Author Archives: Lisa Jones

School assemblies – Thoughts and tips

School assemblies – thoughts and tips from Rachel Foster of Bridgebuilder trust Milton Keynes

A school assembly is one of the few times when the whole school community joins together as one. The short snippet of time during a busy day offers a different focus from other activities.

Assemblies bring opportunities for pupils to think not just about themselves, but beyond themselves. It’s a time where they have the space to think about values, morals and faith and a chance for them to reflect on the things that affect them, influence them and shape them.

As Christian visitors in a school, it is essential to conduct ourselves in an acceptable and appropriate manner. Building good relationships is fundamental to becoming part of the school family and having further opportunities to share the Christian faith and values.

It’s easy for us to think that our job is to preach and convert! The truth is schools are a place to educate not evangelise. We can use phrases like ‘The Bible says…’ or ‘Christians believe…’ We must remember that it is not our place to tell anyone what to think or believe. We may, however, encourage people to think about what they do believe.

It’s also important to remind ourselves that our actions speak louder than our words. The way we interact can have an incredibly positive influence. By making eye contact with pupils and smiling at them, we show that we care and value them. By being genuinely interested in staff and having time to listen to them, we can be like a breath of fresh air in a difficult environment. We should always ask God to shine out of us in all we do and say.

Our society brings many challenges for children and young people as they grow and develop, so being invited into schools to take an assembly is a privilege and a responsibility.

Below are a few tips to help as we prepare for the task:

Be prepared Have a good starter to get the children and staff interested and thinking. Use a good story with something visual and interactive to make it memorable. Conclude with time to reflect and a thought to challenge.
Have a clear aim Be sure of your theme or message and stick to it.
Believe that what you are saying is valuable Being confident brings clarity.
Be relaxed If you are relaxed and calm, your audience will be too!
Smile and make eye contact The pupils will know that you value them and they will be engaged.
Use the right language Don’t use big words or Christian jargon.
Be sensitive to pupils from different faiths Don’t say or do anything that you would not like a visitor from another faith group to say or do if you were in the audience.
Encourage pupils to think about what they believe Use phrases like ‘I wonder what you think…?’ or ‘Have you ever thought about that before…?’
Use your voice Be loud, clear and deliberate. Talk in a loud whisper for effect.
Use humour and timing Make it entertaining by using a little humour. Pause and allow time for what you are saying to sink in.
Be positive If you need to bring a little order, praise good behaviour – others will follow.
Be yourself Don’t try to copy anyone else’s style. Be true to who you are and enjoy it!

Rachel has written assembly outlines ideal for use in the run up to the Olympic games. Team Talk gives you five presentations for KS2 assemblies featuring Bible stories told by Jon Burns and the sporting experiences of five athletes talk about how Jesus makes a difference in their lives. To purchase a copy of Team Talk click here.

It’s Your Move

All Change.

The summer term is often overshadowed for many by exams and the knowledge that it is time to move on from the familiar school to a different and sometimes larger establishment. For those moving from primary to secondary school the change comes often with excitement and apprehension. Schools have acknowledged this time of change and often link up with secondary schools for shared visits.

Scripture Union has a long history of working in partnership with churches as they support their local schools during this time. It’s Your Move! is a booklet to be given to each pupil moving to secondary school. It offers plenty of practical advice in an easy to read format. There is useful information about issues young people face, such as, homework, bullying, teachers, and coursework. First published in 2001 it is frequently updated to meet the needs of pupils. This revised edition features all-new real-life story profiles and articles, more interactive elements and an updated design for 2012. It has a more contemporary feel for a new generation of children moving on.

Many churches purchase enough booklets for each pupil moving onto secondary school. If your church is interested in doing this why not check with other churches in the area and the school and work together to provide the support these pupils need. It may be useful to appoint an It’s Your Move! Coordinator to ensure everyone is clear about what is happening and when.. In some areas individuals or teams of local Christians lead assemblies or offer lessons about transition alongside the distribution of the booklets. Students or 6th formers who have finished their exams are great people to take into primary school as they can share recent experiences and answer any questions the pupils may have.

