Here is a cool equation: Israel=light to the world=Jesus=church=us (matt. 5 was written to the Jews; John 1 and 1 John says Jesus is the light; Ephesians 1:23 says that the church is Jesus' body; and we are the church!)
A great point to emphasize is that our light is our deeds. Our purpose is to lead people to God by reflecting His image in such a way that when people look at how we (the church) live together, they know its because of God. Our deeds are the work of God and it is evident by the way we love one another.
Another thing to note is that this is not a singular command! This is a community command! It is the vocatoin of the church to be the light of the world, not the idividual. The light IS the interactions socailly amongst the people of God. You can't live this command out in solitude. In order to obey this you have to be active in the community/family/people of God! In short, its a call to be known be the love we have among ourselves.
This inward love has outward effects. v. 16 says that people will see whats going on and then we drawn into praise to God for what they witness. This is true outreach. Its our lives that witness more than one person saying "Jesus died for you." We need to show by our actions that what he did actually accomplished what he said it was going to accomplish. (John 17)
I was thinking that during the big group time we can make this point: you only need light in dark places. what good is a flashlight outside at 12:00 PM or in a well lite room? We can show this since the room will be well lite. The reason God wants us to be light is cause the world is in darkness, therefore a light is needed. Just as a dark room or closet needs a light, the dark world does also.
By the way, my first comment was ment to be things to keep in mind as we talk to the children during small groups or as they ask questions, not something to try to convey during the big group time. For instance, if one asks "since God wants us to be the light, what can I do to do that?" We want to stay away from the typical answers such as "tell your friends about Jesus." The point of this passage is that our deeds (the whole church's, not only the individual's), not our words, are what tell people about God. People will witness what we do, not what we say, and praise the Father! Therefore, the answer would be something like "invite a non christian (neighbor/someone at school/etc.) to hang out with you and other christians (you can invite them to have dinner w/you and your family/etc.). Also, it can be you and your family/other christians doing something loving/sacrifical for either another christian or non beleiver. But you would tell them, that its not just about doing 1 good thing, its about a LIFE of sacrifice for others.
We want to expand these kids thoughts and get them to have a high view of God, that way worship will result. In giving them the typical sunday school answers we cheat them out on the mystery of God and His high calling of humans to reflect His image.
1. I want to challenge the coaches to start thinking of discussion questions that will lead to the kids themselves thinking of questions. Ideally there shouldn't be a list of questions to go through and then be done. We can start with one question and then from there allow kids to ask questions and let them be the ones who "come up with discussin questions." This way we know that they are age appropriate questions because the kid just asked it his/herself. Obviously the coaches still need to steer the converstation so that it doesn't go far off.
2. We only want to talk about being light. Lets not worry about blending the two together (being salt and light) because then the kids might get stuck on how salt and light relate, rather then seeing the fact that "God wants us to be the light of the world" and what that means. They won't see them two parallel yet separate analogies making the same point. They will see them as two things that God wants us be, which in their minds might come to mean that salt and light are somehow connected to eachother. Does that make sense? I just want to keep the illustrations to a minimum, meaning use the same one as many times as you want, but don't use so many differant illustrations that they get lost trying to figure out how each one relates to the next.
3. We need to also make sure that they understand the relationship between Jesus and us: Because Jesus is the light (1 John 1; John 1) and we (the church) are him on earth (Ephesians 1: 23; 1 cor. 6), we are the light also! If light=Jesus and Jesus=church, then light=church. The church is connected to Jesus in such a mysterious way that the bible speaks of it as being Jesus' body, His visible presence on earth (Eph. 1:23,2:19-22,3:14-16)!
Rita...You rock (you too Jorvic, Chase and Rita)! This is exactly what we want for the blog. Your ideas span over the course of the whole service which is awesome. We want to make this a place for everyone who serves to share ideas about Preservice, game, big group, small groups, and whatever else. This isn't just for the "teacher" (i put them in quotes because each coach is a teacher in the truest sense).
Your ideas are great and if you have a black sheet (I don't have one) then I would like to use it. It would also be a good illustration maybe for each class to do it that way each kid would have chance to go under and also see what it looks like from the outside. I don't know if your original thought was for the big group or for the individual classes, but either way is great!
We could do it for the big group, but I personally don't have a sheet.
Rita, do you have a sheet that we can use for the weekend?
Either that or you (Jorvic) can bring one in. I really think that was a great idea, especially for the kids that are outside of the sheet that get to see how the more lights go in the more it shines through. Thanks for all your guys' thoughts!
