Tag: children's ministry
Church Edition Volume 8: My Favorite Highlights
Oh happy day! Our latest volume of What’s in the Bible? curriculum is available today–Volume 8: Words to Make Us Wise {Psalms, Proverbs & The Writings}.
I wrote this post back in february while in the middle of writing this volume of curriculum, and today I’m even more mindful that teaching context to children is critically important.
The highlights of volume 8 {for me}:
Job: While sharing the story of Job, we included a quiet time of discussion for children to discuss trusting God during bad times. It was important that we helped children know that the book of Job is a wisdom book, which means that from Job’s story we learn to trust God’s wisdom. Encouraging children to understand the context and type of book enabled us to write a lesson that didn’t question God’s fairness, but instead trust His wisdom.
Psalms: We included an activity that identified the various types of psalms and after learning about the types, children will have the opportunity to create their very own psalm. I’m absolutely dying to see the psalms the children will create when given the opportunity. Will you do me a favor? Would you email me {amy@lemonlimekids.com} with a few of the psalms your children create? It would mean so much to me. Thank you!
Proverbs: Man oh man–so many highlights in this lesson! I love, love, love that we highlight the difference between being smart vs wise by giving children scenarios and encouraging them to determine if the person must act smart or wise. Oh! and, probably my most favorite section of this entire volume is the principle vs promise activity. We teach children that proverbs are not promises but principles and lead them to determine the principles in various proverbs. C’mon! Now that’s just good.
Ecclesiastes & Song of Solomon: We focus the majority of content around Ecclesiastes and reviewing the writings books, and not much time at all unpacking the book Song of Solomon {phew!}. Because Ecclesiastes means “the preacher” we wrote an activity in which children create their own sermon and then “preach” it to the rest of the small group. They can even dress up like their pastor if they like. What’s more fun than this?
Bonus! We’ve included a Proverbs family calendar for an at-home activity.
Pick up your copy today–don’t forget free shipping is included for purchases over $15. If you’re interested in testing the waters, you can order a single week of curriculum and see what you think.
Cheers to teaching kids the bible!
Volume 7 Review: Church Edition
Here’s a post from one of our fantastic curriculum writers, Amy Dolan, reviewing the release of What’s in the Bible? Church Edition Volume 7: Exile & Return! [Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther]. You can buy the new release here.
Big day! What’s in the Bible? Volume 7 is available today. after working on the project for several months, writing-re-writing, editing-creating-evaluating, release day often feels like we’ve all together given birth to something fantastic. and, since this is the 7th volume, we now have 7 babies {look out Duggar family}.
Volume 7: Exile & Return! Buck Denver and friends learn about the return of the Israelites to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of it’s city and walls. Chester Whigget uses the popsicle theatre to tell the story of Esther in a fresh and engaging way. The curriculum follows 4 weeks of lessons: Empires, Ezra & Nehemiah, Esther, Purim and the Historical Books.
While writing this lesson, we were really captivated by Esther and the tradition of Purim. The book of Esther was written so that Jews would never forget how god saved them from Haman’s plan. every year, in February or March, Jews around the world read the story during a special celebration called the “Feast of Purim.” we wanted to introduce children to this tradition and create a special Purim celebration just for them. Week four includes a small group time in which children make noisemakers to celebrate!
Here’s a sample video clip and activity from Week 4 of the curriculum. Let us know what you think! If you love it, you can buy it here.
Curriculum: Teaching with Context
Enjoy reading this fantastic post from Amy Dolan’s blog, Lemon Lime Kids. Amy serves as the strategic consultant for the What’s in the Bible? Curriculum. In this post, she explains why teaching the Bible contextually is so important for kids.
where are we? {teaching with context}
we’re smack dab in the middle of writing what’s in the bible? curriculum volume 8 which includes the books of job, psalms, proverbs, and song of solomon. i probably say this every time, but especially this time (!), writing and thinking about these lessons has challenged my everyday thinking of the bible. the more i reflect on the words of the bible, the more i want to give my life fully and freely to following jesus.