There are lots you can do and you need to be clear before you approach the school about what you are able to offer. If you are interested in finding out more about It’s Your Move! or about partnering with your local school then why not contact your regional team who would be willing to talk to you about this.

To take a look at the new booklet click here.

Attitude to Work

Note

This assembly is for use in preparation for work experience and is intended for use with older pupils.

Aim

To help pupils examine the nature of work; and to think about Jesus’ attitude to work.

Bible base

Matthew 20:1-16 – the workers in the vineyard.

You will need:

Items for task assignments: potatoes and peeler; dirty shoes, polish and brushes; pencils and sharpener; 26 cards showing the different letters of the alphabet.
A hat containing 4 cards showing assignments
4 small prizes (eg chocolate bars)
3 large pieces of paper showing:

A ‘graffiti board’ style list of issues which are part of the world of work (see Content below)
A picture of a famous person (eg well-known sports or music celebrity)
A picture of Mother Teresa

• Some music for timing the work activity (see Content below)

Content

Introduction

1. Tell pupils that as it’s the time of year for ‘work experience’, you are going to give them some practice.

2. Ask for four volunteers and give them each one of the following tasks together with the necessary equipment:

Peel three potatoes;
Clean and polish a pair of shoes;
Sharpen a dozen pencils;
Sort the twenty-six cards into alphabetical order.

3. Having told everyone what the four jobs are, assign the four volunteers their tasks by asking them to pull a card out of a hat. (Comment that you are sure that more care was taken in their real work placements!)

4. Play some music (it could be on the theme of work, or some ‘busy’ music like The Flight of the Bumble-bee by Rimsky-Korsakov), while they do their jobs. After one minute, see how they’ve got on.

5. Give the volunteers a round of applause and a small reward. You could say something like, ‘Don’t expect anything like that on work experience!’

Why work?

1. Ask some rhetorical questions about the nature of work. For example:

Do we work only for what we can get out of it ourselves?
Does it matter whether we work willingly or begrudgingly, as long as the job gets done?
What is ‘work’, anyway? Is what we do in school ‘work’? or is ‘work’ only a ‘proper job’ for which you get paid? What about ‘working’ in the garden or the house all day? Is that work? Or leisure?

2. Say to your audience that as they are preparing for the world of work, it’s worth remembering some of the similarities, as well as the differences, between school and work. Display the first piece of card showing some of the different issues involved in work which may or may not be part of their working life at school or in ‘a job’. You could include: punctuality, hours, holidays, working day, rules, law, discipline, contract, clothing, illness, wages, pay.

You might talk about some of these or leave them on display whilst you make the general point that the wonderful stress-free, hassle-free, world of work out there doesn’t exist! And probably, the things you dislike about school will be present, in some form, at work.

3. Display the second card (e.g. a top sports person, a super-model or filmstar). Then display the third card – the picture of Mother Teresa. Ask some questions like:

Whose job is the most important?
Whose job is the best paid?
Are there other criteria we need to consider?

4. Talk about the fact that even though they won’t be paid for the work they do on work experience, that doesn’t mean they are not important, or that the work they do next week doesn’t count.

Say that some people on work experience have made a real difference to their place of work: because of the kind of person they are; the atmosphere they’ve helped to create. And, as a result, they’ve made a lasting impression on their workmates.

5. Tell this story: There was a man who had a big job which had to be done in one day. So, he hired some men to do it for a fixed daily rate. Half-way through the day, he realised that the job wasn’t going to be completed on time. So he took on some more men at the same rate. In the early evening, he took on some more to make sure everything was finished and packed away. All the men got the same pay. Some of them didn’t like it, but the boss told them that they’d all got what was agreed at the time they were taken on.

6. Explain that Jesus told this story (see Matthew 20:1-16) – not to make out a case for everyone to be paid the same – but to show that everyone was equally important in getting the job done on time. They all had a part to play – however small it seemed.

Application

Say that you are sure they will all work very hard during work experience, and for no apparent reward.
Tell pupils that Jesus was a worker for many years. He knew what it was like to get dirt in his fingernails and to trade and bargain for the best deals. But Jesus said something very ironic about his work. He said that the most important thing he had come to do was to serve others and eventually die for them, not to gain a reward for himself, but for the greatest free reward ever for others; the best ‘bonus’ any boss could give to anyone, no matter how deserving – the gift of eternal life…heaven.

