Stay Alert and Take Notes: New Sunday School and Small Group Lessons for Adults and Youth

By Jesse Crimm

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490803050

Jesse Crimm

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. 

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Copyright © 2013 Jesse C. Crimm.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-0306-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0307-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-0305-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013913456

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/12/2013

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 Jungle 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

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.

INTRODUCTION

In a time when church attendance has steadily declined for decades, a revitalization of the core hour when students actually study the will of God is in order.

The first person to discover God’s many truths in a class setting is always the prepared teacher. When the teacher becomes inspired, the class follows.

Traditional Sunday school teaching materials, both printed and electronically reproducible, plod along offering way too many checkpoints, cramming excessive references into marginal notes, exploring no new thoughts and coming to no conclusions except those predictable or directed by the text.

Some may find this book refreshing, others perplexing. The intent of this book is to first evoke your creative thinking as the teacher. Subsequently as students are stimulated to actively engage in the thinking and discussion processes, learning occurs. Firstly the single student becomes engrossed in the class. Then that student asks his own questions and seeks his own answers. Finally that student tells others. Soon your class size will start to increase.

In this book you (as the teacher) will first be taught how to teach and be shown pitfalls to avoid. Your confidence will increase with practice. Your confidence is what students will remember more than any specific words you utter. However, you do want to be scripturally secure in the words you speak. Accordingly, you will be given references to help prepare your thoughts but will not be given the words verbatim to mimic.

Now take a breath. Offer a silent prayer to the Holy Spirit to fill your next breath. You can do this. Here we go.

PART 1

THE BASICS

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PARTICIPATION = LEARNING

HOW TO TEACH MEMORABLE SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS

The objective of teaching Sunday school is to engage and then focus the minds of those listening to you onto godly matters. Your second objective is to have your students remember the lesson. For a student to incorporate your lesson into his or her daily thinking is the supreme teaching accomplishment. It can be done.

This book is intended to assist teachers whose pupils are high school-aged through mature adults. Not only will you be given many lessons in talking form, but you will be instructed on how to deliver those texts so that the lessons are remembered and talked about among class members until next Sunday (Acts 13:42).

These lessons are not presented in a chronological order but are available for picking and choosing as you, the teacher, see fit. Some lessons dovetail and can be used as a series. By the same token you will find some lessons not to your liking while others you may commit to memory. You have choices. All the lessons come from the real life experiences of the author.

For many of your students the forty or so minutes of your teaching tenure will be the only time during the week where attention is given to God. With your presentation their godly thinking time during the week will double. They will reflect upon your lesson while they shave, daydream, or find themselves stuck in traffic. Your objective will be accomplished (Acts 13:44).

Junior high is excluded from consideration in the lessons plans to follow. That age is simply too easily distracted to focus on a subject for the needed length of time. Junior highs are better taught via game playing and visual associations. By high school age, your students have begun to demonstrate the beginnings of mature thinking. In some lessons I have added some specific parenthetical comments regarding high school. (For example, you can’t jump right into the lesson with high school ages. You have to start a conversation on anything—say football for example—and then lead or lean them into the direction of the lesson by saying such phrases as this: Okay, now consider this item as well. High school students are in your class for three reasons: One, their parents made them get up and go. Two, they now have their driver’s licenses and need a reason to get out of the house and employ the licenses. Three, a chosen few actually want to learn and grow in Christ.) Remember Sunday school is not youth group with physical games. That is a separate learning activity. Stay focused.

(I also employ parentheses for asides between you, the teacher, and me.)

Structurally these lessons will be presented to you in different formats. Some will be in narrative form. Others are conversationally constructed as though the class were in front of you. Still others display a bullet-comment style where you fill in the joining clauses with your own words. You can adapt any form to any lesson or adopt one as your favorite for use in all presentations. It is best, however, to mix styles. Mixing presentation styles avoids predictability and possibly student boredom. The opportunity in your hand right now is your chance to hammer home godly concepts for your group.

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.

The Basics of Teaching God’s Will

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 has asked you to teach Sunday school this week (Acts15:3). That someone trusted you enough to broach 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 (dare I say predestined) 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 propose the thought publically. If any of these reasons are true, you have a great adventure in front of you.

Engage and Focus

Read the very first sentence of how to teach a lesson again. Another way to define engage is to attract attention to a matter at hand or divert the class members (especially high schoolers) from their present preoccupations. This engagement must occur before any meaningful lesson can be delivered. These teacher tricks work: (1) Write on the board and ask the most presently diverted student to check your spelling. (2) Pass out the biblical reading assignments while you ask the students to verify any difficult or unpronounceable words with you. (2a) If the assignment is short, ask for or pass out to the members different translations of the Bible with the same request for verification. (3) Ask any member for a review of last week’s lesson and then ask another to collaborate. (4) Halt any flow of remaining chitchat that may be occurring. What you say at this point is not so important. You are engaging the minds of the class members at their level at that moment. When any cross talk dies down (as it will), you are ready to focus the class on the lesson. (With high school ages, you may have to segregate your most talkative student. It’s best to do it now.)

Army instructors follow a tried-and-true means of instruction. They tell you what they are going to tell you. Then they tell you what they said they were going to say. Finally they they tell you what they told you. Along the same lines but without putting the class to sleep as army instruction can do, begin with a verbal summary of what you are going to teach. Ask the class to focus their attention for the next few minutes. Promise that when they become engrossed in the topic, time will fly. And it will.

A Few Don’ts

So why am I starting you off with the negative don’t? I start you this way so that you don’t trip, stumble, or make mistakes regarding your decision to teach. When you stand and deliver, you will have already confronted and conquered all the second thoughts that arose in your mind since you said yes to teaching (Matthew 7:29).

Don’t use any text or prepared lesson that comes from a continuously published series (Acts 24:10). Speak with a fresh voice. Why? Because your pupils have already heard or read the same thing hacked around year after year. It’s time for you to be different. Above all, don’t read to them the same material that they have in their hands. Doing such dulls the mind and leads to the usual predictable responses.

Don’t apologize for being a layman or for being hesitant (Luke 8:16). If you have read the lesson, you are farther along than most of the class. Just remember that if half of your class remembers half of the lesson for one week after dismissal, the lesson is a success. You can teach to the whole class, knowing in your heart of hearts that only one or two students