in setting up the content for this particular volume, phil does an amazing job helping kids understand where they are in the bible. early on in the videos he explains to kids that upon leaving the historical books they are about to enter the poetry and wisdom books. he encourages children to not forget where they are while reading these books: poetry teaches through word pictures, wisdom does not always include historical accounts, and proverbs offers principles not promises. offering kids context and classification of the books matter. oh the places you will go when you remember where you are!
when we teach the bible to children without context, we tell children an incomplete story. context can mean a lot of things: understanding the author’s background, the audience’s demographic, the culture and location of the story, and the historical time period. all of these are important and should be integrated into our regular biblical teaching to children. but for today, i’m specifically referring to offering children a context for the type or classification of the book from which the bible lesson comes from.
for example: when sharing biblical poetry from the book of psalms, we should mention to children that poetry is not usually taken literally. if my husband writes me a love poem and says that i make his heart melt, hopefully i don’t actually make his heart melt. biblical poetry provides visual cues and imaginative thinking for us. that’s a whole-heck-of-a-different-thing than teaching a story from genesis-a historical book- in which we view stories as historical accounts. understanding where are during a bible story matters.
this sunday, as you share a bible lesson with children, consider asking “where are we?” when you first begin the lesson, encourage children to open to the table of contents to determine what type of book the lesson comes from (helpful chart). during the story, say how are you thinking or imagining these words of poetry? by asking children “where are we?” we’ll give a full and grand picture of the bible. three cheers for context!
Guest Post: How to bring every lesson back to Jesus this Easter
Today we’re excited to bring you a guest post from Sam Luce, one of our favorite children’s ministry bloggers.
I love what Phil and his team are doing to raise the Biblical literacy of our kids and even us as adults in the process. How little we as adults know about the Bible and how little our kids know is a problem in our country. This is a huge problem, not because we want our kids to be able to defend their faith against little atheist kids, but because if kids don’t understand the Bible they won’t ever see Jesus in the Bible. They won’t be able to see the Redemptive story woven throughout Bible.
As parents and fellow kidmins we need to talk about Jesus and what he did all the time but especially during the Christmas and Easter seasons – both afford us an amazing opportunity to explain the Gospel in ways kids can not only understand but they can embrace.
One of the big mistakes we often make when teaching kids is that we settle for a moral lesson rather than use the cross to explain our motivation for Biblical morality. When we teach our kids that Christians look and act like something based on a set of rules or on things we don’t do, we set them up to be disillusioned with their faith, then we wonder why they walk away in college.
When we take every lesson we teach all year long and place it through the grid of what Christ has done for us, we serve God out of gratitude for what He has done for us. Growing up I always thought I had to do certain things to be “pleasing” in God’s eyes. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned what the Gospel message really was. That because of what Christ has done for me I can live in freedom and thankfulness.
How does this look when teaching a lesson to kids? Take the classic story of David and Goliath: by all means, tell your kids how David obeyed his Dad, how he was brave and how he stood up against a giant no one stood up against. Don’t stop there and say “so kids because of David, you can be brave.” If you leave it there, what are you going to tell your kids when they stand up to that bully that plagues their playground and instead of being the hero they get a black eye and three days suspension from school? Religion says try harder next time. The gospel says trust deeper next time. Explain to them that there is a leader, a hero, greater than David who would come into the world. He would do something that none of us could or would ever do: He destroyed the giants of sin and death. Because of what Jesus did, we can live free from sin and not afraid of death. We can live each day thankful for what Jesus has done, not confused, frustrated and overwhelmed by all the things we have to do to be “pleasing” to God.
So parents, pastors, and kidmin workers: tell kids the greatest story ever told. Tell them they are all sinners in need of a savior. When you come to the application portion, don’t end your lesson with “try harder, be better,” end with Jesus our Savior. Don’t tell kids stories of all your victories and accomplishments, tell them that you are a sinner in need of God’s help just like them.
Never let your kids ever forget the power and the mystery of the Gospel.
Happy Easter!
