Expereimental methods and the bible

Keith sharier

What does the concept of parables mean to you?  Why are parables an important method of teaching concepts of the Bible? What is your favorite parable and why does it stand out to you?

To me, parables bring LIFE to the words that are there on the page. It’s almost too easy to read straight through a book or to hear a story and not grasp the true concept that it was attempting to put forth. But when you give the reader/listener that visual image it not only gives them a new way to look at it, it also gives them a chance to literally relate to what is written/said and instead of just words, it gives them a chance to feel as if they are interacting with the story as well. Parables give you that “ohhhhhh I get it feeling” instead of reading/ hearing something and wondering….”umm, what on earth is going on?”. Parables make it easier to remember the important concepts that God wants us to follow and through the practical element that it puts forth. My favorite parable comes from– Matthew 13:31–32 He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches." This has always stuck out to me because when I read it I feel powerful! In the sense that, with God…ALL things are truly possible, with faith as SMALL as a tiny little mustard seed the possibilities are absolutely endless. It shows me that when you Trust in the Lord, that the seemingly meaningless seed that you sowed… will end up growing into a HUGE tree beyond all belief and your world will totally get rocked…in a good way!

Experiential Youth Ministry - Introduction

Ben Evans

How do we make the lessons being taught at church desirable to the students? How do we make the passion for learning stick for them? What different forms can that take?

One of the things that stuck out the most to me throughout the entire introduction was how much Losey was trying to send home the idea of making the lessons and questions relevant and exciting to the students. Instead of teaching a lesson and making it a routine and getting into a rut with it, we need to make a lesson exciting and we need to be interested in it. After all, if we aren't interested in something, why would they want to be? If we aren't excited by what we're teaching when we're studying it, then they will see that and won't really care about what is being taught. We need to be careful what we teach and how we teach it so that it stays fresh and interesting to us and the students. If we can do that, we can lead the students into asking questions of their own that will help their relationship with God deepen. I have seen this done by using a night where the discussion is driven by questions the students have or discussing the current events. The more exciting and real the topic is to them, the more likely they are to dig deeper for more answers on their own.

Format for Posting for 2011

In order to keep the site somewhat clean and organized I want to outline a few guidelines.
1) If it is your week to post the question start a new post in this format:
"Your Name - The Question you are posing"
2) In the body of the post start by stating the reading you are responding to:i.e. "Experiential Youth Ministry - Introduction"
3) After that you can state your response/stance/thoughts.
4) Everyone else should respond to that post with their contribution as A COMMENT... not a new post.
5) At the beginning of your comment the first line should be in this format:"Your Name"

Next Line: Your Response

I didn't outline that ahead of time, but many of your blogger names are not clearly identifiable as you, so we won't know who you are.If you can edit your previous posts please go in and do that.
Thanks!
James

Class of 2011

Here we go! This is our first post. I just sent you all an invite and we are ready for a GREAT spring! Happy Valentine's Day! Go recreate!

Youth Meetings

Youth Meetings are considered to be the backbone of youth ministry. The meetings tend to be on a Sunday evening or Wednesday evening service, which gives you about an hour to engage with the teens. Typically youth meetings have a message and some sort of activity to go along with it to engage the teens in some way. It is extremely helpful for the game to relate to the message in someway. The problem is with such little time can you cover what needs to be covered in the time allowed and how much do you try to cover. Growing up our youth group met on Wednesday nights and this was the night we had a game to go along with our message and Travis would try and do a theme for the month. He was able to make it where we would want to come back the following week and continue on with the topic. He would give us questions to think about like "Who was someone that you haven't forgiven and why?" when we were talking about forgiveness and tell us the next week we would talk about why we need forgive. In the book this is under give them a reason to return, so what creative ways did your youth pastor use to give you reason to return and what new ways can you think of to keep teens wanting to come back every week? Besides food!

Missions as Recreational Ministry

Todd Rohrer

There are a lot of different ways to go about Recreational Ministry, but one we don't think of is missions. Typically when I think of recreation, I think of games and sports and what not. Missions does not fall into that schema, but it is certainly a part of recreational ministry. These trips offer opportunities for community building and that, I can see, is the heart of recreation. When Julie brought the students into class, a lot of them talked about just watching people worship God in these unusual places. Some talked about witnessing to people. Others talked about just seeing people being excited. One of the boys, I feel terrible because I can't remember his name--he was the one in the orange--he talked about the boy on the playground who had been shot by gangsters. He felt--he had compassion--for those who didn't know if they'd be safe at night. These missions trips not only build community within the students, but between them and the neighborhood. As Julie said, "It is when we are in over our heads that we have to rely on God and we are stretched."

And just to wrap up with some notes, Julie mentioned 3 steps of doing missions:
1. Provide the opportunity. If you don't set it up, who will?
2. Frame it (help them make connections of why they're doing what they're doing)
3. Celebrate it. Let them share what they learned and know they did well.

Offering the Gospel to Children: The Christian Calender

Emily Grubbs: How can we make the Christian calender real to the students, and how can we teach and help families use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?

Usually when we celebrate the Christian holidays, we have certain traditions that we keep to remember why we celebrate each holiday. I know that every year my church at home performs an Easter play to invite others into remembering the death and ressurrection of Christ. In the reading Pritchard brings up an important point about how usually we emphasize learning about these Christian traditions (such as the celebrations of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter) as opposed to truly celebrating them. She believes that the best way to learn about something is to experience it for yourself. Engaging students in what is being taught has a lasting impact on young people than just hearing a lesson. By taking a part of the Christian calender and bringing it to life for the students, it can truly help them to learn how to engage in worship. That being said, how can we make the Christian calender real to students, and how to we make it practical for families to be able to use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?