Soap – What you are inside is important

Aim

To help pupils understand that just as we need to be made clean on the outside, so God wants us to be made ‘clean’ on the inside.

Bible base

Mark 7:20-23 – ‘dirty’ on the inside.

You will need:

5 different brands of soap
A ‘smellograph’ score chart on card Soap Smellograph pdf (3888 downloads )
A copy of ‘Reasons why I never wash’ on Card (see Content below)
2 or 3 blindfolds
A small prize (eg a bar of soap or sponge)

Preparation

Prepare cards as suggested

Content

Introduction

1. Begin by saying that if you were to mention the word ‘soap’, many people would immediately think of Home and Away or Coronation Street, but actually, there is another meaning of the word! Soap is something we use to wash with!

At Christmas or for birthdays, one of the most popular gifts is soap. Comment that you are not sure what we are trying to say to our friends and relatives about their personal hygiene, but obviously, making ourselves and our loved ones clean and smelling nice is a favourite national pastime!

2. Explain that the very first soap was made in the Nile valley around 6000BC and carried by Phoenician seamen all around the Mediterranean coastline. Soap is actually a substance made by the action of alkali on fat. Most of us don’t care about that, we just want the right colour and fragrance.

The ‘smellograph’

1. Display the ‘smellograph’ score chart.

2. Explain that you are going to have a competition. Ask for two or three volunteers. Blindfold them and explain that they are going to have to smell five different brands of soaps (eg Dove, Palmolive, Imperial Leather, Fairy washing-up liquid, Ariel washing powder). To make it easier, you could tell them in advance the five brands they have to choose from. The winner will be the contestant who can recognise the most brands of soap correctly.

3. In turn, ask the contestants to smell the different soap brands one at a time. Record their verdicts on the ‘smellograph’.

4. When the contest is complete, take off the blindfolds, reveal the results and award the winning contestant a prize of a bar of soap, or a sponge!

Reasons why I never wash

Ask the pupils whether they think our national obsession with cleanliness is really necessary. Tell them that one young person didn’t think so. He gave these reasons for why he never washed (display the ‘Reasons why I never wash’ list on card):

I was made to wash when I was little, but I got bored with it, so I stopped.
None of my friends get washed. I’d look stupid if I started!
I haven’t got the time.
I still get washed on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter!
The bathroom’s always too cold!
Maybe when I’m older, I’ll start getting washed. I’ve got plenty of time.
There are so many different brands of soap. How do you know which one to choose?
People who wash are hypocrites – they reckon they’re cleaner than other people.
People who make soap are only after your money!

Application

Point out how silly these reasons for not washing are. We all need to be clean. Life wouldn’t be anywhere near as pleasant if we all stopped washing!
The Bible makes it clear that it’s not just on the outside that we need to be made clean. It talks about our wrong attitudes, actions and thoughts (called ‘sin’), which make us unclean and keep us separated from a holy, pure God. The Bible also talks about Jesus, who was born in a dirty stable, in a dirty world, and who wants to clean up people’s lives on the inside.
Comment that it is interesting that people often give very similar reasons for saying ‘no’ to God, as the young person gave for saying ‘no’ to soap. Ask the pupils to look again at ‘The reasons why’ list, and try to replace the references to soap and bathrooms with God, the Church and being cleaned up on the inside.
Conclude with a few moments of quiet for pupils to read through and think about ‘The reasons why’ list in the way you have suggested.

Who is the greatest? Serving others

Aim

To show pupils that in God’s eyes, the greatest of all is the servant of all.

Bible base

Mark 9:35 – the last will be first.
John 13:1-17 – Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.

You will need:

Some sheets of A4 paper for making paper aeroplanes.
A bowl of water and a towel for the feet washing exercise.

Content

Introduction

1. Ask the pupils: ‘Who is the greatest?’ Say that for some people the answer might be…(say the name of a popular, successful football team); or for someone else it might be…(say the name of a singer or group who has recently had a number one hit). Give one or two examples of your own favourite celebrities – possibly provoking some groans from the audience!

