Derek Jacobi, the Oscar-winning actor, has spoken of feeling “conned and embarrassed” when he was taken to a Billy Graham rally as a young man.
That’s how he describes the moment when, having gone to the front to “give my life to Jesus”, the American evangelist stopped talking: “It was like the choir stopped singing”.
What an evocative description of a faith-response which depends on a man, rather than on the man. “The choir stopped singing”.... continue reading
The Council of Dort laboured for months to make a five point response to the doctrines of Arminius, and finally formulated what have become known as The Five Points of Calvinism. Somewhere down the line (if you know when, please tell us) someone attached the acronym TULIP to the doctrinal formulation, and now they are the touchstone for people who consider themselves convinced Calvinists:
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints
But such formularies can grow stale and lose their power to interest. So here is a brave effort to create a modern version that might appeal to full-blooded men (and women!) of today. Works for me. As Homer Simpson might say: "Mmmmmmmm.... Calvinism!"
If you want to know more about the Reformation and the issues that surrounded the formulation of these doctrinal positions, why not sign up for The Reformation Church History module of the Moore College course operated by our distance-learning college? Email admin@open-bible-institute.org to enrol.
Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.”
Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.
He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him.... continue reading
During this blog series we’ve seen that there’s no such thing as “just a helper”, we always need to start with the passage, that we focus the fun on the main teaching point, and that children learn best if we provide a range of learning styles. All of these things have a bearing on the single topic that most children’s workers worry about – discipline!
Discipline is a planning issue
Children are sinners – just as we are. Their sinfulness sometimes shows itself in bad behaviour. Ours can show in how we respond. But the way we plan a session can minimise discipline issues, making it easier for children to control themselves, and for us to focus on teaching and modelling Christian truths.... continue reading
Getting children to remember Bible verses is important to their understanding of the Bible, the key is to make it fun and most of all memorable!
Following Alison Mitchell's series this week on children's work and particularly her piece on 'learning God's living Word', for the next 7 days we're offering you a great deal on Remember, Remember.
It's 50% off when you use the code remember at checkout. This book is packed with top tips and ideas for engaging children with learning verses, so it really is a no brainer. Do forward this on to your Sunday School leaders at church so they don't miss out!This great offer is available in the UK, USA and Australia!
Offer expires on July 6th 2012.
I’m just back from a church weekend where we learnt the whole of Psalm 16 by heart. I’m now practising it every day to try and get it firm in my mind. I am not finding it easy. But that’s partly because my adult brain isn’t used to memorising stuff, and is protesting at the strain. However, children do learn things – poems at school, the words of pop songs, lines for a Christmas play. So this is the ideal time for them to be memorising key verses from God’s Word.
Most children’s teaching material will include some memory verses, and may also give suggestions for how to teach them. But we can quickly get locked in to using the same few techniques – the ones we think “work”.... continue reading
Startling academic research shows widespread Church growth in Britain
Critics Challenge National Association of Evangelicals' Abortion-Reduction Initiative's Funding
Military Gay Pride: Behaviour Once Grounds for Court Martial Now Celebrated
Church leaders release open letter on religious liberty
Disclaimer: The Good Book Company is not responsible for the content of external sites and does not necessarily agree with the content of articles listed.
You can read large books about learning styles, or even study it at college, but the basics can be summed up in one phrase:
Different people learn in different ways.
Actually, it’s perhaps better to say that different people learn best in different ways. So most of us learn a bit no matter how something is taught, but we will learn best through whichever style suits us the most.
Roughly speaking, there are three learning styles:
Spot the problem with this session:
Opening game – dodgeball
Song – Father Abraham
Bible story – feeding the 5000
Quiz – recognising different kinds of fish
Prayer – for good weather for the church picnic
Craft – making paper windmills
We all want children to enjoy a session, and most of them would enjoy this one. A lively game, an action song, a great story, a competitive quiz, prayer for a sunny day, and a fun craft that moves in the wind. Cool!
BUT...... continue reading
I hope the children’s teaching material you use helps you teach the Bible well and faithfully. But no matter how good the material is, still expect to make changes. I’m the UK editor for the CLICK teaching syllabus, but even so, every time I’ve used it, I’ve changed it!
There’s so much that writers of published material, myself included, simply don’t know. They haven’t met the children in your group, or the team who teach them. They don’t know how long your session lasts (sometimes, you don’t get much warning of that either!) or the space you meet in. They can’t see that your group is full of active boys, or that you have to keep the noise down because the crèche is next door. They don’t know if your group is mostly younger ones this year, or an after-school group where the children have little Bible knowledge. They don’t even know whether you have two children or twenty.... continue reading