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Here is a cool equation: Israel=light to the world=Jesus=church=us (matt. 5 was written to the Jews; John 1 and 1 John says Jesus is the light; Ephesians 1:23 says that the church is Jesus' body; and we are the church!)
A great point to emphasize is that our light is our deeds. Our purpose is to lead people to God by reflecting His image in such a way that when people look at how we (the church) live together, they know its because of God. Our deeds are the work of God and it is evident by the way we love one another.
Another thing to note is that this is not a singular command! This is a community command! It is the vocatoin of the church to be the light of the world, not the idividual. The light IS the interactions socailly amongst the people of God. You can't live this command out in solitude. In order to obey this you have to be active in the community/family/people of God! In short, its a call to be known be the love we have among ourselves.
This inward love has outward effects. v. 16 says that people will see whats going on and then we drawn into praise to God for what they witness. This is true outreach. Its our lives that witness more than one person saying "Jesus died for you." We need to show by our actions that what he did actually accomplished what he said it was going to accomplish. (John 17)
there's the theology for the teaching or small groups, but I can't think of any cool illustrations.
Ya getting the room dark will be hard
I was thinking that during the big group time we can make this point: you only need light in dark places. what good is a flashlight outside at 12:00 PM or in a well lite room? We can show this since the room will be well lite. The reason God wants us to be light is cause the world is in darkness, therefore a light is needed. Just as a dark room or closet needs a light, the dark world does also.
By the way, my first comment was ment to be things to keep in mind as we talk to the children during small groups or as they ask questions, not something to try to convey during the big group time. For instance, if one asks "since God wants us to be the light, what can I do to do that?" We want to stay away from the typical answers such as "tell your friends about Jesus." The point of this passage is that our deeds (the whole church's, not only the individual's), not our words, are what tell people about God. People will witness what we do, not what we say, and praise the Father! Therefore, the answer would be something like "invite a non christian (neighbor/someone at school/etc.) to hang out with you and other christians (you can invite them to have dinner w/you and your family/etc.). Also, it can be you and your family/other christians doing something loving/sacrifical for either another christian or non beleiver. But you would tell them, that its not just about doing 1 good thing, its about a LIFE of sacrifice for others.
We want to expand these kids thoughts and get them to have a high view of God, that way worship will result. In giving them the typical sunday school answers we cheat them out on the mystery of God and His high calling of humans to reflect His image.
1. I want to challenge the coaches to start thinking of discussion questions that will lead to the kids themselves thinking of questions. Ideally there shouldn't be a list of questions to go through and then be done. We can start with one question and then from there allow kids to ask questions and let them be the ones who "come up with discussin questions." This way we know that they are age appropriate questions because the kid just asked it his/herself. Obviously the coaches still need to steer the converstation so that it doesn't go far off.
2. We only want to talk about being light. Lets not worry about blending the two together (being salt and light) because then the kids might get stuck on how salt and light relate, rather then seeing the fact that "God wants us to be the light of the world" and what that means. They won't see them two parallel yet separate analogies making the same point. They will see them as two things that God wants us be, which in their minds might come to mean that salt and light are somehow connected to eachother. Does that make sense? I just want to keep the illustrations to a minimum, meaning use the same one as many times as you want, but don't use so many differant illustrations that they get lost trying to figure out how each one relates to the next.
3. We need to also make sure that they understand the relationship between Jesus and us: Because Jesus is the light (1 John 1; John 1) and we (the church) are him on earth (Ephesians 1: 23; 1 cor. 6), we are the light also! If light=Jesus and Jesus=church, then light=church. The church is connected to Jesus in such a mysterious way that the bible speaks of it as being Jesus' body, His visible presence on earth (Eph. 1:23,2:19-22,3:14-16)!
Rita...You rock (you too
Jorvic, Chase and Rita)! This is exactly what we want for the blog. Your ideas span over the course of the whole service which is awesome. We want to make this a place for everyone who serves to share ideas about Preservice, game, big group, small groups, and whatever else. This isn't just for the "teacher" (i put them in quotes because each coach is a teacher in the truest sense).
Your ideas are great and if you have a black sheet (I don't have one) then I would like to use it. It would also be a good illustration maybe for each class to do it that way each kid would have chance to go under and also see what it looks like from the outside. I don't know if your original thought was for the big group or for the individual classes, but either way is great!
We could do it for the big group, but I personally don't have a sheet.
Rita, do you have a sheet that we can use for the weekend?
Either that or you (Jorvic) can bring one in. I really think that was a great idea, especially for the kids that are outside of the sheet that get to see how the more lights go in the more it shines through. Thanks for all your guys' thoughts!
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