“Becoming Like a Child”

-An Intergenerational Family Friendly Sunday School Approach

Looking for a Sunday school where parents and children can study the same things, spend time together, and still have focus on age appropriate study? Consider this:

In this study we will join together across age groups, with children (ages 5-11), youth (ages 12-18) and adults all sharing together in the same study. We start out all together and sing some opening songs. Then someone reads a Scripture and a popular children’s story which has similar teaching to the Scripture. The class will then break into groups for adults, youth and children, each of which will explore the connection between the Scripture and the children’s story at an age-appropriate level. Children will do related crafts; youth will learn Bible study methods and learn to connect messages from popular songs; and adults will really wrestle with the meaty issues. Than all will come back and share what we learned with each other.

This story will help parents and grandparents who read children’s stories to their children to connect those stories to what God teaches us in God’s Word. And youth will learn to do the same, not only with the stories from their childhood, but also with the songs they listen to on their radios and mp3 players!

Look for this great new approach to start this Fall, most likely September 11, 2011.

Here is a little of Children’s books, Songs and Scriptures we will be dealing with:

Week    Theme    ScriptureChildren’s Book           Popular Song                    

   1    Facing FearJoshua 1:9         Where the Wild Things Are       Jesus Walks (Kanye West)

   2    Being a family      Mark 3:31-35      Yeh Shen (Chinese Cinderella)

   3    Racism       Galatians 3:28              The Sneetches (Dr. Seuss)      Where is the Love? (Black- Eyed Peas)                   

   4    God’s Love           Psalm 139:7-12            The Runaway Bunny                          You Found Me (The Fray)

   5    God’s Faithfulness       Isaiah 55:10-11            The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keats)      Beautiful Day (U2)

& Creativity

   6    Getting Hurt         Isaiah 53  The Velveteen Rabbit                            Love Hurts (Nazareth)

   7    Being Used by God      Luke 1:26-38      The Tale of the Three Trees        I Dreamed a Dream (from Les Miserable)

   8    Christ’s Death    John 15:12-13               The Giving Tree                Pride (One Man in the Name of Love) (U2)

   9    Death/Heaven     1 Thess. 4:13-18          Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairrs    100 Years to Live (Five for Fighting)

  10    Success    1 John 3:2-3        Hope for the FlowersUnwritten (Natasha Bendingfeild)

  11    Problem-SolvingPhilippians 4:13The Little Engine that Could     The Climb (Miley Cyrus)

  12    Sharing with those    Acts 4:32-35     Stone Soup               Another Day in Paradise

                         in Need                                  (Phil Collins)

  13    True GreatnessLuke 22:24-27    Yertle the Turtle (Dr. Seuss)        When I Rules the World

                                           (Cold Play)

  14    True Beauty    1 Peter 3:3-6      Beauty and the Beast At 17 (Janis Ian)