2. Comment that everyone will have a different answer, according to their interests and allegiances.

3. Continue by asking, ‘But who is the greatest here?’ Say that today, you are going to find out.

The great aeroplane contest

1. Ask for three or four volunteers to take part in a ‘Who is the greatest?’ contest.

2. Explain that you want the volunteers to make a paper aeroplane from the A4 paper provided. They will then launch their aeroplanes from a raised point in the room (eg standing on a chair, or on the stage). The winner (‘the greatest’) will be the person whose paper plane travels the furthest.

3. Act as commentator whilst the contestants make their planes, building up the excitement and drama of the contest. When they are ready, ask each competitor to launch their planes in turn. Ask the audience to allow each plan to land and then the pupil nearest should pick up the aeroplane and hold it aloft as a ‘marker’ showing the next contestant the distance he/she must try to beat.

4. When the contest is over, announce the winner and reward them with a ‘tremendous’ prize (hand them a sheet of A4 paper) – an aeroplane! Give everyone a round of applause. Keep your volunteers at the front. Ask the winner how it feels to be the greatest (great designer, great scientist, great inventor and great test pilot) – officially!

Application

Comment that it’s a good feeling to be ‘the greatest’, getting all the glory and lots of attention. Then say that the Bible has something to say on the subject. Read these words from the Gospel of Mark: ‘Whoever wants to be first must place himself last of all and be the servant of all’ (Mark 9:35, Good News Bible). Say that this seems a strange way to describe greatness.
Jesus’ way of looking at things is not the same as ours. On one occasion he demonstrated this to his disciples by getting down on his hands and knees and washing their feet! An amazing thing to do – as you can imagine – considering they were living in a hot country and had been wearing sandals. Jesus said that he expected his disciples to do the same sort of things for one another, and that the most important people actually live as though they are the least important!
Bring out the bowl of water and the towel and ask the winner of the paper aeroplane contest how he/she feels – considering that they are ‘the greatest person’ here – about washing the feet of the losers. If the winner agrees, let him/her do this! If they are obviously uncomfortable about doing it, take the heat out of the situation by saying that we don’t have to wash one another’s feet literally! Whatever you ‘winner’ decides to do, point out that there are lots of other ways we can act as servants to one another (give some examples).
Comment that when people are asked to list those who they consider to be great, today or in the past, those included are nearly always people who have served others in some way.
Challenge ‘the winner’, and everyone else, to think of how they could serve others today.

The Universe, God and me – The significance of being human

Aim

To help pupils consider the vastness of the universe and the question of significance of human beings.

Bible base

Psalm 8:3,4,9

You will need:

Large pictures of the following:

Picture 1 – the sun, or another nearby star
Picture 2 – a galaxy, for example, the Andromeda galaxy
Picture 3 – a cluster of galaxies, for example, the Virgo cluster.

23 large pieces of card: the number ‘1’ written on the first; ‘0’ on all the others.

A beautifully wrapped gift with an accompanying card addressed, ‘To someone special’

Preparation

Prepare the pictures. You may be able to obtain these from the school science department or astronomy club or from Google Images.

Content

Introduction

Begin the assembly by selecting someone from the audience and presenting them with a beautifully wrapped gift (eg a small box of chocolates). Also give them a card, the envelope of which is clearly marked, ‘To someone very special’. Make sure that the audience are aware of what is happening and what the words on the envelope say.

The Universe

1. Ask: How many stars are there in the universe? After receiving some suggestions from the pupils, say that we know about at least one star – on sun (display Picture 1). Ask a pupil to come to the front to hold up the card showing the number ‘1’. They should stand on one side of the front area of the hall.

Explain that the sun is a huge ball of hydrogen gas, large enough for a million earths to fit inside it. Light from the sun takes eight minutes to travel the huge distance to the earth.

