TeacherAide
A weekly
teaching aide for student developers
Beneath The Surface
SESSION 7
HANDS ON
This activity is a creative way to teach students the blessings and simplicity of worshipping God. Set up a game of Jenga, but have pieces of paper glue stuck to each Jenga piece, with stuff written on it, such as names of God, or promises of God. Get the youth sitting in a circle, and play Jenga. Each time they take apiece, they have to read what is on it, and say a short thank-you prayer for what they have read. If the tower falls over, just build it up again. Afterwards write some of the names of God that were on the blocks onto sheets of paper and stick them around the room. The youth can then go around the room and spend a few minutes at each one, reflecting and saying thank you to God.
The goal of this illustration is to try to respect the uniqueness of others while moving them into community during a call to worship. With masking tape, a circle is formed on the floor for each person. Lights are dimmed and quiet music is played. Group members are called into the room and remain silent... then say, "Let's worship God." Each worshipper sits in a circle facing different directions. They close their eyes and reflect on what they left behind. Ask: "What person's face do you most vividly see? What are this person's problems? What things have been left undone?" Then ask youth to focus on a nearby person. Ask them to think about that person's world, leave their circles and sit in pairs. Encourage pairs to share their earlier reflections. Then you can lead the pairs to join up with a new pair. Continue until a new community has been created.
"How quickly we forget what it's all about. We can get so strategic that we worship so our church will grow, not because He is worthy. But we're doing all this because God is worthy and we want to worship Him."
Tommy Walker
“Our entire being is fashioned as an instrument of praise. Just as a master violin maker designs an instrument to produce maximum aesthetic results, so God tailor-made our bodies, souls and spirits to work together in consonance to produce pleasing expressions of praise and worship. When we use body language to express praise, that which is internal becomes visible.”
Don McMinn
"It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men."
C.S. Lewis
"Surely that which occupies the total time and energies of heaven must be a fitting pattern for earth."
Paul E. Billheimer