————————
Sam Luce has been the children’s pastor at the same church for 14 years where he currently serves as a Campus and Families Pastor, he also serves on the board of INCM and is currently a contributing editor to K! magazine, has been involved in several book projects and has been blogging since 2007. Sam’s real passion lies in building and strengthening the local church in any way possible because he believes in creating environments where life change can take place. He truly believes that the local church is the hope of the world. Sam has been married to his beautiful wife for 13 years. They live in Upstate New York with their three beautiful children ages seven, four, and two. You can catch up with @samluce on Twitter and his blog samluce.com
Orlando CPC 2012 Recap
Phil Vischer speaks with INCM Executive Director Michael Chanley at the opening session of CPC 2012.
The What’s in the Bible? team had the privilege to travel south to Orlando for a few days last week to hang out with about 1500 amazing children’s pastors at CPC 2012 (Children’s Pastors Conference). What a joy it was to spend time with so many energetic, creative and passionate children’s ministry leaders! Phil spoke at the opening ceremony about the importance of Biblical education for the next generation – and he definitely made an impact, because there was a 2-hour wait in line to meet him afterward! We got to hear so many stories from children’s pastors who are utilizing the What’s in the Bible? Church Edition in their ministries … and I can’t count the number of times we were asked, “when is the next one coming out?” (March, for those of you wondering!)
We spent a lot of time listening to and brainstorming with people who are really on the front lines of children’s ministry. We came away with LOTS of ideas, many of which we are looking to implement over the next few months. If you’re a children’s ministry leader or volunteer and you couldn’t make it to CPC or didn’t get a chance to talk to us, we’d love to hear from you too! What are things we can be doing to better serve you? What are some critical needs in the world of children’s ministry resources? Our ears are open! Share some of your thoughts in the comments section.
Christmas Curriculum Vlog Series: Graffiti Wall
In this video from our Christmas curriculum vlog series, Lori explains how to create the graffiti wall experience from Week 4 of the Buck Denver Asks Why Do We Call It Christmas? Church Edition.
Christmas Curriculum Vlog Series: Serving Project
In this video in our Christmas curriculum vlog series, Lori talks about the serving project activity from Why Do We Call It Christmas? Church Edition.
Christmas Curriculum Vlog Series: Bingo
In this video from our Christmas Curriculum Vlog series, Lori explains how to play the Bingo! game from the Why Do We Call It Christmas? Church Edition.
Christmas Curriculum Vlog Series: Customizability!
Join us for the next few weeks for a new vlog series highlighting some of our very favorite features of the brand new Why Do We Call It Christmas? Church Edition, which releases tomorrow (Nov. 1).
Today’s vlog highlights the customizability of our curriculum. Enjoy!
Stories of Faith
Last week, while at the Group KidMin Conference in Chicago, I heard story-after-story about the impact What’s in the Bible? is having on children in the church. One specific story stuck with me throughout the entire weekend. A children’s leader told me that for a 10 year-old-girl in her church, What’s in the Bible? was key in choosing a life of faith. After watching the episodes at home, the girl found her father and asked him to tell her about salvation. Watching What’s in the Bible? had sparked something inside of her, encouraging her to ask questions and connect deeply with God. As a result, the child prayed for faith with her father that evening.
The story touched my heart possibly because my story of faith is similar. I was a freshman in high school, having attended church most of my life though not aware that faith required a personal, daily, communal faith with God. After reading something that sparked a few questions for me, I went to my dad and asked him to tell me more about faith, salvation, and choosing to obey God. He answered all of my questions, and then we prayed together asking God to guide me and love me all of my life. It was a special moment I’ll remember for all of my life.
We never know how God will work in a child’s life. Possibly an animated DVD series, or a church service, or even a conversation with a parent will lead children into a life of faith. This week, as you are preparing for your Sunday morning children’s ministry, consider praying for each child individually. Pray that God will continue to shape the children, strengthen them as they make choices of faith, and inspire them to draw closer to Him. And, as you hear stories of children’s faith, pass them on! Share their stories with other children, your church community, and your neighborhood. A child’s faith is inspirational to all!
Share your story here! We’d love to hear how the children in your church are being inspired to live lives of faith. Leave a comment describing a child you know who has recently made a choice for faith. May the stories bless all of our spirits.
And, don’t forget-tomorrow you can purchase the newest installment of WITB! Volume 6 DVD available Tuesday, 10/18!
Amy Dolan leads curriculum development for What’s in the Bible? and runs Lemon Lime Kids. Follow her on twitter @adolan.
