Teaching tips from Maurice Sweetsur

Teaching tip 30 -Teaching Bible stories as real history

Teaching tip 30 -Teaching Bible stories as real history

In a survey, children were asked who they believed, their Sunday school teacher, or their primary school teacher. Eighty percent chose their primary school teacher. Why? They said that their primary school teacher taught them facts, whereas their Sunday school teacher only told them stories. The children think this because that is how the Bible is taught in many churches; as ethereal stories, disconnected from the real world. Nice stories perhaps, with a moral message - but not describing things that really happened in space and time.

A youth minister at an Australian church is quoted as saying :-

"I used to beat my head against a wall wondering why we lost all our young people at about age 16. In the last few years I've realised that age 16 is when they teach evolution in depth in science. Chatting with some of the students I have also discovered that some of the teachers actually identify the Christian students and make a special point of explaining the differences and difficulties in reconciling Genesis and the "facts" of evolution. It's no wonder we lost them. I come near to tears just thinking about it."

Is it any coincidence that church attendance in the western world has declined dramatically since the teaching of evolution in the schools became widespread, increasingly so since the 1960's?

When teaching a Bible story, I always emphasize to the children that, as it comes from the Bible, it is a true story - it really happened! And for older children, I give them an idea of when and where it happened. I put it in context, showing how it fits into God's overall plan of redemption. Some teachers say "Evolution is not an issue. The children believe my stories." It may be true that evolution is not an issue for most primary aged children, but it will become one when they are older. As Bible teachers we need to prepare them for this future conflict. At the very least, they need to go away from our classes knowing that "teacher" believed that the Bible story he/she told really happened.

When we consider "the beginnings", what it all eventually comes down to is this : "Who are we going to believe?" God - who was there in the beginning, knows everything, is never wrong and cannot lie - or people - who weren't there in the beginning, only know a tiny fraction of all there is to be known, are often wrong, and sometimes lie?

"Scripture answers three basic questions to which the evolutionary theory has no answer whatsoever. These questions concern the origin of matter, the origin of life and the origin of man as a religious being." R.B. Kuiper.

posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 8:37 PM

Teaching tip 29 - Memory verses on cardboard discs.

Teaching tip 29 - Memory verses on cardboard discs.
In Newsletter 25, I shared a number of ways in which I teach memory verses (Teaching tip 13). Here is another simple, but popular, method.
Cut out a number of cardboard discs - about 20 cm. in diameter is ideal. Write your memory verse on the discs - one or two words per circle.
Without prior warning, get out your discs, and quickly "skim' them towards the children. State "This is our memory verse. Everyone who has caught a disc, come out to the front and arrange the verse in the right order as quickly as you can. I will time you to see how long it takes you to get it in the right order."
After you have explained the verse, and got the children to repeat it, you can get the children holding the discs to turn them over - one or two at a time - while the class keep reciting the verse until they can do it with no words visible.

posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 8:35 PM