Applying the Bible in SRE and Kids' Church
Children want to know why learning about Jesus matters
This year I have a combined Year 5 and 6 SRE class. During our first lesson together, we did a get-to-know you activity that included each of them writing down what questions they had about Jesus. It was interesting to read through the answers. Not surprisingly, there were various interpretations of ‘questions’.
Why do we only learn about Jesus one day a week?
How old is Mrs Rivers? (Sorry kid, that’s not part of the curriculum!)
Will we read the whole Bible?
Even though no one wrote it down, I’ve discovered as I’ve got to know the class that one question seems to keep coming up in various ways:
Why does it matter that I learn about Jesus?
Most of them have been in SRE for several years by now and the stories about Jesus are familiar, so why do they need to keep listening? Our big question for the term has been, “Who is Jesus?” And part of answering this well for my class means helping them see how knowing Jesus is relevant to them.
One of my favourite books on teaching the Bible well to children is Show them Jesus by Jack Klumpenhower. Klumpenhower provides some simple and helpful questions to ask as we prepare to teach a passage. These are questions he recommends for using with Old Testament stories to help see how the story points to Jesus.
This is how Klumpenhower’s questions might help me show my students how the story of baby Moses from Exodus 2 points to Jesus:
Q: What is God doing for his people in this story?
A: God works things out so that baby Moses is protected against all apparent odds and provides a new leader who will bring God’s people out of slavery in Egypt.
Q: How does God do the same for us – only better – in Jesus?
A: God sends baby Jesus against all apparent odds (virgin birth!) and provides a new leader who will bring God’s people out of slavery to sin and death.
Q: How does believing this change how we live?
A: Even when it looks impossible, we can trust God to keep his promises and rescue his people.
Simple but so helpful, right?!
One thing I have learned about Bible talks is that often we spend a lot of time of the first two thirds and not enough, if any, on the last third. That is, we work hard to tell the Bible story accurately and engage the children’s interest, and we talk about Jesus. But we don’t spend much time thinking about applying the Bible specifically, or showing the children why it matters to them.
So here are three questions to ask that expand Klumpenhower’s third question: How does believing this change how we live?
Q: How does believing this change or add to what I know about God?
Q: How does believing this change my relationship with God/Jesus?
Q: How does believing this change how I behave?
Some readers might recognise the head, heart, hands application model that is part of the Youthworks Leaders in Training Teaching Target. This is useful as part of our exegesis and preparation for any kind of Bible talk as well.
Reflecting on the relevance of a passage with these three questions can help us avoid giving shallow applications, leaving application as knowledge disconnected from daily life, and because of the connection to Jesus in the earlier questions, from making our application disconnected from the gospel. Answering these questions for myself as I reflect on the Bible passage can also help avoid these errors.
Let’s try it with an upcoming SRE lesson from Connect B1, Lesson 9, To die or not to die? Luke 22:39-53. The lesson aim is to help students understand that the Bible explains that Jesus chose to die on the cross and rise again because he loves us.
Q: How does believing this change or add to what I know about God?
A: I’m reminded that Jesus wasn’t tricked or overpowered. He made a choice to go to the cross. Jesus must love his people very much to do what would have been so hard and painful.
Q: How does believing this change my relationship with Jesus?
A: Jesus in Gethsemane is a very personal moment and I feel closer to him. I feel assured that Jesus really does love me and is trustworthy. This passage reminds me that Jesus was fully human and he felt things just like I do. He knows what it feels like to be fearful and worried. I can talk to him when I feel like that.
Q: How does believing this change how I behave?
A: I’m not going to make jokes or treat what Jesus did on the cross lightly because I have been reminded how much it cost him. I want to pray to him and thank him for what he did, and I want to pray to him more often. I want to tell others about how Jesus made a choice to die so he could rescue people.
I could use these questions in class, or I could use them in my own lesson preparation. I could share my answers as an example for the students and following that, I could create three stations, one for each question, around the classroom where they need to add their own comments and answers either as drawings or in sentences. Or maybe they can do this individually at their desks. It does take time for children to get the hang of how you expect them to engage. So I might do similar activities a few times to see what works best for them.
My prayer is that this year I would be able to show each of the students in my class why knowing about Jesus matters. I hope they remember the stories from the Bible, and I hope they know why knowing them can a difference in their lives.
