Stay Alert and Take Notes
New Sunday School and Small Group Lessons for Adults and Youth
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part 1: The Basics
How to Teach Memorable Sunday School Lessons
Part 2: The Lessons
- The Jews: As an Expression of Time
- The Jews: As Evidence of God’s Existence
- Ezekiel’s Wheel
- That Very First Microsecond #1
- That Very First Microsecond #2
- That Very First Microsecond #3
- Something Good Coming out of Nazareth
- Keep Your Money, King
- Lindsay and Paris
- All Those Names
- The Tip of the Spear
- The Sweet Spot
- Mary’s Last Address
- C. S. Lewis #1
- C. S. Lewis #2
- C. S. Lewis #3
- What Would Lewis Say?: A Miracle of the New Creation Examined
- Go West, Young Man
- The Arrow of Time
- Kornfuzed?
- Mayonnaise
- The Napkin
- What about the Deepest Jungles of Borneo?
- The Mission Statement of Christ
- R. C. Sproul #1
- R. C. Sproul #2
- R. C. Sproul #3
- A Close Shave
- I Am: That’s It! Get Moving!
- Another I Am
- A Conversation with William Lane Craig
- The Shrewd Manager
- Three Choices
- On Your Own
Concluding Thought
Recommended Reading
Appropriate Hymns
About the Author
Preface
In Christian education, nothing takes the place of a small-group learning environment in which inquisitive students meet a prepared teacher. It is in small groups where the exchange of ideas and the dynamic interaction among participants best occurs. The prepared teacher (you) is often the only catalyst needed to evoke profound insights from those participating. This group setting is universally known as Sunday school. Here is where we best confront and come to understand the meaning of our existence and the nature of our relationship to the ultimate Creator of all things great and small, God.
The First Maxim of Teaching Sunday School
If half the class remembers half the lesson for a week, your lesson is a success. This rule is as proven as gravity and when accepted becomes a standard by which to evaluate your teaching methodology. The class will more remember your demeanor, appearance, and style of presentation than the actual words you utter. Therefore, especially with high school, unashamedly ham it up.
Summary of Best Practices
- You teach best when you instruct the least. Seek to inspire questions. Seek not to dictate thoughts or offer your binding conclusions.
- Never read any text to a class with your head facing that text.
- Students learn best when they openly share their own conclusions.
- When you see yourself in a lesson, your lesson will be a success.
- Pray for guidance before the lesson, not for forgiveness afterward.
- Your face tells everything about your enthusiasm for the lesson. Smile.
- Be early. The room will always be in a mess from someone else using it. This also means that you should bring your own gear. The supply closet is always empty.
- Keep the coffee in the kitchen. Have no refills for those who walk in with a cup in hand.
- You only have forty minutes maximum of attention span to work with. Save the antidotal comments or illustrations to the end.
- If you find yourself stumbling, then stop. Pause and regroup or just start over.
- If they start talking enthusiastically, shut up. Encourage with gestures.
Recommended Reading
Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland
Beach & Niebuhr, Christian Ethics
J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
Buckingham and Clifton, Now, Discover Your Strengths
Kenneth Clark, Civilisation
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
David L. Cook, Golf’s Sacred Journey
J. L. Corzine, How a Superintendent Develops Teachers (Furman University archives)
Paul Davies, God & the New Physics
Don Elium and Jeanne Elium, Raising A Son
E. Clinton Gardner, Biblical Faith and Social Ethics
Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe
Eugen Herrigel, Zen and the Art of Archery
H. W. Janson, History of Art
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
C. S. Lewis, Miracles
Giovanni Papini, Life of Christ
J. B. Phillips, The New Testament (this translation in particular)
Richard C. Reager, You Can Talk Well
R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God
Lee Stroble, The Case for a Creator
Edward Tick, War and the Soul
Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Teaching Christian values and concepts to small groups is a weighty and worthy challenge. The purpose of this book is to make your yoke easily bearable. As Barnabus was to Paul, this book can be your encourager, your intercessor, and your foundation for inspired teaching and learning.
Within you will find specific guidance on conducting Christian development classes and thirty-three lessons proven in real life to be ones where the students do indeed stay alert and take notes. Also included are lists of subject-appropriate hymns for classes that sing. A catalog of additional source readings is offered for your continuing enrichment and growth as a teacher or student.
Your presentation of a lesson begins with your willingness to prepare, and that simple willingness is our beginning point. No more is needed (Acts 16:10).
For any number of possible reasons, someone asked you to teach Sunday school this week (Acts15:3). That someone trusted you enough to propose the question. Truly, if you think about it, your reputation preceded the asking of that question. And for any number of possible reasons, you said yes. Most likely you were predisposed to say yes. Maybe you said yes just to help out because no one else would say yes. Maybe you have wanted to teach but were always too modest to broach the thought publically. If any of these reasons are true, you have a great adventure in front of you.
Enjoy, learn, teach, and catch the flame.
About the Author
Jesse Crimm reluctantly admits to being born right after WWII at Ft. Totten, New York City. Fortunately his situation was rapidly corrected by the families’ moving to Columbia, SC, where he spent his childhood years. There he was introduced into Bible Belt Baptist traditions, including Wednesday night prayer meetings, verse memorization, Sunday school, and fearfully long Sunday sermons always causing his family to be at the end of the line at the cafeteria lunch line following services.
His college years and subsequent army service in Vietnam provided him with the excuse to neglect the truths that are foundational to right living. Fortunately his first, present, and only wife introduced him to Methodism via her own family tradition. The methodical, studied approach to learning about God and God’s intentions took root. The Wesley tradition of reflection followed by action produced the thirty-year Sunday school teacher you, the reader, find in these pages.
Mr. Crimm is available to train and motivate teachers in your church. He may be reached by simply employing what used to be called the phone book for Jacksonville, FL.