A. Time spent this week: 5 Hours total
( SS: 1.5; AM Worship: 1.5; Lesson Prep: 2)
B. My class this week
My Sunday School lesson. This week my practicum supervisor sent me the general outline of the Sunday School lesson for the week. My job was to incorporate it into a full fledged lesson plan and teach it to the young adult class on Sunday. The theme for the group this semester is "Experiencing God's Power," and the topic this week was on lust. The process of developing a lesson plan is challenging and overwhelming when you don't have alot of practice doing it, and it is also difficult when you have been given the topic, instead of choosing your own. It was also challenging to make the lesson interesing: the most use scripture regarding lust is in Matthew 25, where Jesus tells the people that lusting in their hearts is the same as lusting in reality.
The Lesson itself. I tried to approach the topic of lust from a social perspective: C.S. Lewis equates the importance of morality to a fleet of ships sailing together in formation (Mere Christianity, pp. 71). There are three things that we should look at when we make decisions (this isn't just a lesson limited to lust): 1. the internal engines of the ship (which represents the individual) must be running up to par, otherwise the ship cannot steer or reach its destination. 2. The ship must be aware of the location of the other ships in the fleet. If a fleet of ships collides because each vessel is doing as it pleases, everyone is an unhappy camper. 3. The fleet has a mission: in our case as human beings, we are trying to form and maintain a relationship with God. All three of these factors must be taken into consideration, otherwise there is chaos and brokenness.
Lust destroys whatever it comes in contact with. Men and women struggle with it and it is not something we can overcome on our own. Jesus' solution for a lustful heart is to cut off the problem at its source.
As an object lesson, I crafted three origami paper boats to portray a fleet of ships.
The challenge. This lesson was a challenge for me. Normally lust is a topic we do not discuss across gender: guys discuss with guys and girls discuss with girls. In attendance this week there were two males, being myself and my pastor, and four girls. I haven't felt so awkward in a long time. God stretched me by teaching me how let Him speak through me, regardless of my comfort level.
C. My questions this week
1. How would you go about teaching on a touchy subject like lust to a mixed crowd?
2. How do you pick out object lessons?
3. How much prep time is adequate for preparing a Sunday School lesson? Also, can you give me some pointers on how to be more engaging with people in attendance?
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Re: Mixed Crowd... Man, that sounds a little tough. I don't understand the lust issue from a female perspective, but I would assume it would probably be best to simply dive deeper into what the Bible says about it. When we fail in our understanding I think the Bible can easily fill in. It needs to come first anyways, but you know what I'm saying. You could always take a subject like that and not expound so much on the bad aspects, like what it is and what it does to you, but on the wonderful aspect that God can strengthen you to overcome the difficulties that it presents. Turn the glory to God in the face of difficult circumstances.
ReplyDeleteRe: Prep Time... I don't have any idea on that since I don't have a lot of experience. I would bet it depends on your curriculum. If you are preparing something yourself, by yourself, with no outline or pre-made tools I would bet it'll take longer, whereas if you had a curriculum with a topic and helps included it would take less time to prepare. The season of life and the business of the week will also surely have an effect on the preparation.
nice job--both of you!
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