2. Continue by explaining that the sun is only one star in our local group of stars, which is called the Milky Way galaxy. Ask if anyone has seen the Milky Way? Say that if they can get somewhere where there are no street lights, on a clear night, they will be able to see a diffuse band of light across the sky. This is the Milky Way. Explain that it’s a vast collection of stars which are like our sun. Say that if we were to take a ride in the Starship Enterprise and go out of our galaxy and look back, we would see something like this. (display Picture 2).

3. But this is only one galaxy among many! (display Picture 3). Remember, each galaxy contains about 100 billion stars. Ask how many galaxies there are in the universe? Explain that there are about 100 billion!

4. To work out how many stars there are in the universe, you need to multiply 100 billion by 100 billion and you get… (ask eleven more pupils to come and hold up the remaining ‘0’ cards, so that the number is stretched across the front of the assembly hall)…a very large number indeed! This number was once likened to the number of the grains of sand on the beaches of the world (Genesis 22:17)!

5. Read Psalm 8:3,4 and 9, whilst Picture 3 and the number are still being displayed. Then ask the pupils holding the number cards sit down, but leave on display Picture 3.

Application

1. Ask pupils what they think the vast, unimaginable size of the universe means for our understanding of our own place in it.

Say that some people simply conclude that we are totally insignificant and that our existence and that of the whole universe have no purpose at all.

Christians take a different view. The Bible acknowledges this whole universe is the creation of God. The reason it is so vast is a demonstration of the exciting and extravagant being that God is! But far from man being insignificant, God has chosen to reach out to human beings in a special way.

2. Ask pupils if they have ever had the experience of being chosen out of a vast crowd (like the person who received the gift at the beginning of the assembly), and because of that they have felt special.

3. Explain that Christians believe human beings are special, in spite of their apparent insignificance in this vast universe – because God chose to come in the person of Jesus to demonstrate his love and care for us. We might be a very small part of the universe, but we are a very special part!

4. Draw pupils’ attention to the picture of the galaxies again (Picture 3, still on display). Say that you are going to end this assembly with a few moment of quiet. As they look at the picture, ask them to let it remind them, not of their insignificance in such a great universe, but of their great significance to God!

Going against the flow – The Narrow Gate

Aim

To help pupils realise that they have the freedom to choose between right and wrong; to challenge them to have the courage to ‘go against the flow’.

Bible base

Matthew 7:13,14 – the narrow gate.

You will need:

A large card showing a drawing of a little fish which is swimming in the opposite direction to a huge shoal of fish.
Items for the ‘choices’ exercise (see Content below)
A prize.

Content

Choices

1. Ask some pupils in the audience to choose between two things you offer them (eg two different flavour chewy bars; two different colour biros; a Mars or a Snickers Bar).

2. Comment that we are all used to this sort of choice, for example when we go shopping. This kind of choosing can be very enjoyable.

3. Continue by saying that there are, however, many things in life where we don’t have a choice (eg where we are born, the colour of our skin, the family we are part of etc). There are also things we have some influence over, but not much (which school we go to, which class we are in, which teacher we have). But that still leaves many areas of life where we are free to make our own choices.

4. Comment that it’s worth remembering that even if we don’t make a decision, we are still making a choice. We are choosing that we’ll drift along through life, being pushed and pulled in all sorts of directions by whoever and whatever has the strongest influence on us at the time.

It’s hard to be different

1. Say to the pupils that it’s hard not to do what everyone else does. Announce that you are about to demonstrate this.

2. Ask the front row of pupils to stand up. Ask them to go to one side of the room, but ask one person to stay with you on the opposite side of the room. Ask those in the group to walk – as a group – across the front of the hall. Ask the person on their own to try to walk through them. It’s difficult. Be prepared to step in to avoid injury!

3. Ask them all to sit down. Give the pupils who walked across the room on their own a prize.

4. Display the drawing of the fish on the large card.

5. Say that it is difficult to stand out from the crowd. It needs real strength. Sometimes we ‘go with the flow’ just to survive! But ‘going against the flow’ may have benefits! After all, it’s possible that the crowd is wrong! Those fish may be going in the wrong direction, perhaps even to their destruction!

