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Free Workshop Rotation Model Lessons - Season 2

Curriculum > Youth > Year 4 > Lesson 25

CONCEPTS IN LESSON

  • Review the overall objectives, concepts, and Bible stories of the program year (for Year 4 of the rfour.org youth lessons).

SUPPLIES NEEDED

  • Device that allows class to view this video clip (of an acorn growing into a sapling)
  • Way to display list of video clips on this Google spreadsheet:
  • Print out and share handout (from this .PDF) that reviews all lessons from this year for each student.
  • Optional: Print out (from this .PDF) this page for each student to help with the video viewing activity.

OPENING PRAYER

OPENING QUESTION

  • We start today’s class with the opening question. One of the teachers will ask the question and then to give you some time to think of an answer, the teacher asking the question will also answer first to give you some time to think.
  • Once the teacher answers the question, we'll go around the circle.
  • When it's your turn, start with your name and then answer the question to the best of your ability.
  • Here's this week's question: What's one moment or story or conversation that you remember (somewhat) vividly from class this year?

TELL

(Things that we wanted you to learn this year)

  • There were reasons for why we did what we did this school year and we want to highlight some of those reasons…
  • We wanted you to see that the Bible stories are weird and interesting - even if they are sometimes hard to understand
  • Although the Bible stories are old, we wanted you to see how the ideas in them and what's happening in the stories are pretty timeless - which is why we matched them up every week with a movie clip - to help illustrate how the ideas in the Bible stories are still being included in the modern stories we tell today.
  • We wanted you to practice linking the ideas in the Bible stories to your own everyday lives. This is a type of analytical thinking and it is why the opening question was meant to relate to both our own lives and to the lesson/scripture story for the day.
  • We, the teachers, wanted all of us to get to know each other better and even trust one another. Which is why we had the opening question that was about our lives and also why (when we had time for them) the activities were mostly built around some sort of challenge - because working together helps us get familiar with each other and trust each other a little bit more.  
  • We've very much enjoyed spending this year with you and getting to know you better and thank you for all the ways in which you've made the class fun and interesting and educational.
  • Speaking of educational - there were two main themes that we looked at this year:
  • First, we saw many instances of what to expect when a person paid attention to God or did not pay attention to God.
  • We saw characters experience greater freedoms (the Israelites freedom from Egypt, King David dancing), healing (Naaman, Good Samaritan), belonging (Zacchaeus, the woman at the well), forgiveness (Zacchaeus again, Saul, the younger son in the Prodigal Son), and healthier lives (Daniel's diet, Peter's vision).
  • And then, we saw that those people then wanted to share what they had learned with others when they paid attention to God.
  • For the characters who did not pay attention to God, we saw Cain killing his brother, the Israelites killing each other because of the golden calf, or dying from eating too much quail, or wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, Peter interrupting and sinking and arguing. In other words, when people weren't paying attention to God, then they experienced an increase of violence, confusion, and discord in their lives.
  • Second, we then looked at a number of stories that show that we are changed / transformed when we pay attention to God. We see Jesus transfigured, Saul's conversion, and Peter transition for mistaken student to confident teacher. We also saw how the  woman at the well, an outsider in her town, convinced her entire town to listen to Jesus. We saw Zacchaeus promise to give away half of his possessions. We saw Levi leave his work and follow Jesus.  
  • Now change is not always welcome, which is why we first looked at what we can expect to experience when we pay attention to God vs when we don't pay attention to God - because those outcomes are information that we can use to help us make a more informed decision about why we'd choose to make a concerted effort to pay attention to God or not pay attention to God.      
  • As a way of summarizing in a symbolic way what we covered this past year, let's watch the following video clip of an acorn becoming an oak tree (it's in sped-up time, of course)

WATCH VIDEO CLIP

ASK / TELL

  • Simple question with obvious answer: What does the acorn become?
  • But - in order for the acorn to become the oak tree, did the acorn stay as an acorn?
  • Or, asked in another way, if we dug up any oak tree, do you think we would find that one acorn that still intact at the bottom of the tree? (nope! In the video, we see the shell split and then the inside of it splits, too and then it grows into something else).
  • The same thing is true for us when we pay attention to God - we are changed in a way that is bigger and better than the wonderful acorns that we already are
  • Now, since we might like being acorns, then the idea of being transformed may not be very enticing - that's understandable - which is why we talked so much about stories this year that helped us to see what some of the positives were to making the choice to pay attention to God and what some of the negatives were to not paying attention to God.
  • Again, this is not to pressure you in any way in choosing to be a follower of Jesus, but to simply help you better understand what you would be choosing if you were to choose to make a commitment to paying attention to God.

TRANSITION TO REVIEW ACTIVITY

  • So those are the reasons for why we did what we did and read what we read and discussed what we discussed this year.
  • It was a really good year and we, the teachers, thank you for making it such a great year.
  • For the rest of class, then, we thought we'd review some of the stories that we read and discussed this year
  • We thought we'd do this by:
  • Optional: Doing a speed-reading of all 24 lessons based on this handout I'm about to give you
  • For sure: By rewatching some of the movie clips that we watched in class.
  • Let’s try to match the movie clip with its associated Bible story and lesson.
  • I'm going to pass out a handout that reviews all the lessons we discussed. That's something you can take home with you (from this .PDF)
  • I'm also going to pass out a printout (from this .PDF) that contains the descriptions of the stories to match up with the video clips that we watch.


Link to do activity https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gKpBCfqWURMFaQXewGeEaHeaorgaO0OF/edi t#gid=104821586

DO ACTIVITY

CONCLUSION

  • Thank you for a wonderful year
  • We hope to see you in worship during the summer
  • And we look forward to seeing you next fall!

CLOSING PRAYER




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End of the Program Year

Year 4 Review Lesson



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