for a strong church.  Thus, as usual, open mouth and instead of inserting foot, I add a commitment to my calendar.  I also kind of believe that if you are going to complain, you better be willing to do something about it.  Therefore, I am on the committee to help out with the Sunday School. 

This year we started working with an online curriculum called The Whole People of God.  The unique thing about this program is that you pay according to the number of people in your congregation.  It is available all online which means that we can have multiple people access the curriculum and no one can forget to pass the book along.  They are lectionary based and have lessons weaved throughout the congregation.  We even took our Christmas Pageant from the curriculum with some adaptations.  They have multiple levels to pull from, but since we teach the masses, I usually just use the Primary level and adapt from there.

If you are looking for a curriculum to use, after several months now of using it, I can highly recommend The Whole People of God.  Now, I can only pray that they don't stop publishing like the last one I really liked, BibleQuest.

Discussing Death with Children

I'm not 100% sure how I ended up with the responsibility of discussing death with our Sunday School students, but today that was my charge.  As this is the first Sunday following All Saints Day, the topic was discussing family and friends that had passed.  Fortunately, our new curriculum, the Whole People of God, had a terrific plan to cover the issue. 

Since many of our children are very young, I was very nervous about how they were going to react to the subject.  Unfortunately, our poor little kids have lost far too much in their lives and each of them had lost someone close to them.  One family had even lost a sister.  This sad truth didn't bring a depressing bend to the conversation, but instead uplifted us all. These little ones had a better understand / acceptance of death than most of us adults. Part of the object lesson that the curricula suggested included the use of a rock and a feather.  The rock represented sadness.  The feather represents a light heart knowing that your loved one was with God.  The kids understood the sadness, tears, and heaviness; but I was concerned that they would not understand the happiness that can also be associated with death.  I cautiously asked why we might feel happy for someone that died.  I waited for some Smart Alec to say that they were happy because they didn't like the person anyway, but none said that.  The kids understood right away.  They knew that we could be happy because our loved one was now with God.

Even more special is that they knew how to keep a loved one alive.  They understood that we could share our loved ones with others through stories, that we can remember them through activities that we once shared together, and that we can keep our loved one alive through memories. 

While I went into this class nervous about broaching such a difficult subject, I left class blessed to have seen God shine through little angels.  Clearly, they were more in touch with the flow of life than most adults.

"The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."  23 Psalm: 1-4 (KJV)

Knowing God - A Sunday School Lesson

The other day my birth-brother made a post on Facebook about knowing God / being religious because he is of God and therefore needs nothing else - no Bible, no community, no religious practice. I question if this is possible. This question has been brought up previously in my old Bible Study class - Can a man remove himself from society and find God in a Garden per se? I don't mean remove for an hour or a day, but to know of God just by being. In the case of my birth-brother, I questioned back more about his children then himself: asking how can the little ones know to even search for God if they are not introduced? How can they know of his ways without hearing or reading of all he has done? How can they live out his works, if they don't know that they are called to do so? This post and its back and forth with him led me to this idea for a Sunday School lesson:

Knowing God

This is an excellent lesson for the beginning of the school year

It can be heard, I can learn of God just through being one with him. but can you know someone without speaking to them, without spending time with them, without reading about them?

Start with a prayer - Dear God, Be with us today as we undertake the study of you. We wish to know you better so that we can better serve you. Please help us to know you better. Guide us in our study and open our minds to understanding your words. Amen

Have the students pair off. Ask them to spend 3 or 4 minutes talking to their partner to find out about them. They should be ready to introduce their partner to the group and share their findings.

Take a few minutes to have everyone introduced by their partner. Ask if class if the introductions were done well and accurately. Ask, "Is there more that we could learn about you?" Brainstorm ideas of how we could get to know each other better.

To help them think more deeply, ask them to name a famous person that is no longer alive. Ask them to tell us what they know about him or her. Ask how they learned these facts. Ask how they could learn more.

Tell them that the same applies to God. Loving God is an action. We must get to know him. We may never know all of Him, but as part of our spiritual path we must work to strengthen our understand of Him. Through this understand, we can be guided in our actions. Brainstorm ways that we know about God. Ask what other ways we might get to know him better.

Craft: Create a God's Eye - Using longer chopsticks, make a cross. Knot the yarn around the center X and then weave around each of the sticks making a full loop around each one. When the eye is completed and tied off. Write the words Prayer, Worship, Fellowship, Bible on longer pieces of ribbon. Tie a ribbon off each stick end. Explain that by using these four standards, we can better know God. God can see through his eye that we wish to be Christians and wish to know more about what he wants from us.

Try to explain that knowing God is one of the purposes of Sunday School. By knowing Him better, we can be better. While it is important to have a private relationship with God, it is also important to learn and share in community so that we can get a deeper understanding of God. Tie this into the beginning activity, "Did you know all those facts about each other before we started?" (hopefully the answer will be "no") "By working together, we were able to learn more and we should do the same in our religious studies."

Bible Verse: Proverb 12:15 "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto council is wise."