6. Comment that, to a large extent, all of us get our ideas of what everyone else does and thinks from the media – TV and magazines. However, that is actually a very limited picture of what people do and think – it only represents this part of the world at this moment in time. ‘Everybody does it’, or ‘everybody says so’ is usually not a very well-founded claim! But even if it were true that ‘everybody does it’, it’s still not reasonable to think that you have to do it as well.

7. The fact that it’s difficult not to do something, doesn’t mean you don’t have a choice. For example, you are at a party where it seems as if everyone is drinking excessively and getting drunk. You have a choice:

You can join in and get drunk;
You can leave the party;
You can stay at the party but not drink.

8. Comment that the first option is the easiest. You could do this without having to think at all. The other options require you to do some thinking, to make a decision, and then stick by that decision – no matter what other people might say. But don’t deceive yourself by thinking that there is no choice.

Application

Ask the pupils to listen to these words of Jesus: ‘The gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it’ (Matthew 7:13,14, Good News Bible).
Comment that – when it comes to making choices about right and wrong – it isn’t easy to go in the opposite direction to most other people, especially if you feel as if you are on your own in the choice you have made.
Conclude with a few moments of quiet. Ask the pupils to think about the choices that face them. Ask if there are any areas of their lives where they are ‘going with the flow’ when really, they want to go against it.

Seeking life

Aim

To help pupils understand that there are different ways of looking at life; and to consider Jesus’ claim that he is the source of life in all its fullness.

Bible base

John 10:10; 14:6 – Jesus came to give us life.

You will need:

5 large cards – 4 of which should show the word ‘life’ written in 4 different ways; and the fifth showing the word ‘JESUS’:

Card 1 – l I f e
Card 2 – l I F e
Card 3 – L i f e
Card 4 – L I f E
Card 5 – JESUS

Content

Introduction

Begin with a simple word association game, where two volunteers must say words associated with a given theme alternately (eg for ‘holidays’, your volunteers might say words like: ‘sand’ , ‘sun’, ‘fun’ etc). As soon as one person hesitates, call up someone else to take over. Use other themes, like: ‘school’, ‘breakfast’, ‘sport’ etc. Then introduce the theme ‘life’. They will probably find this more difficult.

Life

Comment that it’s interesting how we find something we all have so difficult to describe! Say that you can think of at least four ways of describing life. Suggest that maybe they can identify with some of these ways of looking at life.

l I f e

1. Display Card 1 which shows the word ‘life’ written with a capital ‘I’. Say that some people spell ‘life’ this way. Explain that ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ are three of the most commonly used words in the English language. The person who sees life in this way puts him or herself first in life. They are number 1! There are things they want to do, places they want to see, money they want to make – and woe betide anyone who gets in their way! This person is a self-made man (or woman) and proud of it! They can look after themselves and don’t need anyone!

2. Tell the following story: A man was walking along a cliff. He slipped and fell and was hanging on for dear life, to a small bush, on the edge of the cliff. Although he was an atheist, he called out, in desperation, ‘Is anybody there?’ To his amazement, he heard a reply: ‘Yes, I’m here.’ He cried out again, ‘What do you want me to do?’ The voice said, ‘Let go of the bush, and I’ll save you.’ He paused for a moment and then cried out, ‘Is anybody else there?’ He couldn’t take the risk of trusting his life to anyone!

l I F e

1. Display Card 2 which shows the word ‘life’ written with the letters ‘I’ and ‘F’ as capitals. Say that some people spell ‘life’ in this way – with a big ‘IF’ in the middle. This kind of person says things like:

If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?
If there is a God, why did my loved one have to die?
If there is a God, why doesn’t he prove it?
If I can just get through my exams, then I’ll have time for God.
If God gets me that job I want, or that girl/boyfriend, then I’ll believe in him.

2. Tell this story:

Tommy was saying his prayers one night and his mum was with him. He prayed, ‘Dear Lord, if you get me that mountain bike, I’ll be good for a whole week.’ His mum stopped him and told him that wasn’t the sort of prayer God wanted to hear. ‘You can’t do deals with God,’ she said.

Next week he was praying again, and this time he prayed, ‘Dear Lord, if you get me that mountain bike, I’ll be good for two whole weeks.’ His mum stopped him again and repeated the same warning.

