Tyler Klein: Week 10

A. Time Spent this week: (Youth Group 2, Sunday School 1)

B. My Class this week:

1. Waiting for People to Arrive:
Mike was back this week from Spring break, but the youth group had just arrived back from a 20 mile hike the night before, specifically 1 in the morning, so we all just talked and waited for “stragglers” until around 9:25. The attendance was really low today. Then we started the lesson.
2. Begin Lesson:
Mike started by asking everyone what Phil had taught about the last week. Kids responded that it was about suffering, so Mike when on from there, saying that for today he was going to finish up the book of James. With that he asked the girls to pass out the Bibles in the room. After everyone had a Bible Mike asked them to take a few minutes and bring out the main topic of the Book of James. Some of the topics that were mentioned were: warnings, wisdom, faith vs. actions, taming the tongue, patience, endurance, temptation, the power of prayer, perseverance, submission, suffering, sin, and patience (second time). In the middle of the list Seth Bye arrived, causing a distraction. I expected more people to come in late and distract, but Seth was the only one.
With all of these topics up on the board Mike asked a follow-up question, “what is the purpose of the book of James, and what did you take away from it?” Because today was so dead no one really gave an effort or an answer.
3. Mr. Mcdivitt’s thoughts on James
With no one answering, Mike went right into explaining his purpose for teaching the book of James, that he wants for the class to be challenged and to understand their faith better, specifically through the topics of suffering, patience and perseverance in James. He explained the book “The Road Less Traveled” and brought up its summary statement that “life is difficult”. He wanted for the class to understand that they need to make it clear to people and even that they understand that when you become a Christian things aren’t going to be automatically easy, it’ll still be a tough life, maybe even harder as a Christian. But that is why patience and perseverance are important, because if we display those traits to those around us we can affect others for Christ. If we can take life’s difficulties in stride then our faith will grow and mature in ways we cannot fathom.
4. Dismissal:
Then all of a sudden the class was over, probably because we started late, but Mike explained the he was going to be done teaching for a few months and that Pastor Tony was going to be teaching the class for that period. We ended with prayer, and the strange session of Sunday school that was this morning was ended, as was the remainder of my observances for this practicum. It was a great experience, and I was blessed to get to learn from Mike and Phil when he taught. The kids were great and the environment taught me a lot.

C. My Questions for the week
1. When you know people are going to be coming in late, how can you effectively keep the attention of the class?
2. If everyone were tired, like this morning, would it have been better to have a mellower, fellowship building time rather than a teaching time? None of the kids were in any kind of readiness to learn today, it just seemed like a waste of time and effort.