Resources for Christian Education

Site Index

What is a 1-Room Classroom?

1-Room Lessons 1

1-Room Lessons 2

1-Room Lessons 3

Middle School Lessons 1

Middle School Lessons 2

Children’s Time Messages

What is Confirmation?

Confirmation Lesson Summary

Sample Confirmation Schedule

Confirmation Lessons

Confirmation Prayer Retreat

Index

the rfour.org blog

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A Quick Introduction Posted 06.17.13

First, a confession: I dislike writing. I’m slow at it, I don’t get it right the first time (if ever!) and it exposes the flaws in my thinking; it even changes my thinking.

But, God rarely honors my dislike as a valid reason to avoid action. So it is no surprise that in my daily prayer time there has been a persistent (but polite) prodding to start a blog section on rfour.org. Read more…

Biblical Literacy Posted 06.24.13

Like buildings, faith is built one story at a time. One gift of the Bible is that it stacks numerous human experiences of God until an understanding of the divine emerges. At the same time, the faith stories provide anecdotal dos and don'ts for how we can best interact with God and what to expect when we do. Read more…

Top 5 Stories About Jesus Posted 07.04.13

As an educator of any subject, one of the greater limitations we face is the lack of time we have before a student moves on. Due to this limitation, we have to prioritize the most important aspects of our subject as a way to ensure that our students do not leave our presence without learning the most essential components of the subject. Read more…

Perspective Posted 07.11.13

For far too long the Church has said, “This is what this Bible story means” without first (if ever) teaching her students how to think about the story for themselves.

As Christian educators, not only is it our job to increase Biblical literacy, it is also our job to help our students analyze the Bible stories that they are becoming familiar with. Read more…

Soccer & Sunday School Posted 09.07.13

In my previous post, I outlined a plan to destroy youth soccer leagues by managing them the same way that churches manage Sunday school. It was written to provoke both both church leaders and soccer lovers.

If you are one of those soccer lovers, don’t worry. No such decline in soccer will happen any time soon. U.S. soccer is experiencing great success. Read more…

Killing Soccer Posted 09.07.13

If American youth soccer leagues were a stock (SoCR?), and we had bought shares of it in the early 1990s, by today, we could each buy our own island somewhere in the South Pacific.

What is especially amazing about the rise of youth soccer leagues in the last 20 years is how incredibly awful soccer actually is as a sport. Read more…

The Afterlife Preoccupation Posted 11.03.13

As a child raised in the Christian Reformed Church, I heard a lot about being saved and going to heaven. My consistent internal response was not what you might expect: “I’ll just wait until I’m about to die and then say a quick prayer.”