Some time later, his mum was doing some spring cleaning. In the airing cupboard, under some towels, she found a statue of Mary. She wondered if Tommy was behind this, so she went into his room to see if she could find him. He wasn’t there, but on the window-sill was a note in his handwriting which said, ‘Right, God, if you ever want to see your mother again…’!

L i f e

1. Display Card 3 which shows the word ‘life’ written with the letter ‘L’ as a capital. Say that some people spell ‘life’ in this way with a capital ‘L’, because, after all, ‘we’re all learning, aren’t we?’. They say things like:

‘I mean, no one’s perfect are they?’
‘We can only try our best, can’t we?’

This kind of person treats life a bit like a driving test. It’s as if they believe at the end of time, God will tot up the number of points they got and, hopefully, they will just about manage to scrape into heaven! But unfortunately, some of us just don’t learn!

2. Tell this story: There was a man who was doing a parachute jump. He pulled the cord – nothing happened. He pulled the emergency cord, and still nothing happened. As he was heading towards earth at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, he passed another man on the way up!

‘Hey’ he shouted at him, ‘Do you know anything about parachutes?’

‘No!’ the man replied, ‘Do you know anything about gas ovens?’

We’re all learners!

L I f E

1. Display Card 4 which shows the word ‘life’ written with the letters ‘L’, ‘I’ and ‘E’ as capitals. Say that some people spell ‘life’ in this way because, as we all know, there are many voices wanting to get our attention out there in the world, and we have to try to decide which is the truth and which are lies. Sadly, some people have ended up living their lives according to the lies they have hard and believed, like:

‘You’re worthless, you’ll never be any good,’ ‘You’ve got to look good to be accepted.’
‘Go on, do it, everyone does it.’
‘Go on, take it, it won’t do you any harm.’

2. Tell this story:

There was a person who jumped out of a sixteen storey building just to see what it felt like. Half-way down, he shouted to his friends, ‘See! So far so good!’

Application

1. Say that Christians aren’t very good spellers, because they spell ‘life’ like this: JESUS (display card 5 which shows the word ‘Jesus’). It’s not because they can’t spell, but because Jesus said things like:

‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6, Good News Bible).
‘I have come…that you might have life – life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10, Good News Bible).

It was as if Jesus was saying, ‘This is life, knowing me!’ These are amazing claims that are worth checking out.

2. Conclude by challenging pupils to ask themselves: ‘What am I going to base my life on?’

Tongue Twister – Think before you speak

Bible Base:

Exodus 20:7; Matthew 12:33–37; James 3:3–12;

Aim:

To help students think about the things they say and reflect on how these can help or hurt others.

Things you’ll need:

Two or three ‘tongue twisters’.
Display equipment (large pieces of card or PowerPoint and projector).
Blindfolds (two or three should be enough)
A few different foodstuffs for a taste test. Include contrasting foods: salty, sour, sweet – things the students will like and things they won’t. Avoid any to which people may have common allergies.
Suitable containers and spoons.

Preparation

Write out your tongue twisters for display on card or PowerPoint.
Put the chosen foods into the containers and make sure you have enough spoons as you have volunteers.

Presentation

1 Start with all or some of these interactive ideas to introduce the theme of the tongue and what you say.

Tongue twisters

Get everyone saying one of the tongue twisters you have written up. Let them do it with the words on display at first, then without. If you have the words written on separate pieces of card, you could remove a few words at a time. Depending on the time available and enthusiasm of students, do one or two different ones.

Tongue-tied

Ask the students if any of them can curl their tongues. Can anyone touch their nose with their tongue?

Tongue-taster

Ask for two or three volunteers. Blindfold the students and ask them to taste some food (check first that your volunteers do not have dietary food allergies, eg nuts). Let the audience, but not the volunteers, know what’s being tasted. Ask your volunteers to guess what each foodstuff is.

2 Follow this up by pointing out how important the tongue is for talking. Ask students to think about the things they say.

Do their words help others or hurt them?
How much of what they say is positive and encouraging?
Do they often swear or say negative things?
Are they rude to others?

