For the Bible tells me so....

June 28, 2009 12:10 PM

I teach Sunday school, but my church is in-between curricula, so I've been drawing my own worksheet/coloring page/handouts. What are your favorite lesson illustrations?

Eg.,

(J)esus
(O)thers
(Y)ourself

Justice=An officer gives you a speeding ticket when you deserve one
Mercy=An officer waives a speeding ticket when you deserve one
Grace=An officer pays your speeding ticket when you deserve one

The Beatitudes as the "Be Attitudes."

The two greatest commandments are to love the Lord with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself; the first half of the ten commandments show the first commandment, and the second half show the second commandment.

The fruits of the spirit: Love is the first. All of the others are but manifestations of love.

The different names of God reveal different facets of His character.

Romans "Road to Salvation"

Etc.

posted by litterateur to Religion & Philosophy (3 answers total)

Best answer: I realized I couldn't think of any other examples of what you're asking for (aside from the one where you draw two cliffs with a canyon in between and you write "God" on one side and "man" on the other, with "sin" in the canyon, and then the cross is drawn in to build a bridge between the God side and the man side--but I never really liked that one) so I did a little googling and--sorry if you know this already--it looks like there are quite a few sites offering sample handouts/coloring pages.

That said, the main reason I wanted to post an answer was that when my high school Sunday school class was between standard lesson series one summer, my youth pastor did a several week series on Flannery O'Connor's short stories. It was fantastic--easily the most (positive) memorable church experience of my youth. He'd give us a copy of the story for the next week, then on the discussion day there was a handout on either the religious themes of the particular story or something on Christian faith and artistic expression, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure what ages you're working with, but I strongly recommend using this gap in curriculum to do something creative and unusual.
posted by Meg_Murry at 4:31 PM on June 28, 2009

I don't have any specific ideas for sunday school lessons. However, if I were in your position, I'd ask the pastor if he/she had any advice. For that matter, the pastor may be planning on doing a series of sermons that you could supplement in your Sunday school class.
posted by Quizicalcoatl at 4:59 PM on June 28, 2009

In-between weeks are great for developing community and relationships with the kids. When I was running groups, we'd play games or create or let the kids decide what we were doing (this was every 3 months or so). Sure it was fun, but it was fun with a plan!

If we believe God made us as people who love to play and to create and to think and to work together, why not make this part of our humanity part of Sunday School? We always found the kids came back the next week excited, more caring and considerate, and ready to hear more about God. There are lots of easy games that build group identity. The only limitation we had was that kids shouldn't get 'knocked out' (otherwise you have children sitting on the sidelines for most of the game). A group project like a mural or newspaper is great too.

This may not be quite what you had in mind, but is a different way of using the "spare" weeks. Otherwise have a look at sites like max7, Making Friends, or DLTK. Lots of useful sheets and tools there.
posted by liss at 5:05 AM on July 1, 2009