Archive for August, 2007

Something about adolescents makes it easier for students to stay up into the wee hours of the morning and sleep half the day. Quite a bit of research has been done to determine that this really is the way the teenage brain is wired. I’m not saying you should start having Bible study at two o’clock in the afternoon, but reality is that your students are likely to show up to your 9 A.M. Bible study looking half-dead. So, how do you get them into the life-changing truths of Scripture when all they want to do is go back to snoring? That’s a challenge.

BIBLE STUDY STARTS BEFORE IT STARTS

Students will make a decision about their level of participation in the class as soon as they walk in the door. Think about the first thing your students see when they come into your room (or the section of the school hallway you use to meet if your at my church). If the chairs are always set up the same way and the room always looks pretty much the same, students are likely to assume they can put it on auto-pilot, lean back in their chairs, and snooze through the lesson. Give a little thought to your room set-up. Don’t always set the chairs up in a circle. Tear down the old poster from the 80′s and put up something that gets students thinking about the truths of Scripture you plan to teach.

START WITH A BANG

I like starting with something fun. A game usually wakes students up and draws them into the lesson. I know that this seems like a waste of time when you only get about 45 minutes a week to teach the Bible, but I truly believe grabbing their attention and getting them involved will maximize the time you have with them. I think they will learn more if you take the time to get them connected before you open the Word.

A couple of weeks ago, we studied a passage that talked about unity. I decided to use a very active game I learned a long time ago. I call it “Shuffle Your Buns” though I think I’ve heard it called other things as well. You put chairs in a circle with chairs pretty close to each other. Make sure you have a chair for every class member and no extra chairs. One person stands in the middle. Their objective is to sit in the empty chair. However, the person to the right of the chair moves over into the chair to keep him or her from sitting down. Of course, that opens another empty chair, but the person to the right of that chair must now move over. When the person in the middle manages to get a chair, the person who allowed him or her to sit (the person to the right of the chair) in the middle. Silly game, right? But we used it to start a discussion on how it feels to be excluded from a group.

USING GAMES

Using a game to get students talking usually works pretty well. I use a three step process for “debriefing” the game. (I picked it up somewhere so if this is your idea I stole . . . sorry for not giving you credit.) First, ask about students experience in the game. In the game above, for example, I asked questions like: What was it like to be stuck in the middle? What did it take to actually get a chair? Did anyone in the circle actually help you get a chair at any point?

Second, ask students how their experience in the game is like real life. I might say something like this: Okay, this was just a game, but do you ever have times in life when people seem intent on not giving you a seat in the group? What does it feel like to be excluded when it is not a game?

Finally, ask students to relate this idea to their faith. I try not to correct any thoughts they have at this point but just listen to them, invite as many comments as I can, and then use their thoughts as a springboard to get into the Bible. A question might look like this: What would it be like if getting into the kingdom of God felt like the game we played? How can we make sure it doesn’t? I might follow those questions by saying, I like what you guys are saying. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul dealt with this kind of a problem. I want us to look at the solution the Bible gives us.

OPTIONS, OPTIONS, OPTIONS

I don’t mean to imply that you should use a game for every Bible study. Try different things and see what you students tend to respond to. You might find they respond well to drama, art, word games, or imagination games. Try starting your lesson by asking them to improvise scenes from real life or the Bible. Get them to draw pictures to get the rest of the class to guess important words from the study. Use a story from the news (or from the tabloids) and ask them to talk about what it would be like if that happened in your church.

KEEP THE GOAL IN MIND

Remember what you are trying to accomplish. It is not enough to get students to wake up. Get them to engage. Make sure that you are doing something that leads them toward the study. Don’t spend the whole time playing a game students like. Rather, end the game while students are still having fun. Transition into the Bible with excitement. Communicate that the part you love the best is discovering God’s Word. It may take them a while to learn to have your hunger for the Word, but I think they will be willing to dig into it with you. Engage them. Then, feed them.

Paul Kelly