Ask them to think about the kind of words they use in their everyday speech, for example: in the last couple of days have they said words which have hurt or encouraged someone else? Have they been rude to anyone, or sworn at someone?

Reflection

Say that you are going to read some things about the importance of the words we use from the Bible. Use a contemporary version (eg CEV or– the Youth Bible, NCV).

Read James 3:3–12. Comment on the passage, giving some examples of how a few words can cause enormous problems. The students might have some examples of their own. Emphasise how we can let good and bad words come out of our mouths. These verses suggest that the words we say have something to do with the kind of people we are on the inside (verse 12).
Read Exodus 20:7. How do you use God’s name? As a swear word? The Ten Commandments talk about not misusing God’s name. Even if you don’t believe in God, remember that lots of people do. When you use God’s name in this way you might be offending others.

Response

Ask students to think about how they speak to people. Is it good and positive? Or unkind and often putting others down?
There’s the suggestion in the Bible verses that thinking about God – what he’s like, how he wants us to live – will make a difference to the kind of people we are on the inside. For example, what’s your thought life like? Are there ways in which you need to change on the inside?
Decide to do something positive about the words you use today. You could try today:

not to swear;
not to use God’s name as a swear word;
to say something positive and encouraging to at least one person today.

4 Encourage students to ask God to help them do what they’ve decided.

The truth is…

Bible base:

John 8:32; John 14:6

Aim:

To encourage students to think about what ‘truth’ means, whether they are always truthful, and why Jesus said that he is ‘truth’.

Things you’ll need:

Statements for the ‘True or False?’ quiz.
For the game of Call my Bluff: a ‘word’ written out for display on a large piece of paper; 3 definitions written on cards, 1 of which is correct (choose a word that the young people are extremely unlikely to have heard before, and that, preferably, sounds funny).

Preparation

Prepare what you’ll need for the ‘True or False’ quiz and the game of Call my Bluff.

Presentation

1 Start by telling the students that you are going to read out some statements and they must decide whether they are ‘true or ‘false’.

Use your list of statements prepared beforehand. You could include factual statements which are definitely either true or false, and also include some which are to do with beliefs, opinions and values in order to encourage discussion, for example:

The acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 m/s on Earth [True]
Mozart wrote ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ [True]
The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 [True]
Life exists on other planets
I love my parents
The sun rises in the east
God exists
Smoking is bad for your health
The Bible is true

Talk about some of their answers. Ask them what criteria they used to decide if the statement was true or false.

2 Play a version of the TV quiz game, Call my Bluff.

Display the ‘word’.
Ask for three volunteers to come to the front who think they can convincingly say what the word means. Give each person one of the ‘definition’ cards. Only one person has the card with the correct meaning; the other two ‘meanings’ are incorrect.
Get each of the volunteers to read their card, then to tell the audience what the word means as convincingly as they can.
When the three volunteers have finished, ask the audience to vote on which they think is the true meaning.
Now, reveal the ‘true’ one. Again, ask the question: What criteria did you use to decide if what you were being told was true or false?

Reflection

Ask: ‘So, what is truth?’ Get the students to come up with some definitions. Depending on time, you could ask for a volunteer to write up some of the suggestions on a flipchart or OHP for everyone to see.
Read out the two Bible passages (John 8:32 and John 14:6). Ask the students some open-ended questions about the passages, for example:

The Bible speaks of Jesus as being ‘the truth’. What do you think that means?
What is meant by ‘the truth will set you free’? What ‘truth’ was Jesus talking about?

Note: Be careful how you speak about these verses, remembering that there may well be faith groups other than Christian present in the assembly. Where appropriate, use the phrase, ‘Christians believe that…’.

3 Can students think of some ways in which knowing or telling the truth about things makes them ‘free’, and examples of how being lied to, or not knowing the truth can hurt people or make them confused?

Respond

In a time of quiet:

Invite the students to think of a time recently when they have not been altogether truthful. Invite them to say sorry to God for their actions and thoughts.
Say that one of the reasons Christians believe that the truth sets us free is because we can be forgiven through Jesus for all we’ve done wrong, including not always being truthful.
Read out John 8:32: ‘You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ (NCV)