Reading the Bible to Teach, Part 3: Experiential Reading

The Word became flesh.  Seriously.  Just imagine that for a minute.  The agent of creation, the Word who was with God and was God, took on skin, and as the Message puts it, "moved into the neighborhood."

God is the ultimate creative communicator!  If we want to bring the Bible to life for kids, our biggest job will be putting flesh on God's word and moving it into their neighborhood.

How do you that?  In my last post, I said you start by reading the Bible devotionally, that you do business with God first before using the Bible as a part of your "job."  But once you've taken the time to let God speak to you personally through the Scripture, it's time to read it again through the eyes of a reporter. 

When you read the Bible experientially, you're looking for details - details that will put flesh on the word and make it easy to move it into a kid's neighborhood, their everyday world.   As you read the Bible experientially place yourself as a character in the story.  Imagine what it really would have been like to be there.  Look for details that the Bible explicitly mentions, but also ones that could be inferred

1.      Start with the five senses.  

Sight:  Read through the story you're teaching and make a list of the visual details the Bible describes.  Goliath noticed that David was a pretty boy - ruddy and handsome.  Saul was plunged into darkness on the road to Damascus.  Lydia sold purple cloth. 

Sounds:  Listen to the rooster crowing, Jesus crying out in a loud voice, the temple curtain ripping in two. 

Smell:  Think of the spicy aroma of Jacob’s stew, the stench of sweaty soldiers on a battlefield or the smell of perfume poured on Jesus’ feet.     

Taste:  Imagine the bittersweet juice of the fruit in the garden and the earthy taste of bread at the last supper. 

Touch:  What did it feel like for Thomas to touch Jesus’ scars?  Or the five smooth stones in David’s hands?

2.  Move on to kinesthetic senses.  Imagine how Peter physically felt running to the tomb – heart pounding, breath gasping, his side hurting.

3. Finish with emotions.  Was Peter scared running to the tomb?  Excited?  Imagine Adam’s shame when He heard God walking in the garden and David’s joy when the stone found its mark.  Emotions are powerful motivators and humanize stories that can otherwise may seem distant and remote. 

Once you’ve finished this list, you should now have plenty of flesh to put on the word.  Just think about how much easier it will be to help kids experience the reality of story with these details in your back pocket. 

When you take this list back to your boxed curriculum or go to write a lesson from scratch, you don’t have to include all of the details you’ve recorded, just the ones that you think will be the most effective for bringing the word to life in their imaginations.  Take a cue from novelists who talk about capturing the “telling detail,” describing one or two key details that paint an entire scene in their audience’s mind. 

On a side note, if you’re not telling a straight up story, for instance you’re teaching on the famous love passage from 1 Cor. 13, you’ll have to find other ways to bring out the details and make the word flesh (describe a clanging symbol and a resounding gong) and we’ll look at examples of how to do that well in future posts. 

In the mean, have fun mining the details and experiencing the word of God coming to life in your own awesome imagination. 

What are some of your favorite details from the Bible?

Reading the Bible to Teach, Part 2: Devotional Reading

In my last post I said that to really bring the Bible to life for kids, it’s helpful to take three passes at  reading the Bible text.

1. Read it devotionally.

2. Read it experientially.

3. Read it logically.

Today we’re going to look at reading it devotionally. 

When I was about 18 months old, my parents found out the hard way that I’m allergic to bees - big time.  We're talking emergency room allergic.  Fortunately, I wasn’t stung again until I was seven, but this time I reacted even worse.  I swelled up like a marshmallow and nearly died.

So I’ve spent decades living with a healthy fear of bees.  But not anymore. 

Two years ago, I discovered that you can actually get anti-venom shots for bee allergies.  Week after week I went in to get jabbed with needles that burned like fire.   But slowly the effect diminished.

I was growing immune because of contant, steady exposure.    

That’s a good thing. 

What’s not so good is that I’ve seen the same principle at work in my spiritual life.  Maybe you have too.

If we're not careful, constant, steady exposure to the word of God can immunize us to the sting of its power.  Remember the Pharisees?  Jesus said to them, "You diligently study the Scriptures, but the Scriptures should lead you to me!"

When I was young in my faith, the word of God was like fire in my veins. It burned me.  It stung me.  It completely undid me.  And God used it to draw me near to His love and grace and transform my soul.

But the more familiar I became with the Bible, the less of an effect it had on me – especially because a lot of my time in Scripture was spent preparing for lessons.  It was work.   An academic exercise.  Before I knew it, the word began to lose its sting. 

In this case, familiarity didn’t breed contempt, it bred indifference.  The word grew stale and cold as I became a world-class Pharisee myself.  We love to bag on these guys, don’t we?  And yet so many of us fall into the same trap and become religious professionals instead of grateful lovers of God.

If you really want to bring the Bible to life for kids, the first thing you have to do is let God bring the Bible to life in you.  Read the Bible with the humility of the tax collector who approached God by saying, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  Ask God what He’s saying to YOU, not so you can teach it, but so you can live it. 

This is the first and most important step to preparing to become a Bible Story Ninja! 

What are the best resources and practices you've discovered to help you in your devotional reading?

Reading the Bible for Teaching, Part 1

Okay, so we all think it’s pretty good idea to actually read the Bible before we teach it, right?  So, what are we are looking for when we read it?  I’d like to suggest that one of the best ways you can bring the Bible to life for kids is take three passes at the text and take lots of notes along the way.

1.  Pass One – Read it devotionally.  The first time through, you’re just a follower of Jesus spending time with the Master.  Listen, worship and enjoy.

 

2.  Pass Two – Read it experientially.  This second time through, put yourself as a character into the story.  Remember, this stuff really happened, and it happened to real people.  Look for sensory detail and emotions.  Which of the five senses does the Bible writer appeal to?  If not explicitly, what can you infer?  For example, Matthew doesn’t tell us what the food tasted like at the Last Supper but we can imagine it, right?  Are there details about the weather, time of day or season?  How did the characters feel physically (remember sleepy Eutychus?) and what emotions drove them?

3.  Pass Three – Read it logically.  Think of your audience and how this Bible text specifically applies to them. I lean into some great teaching from Andy Stanley for this part.  What does a fifth grade boy need to know from this passage?  Why does he need to know it?  What should he do as a result of it?  Why should he do it?  What will happen if doesn’t? 

Imagine going back to your curriculum (or blank page if you’re writing this from scratch) with these kind of notes.  You would be primed for some serious Bible Story Ninja action!  That means engaging kids with the Bible and teaching for transformation.  I don’t know about you, but I definitely want to be in on that!

This post is the first of four, and in the next three I’ll go into detail about how to make the most of each pass through Scripture.  In the mean time, you can go ahead and put some of this into practice when planning your next lesson. 

What Scripture reading strategies have helped you when prepping for a lesson?

Bringing the Bible to Life for Kids

Okay, so technically we can’t bring the Bible to life.  It’s already alive.  As Hebrews 4:12 tells us, it’s “living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword.”  So, bringing the Bible to life?  Done.  God handled that part.  Presenting it in a way that unleashes its living, active, blow-your-mind-and-turn-your-life-upside-down power?  That’s a different story.  That’s where you come in. 

When we use the phrase “bringing the Bible to life,” what we really mean is communicating the Bible in such a dynamic way that our audience can experience the life it already contains.  As a storyteller this means getting out the Bible’s way and letting it do its thing. 

This is where you start earning your ninja skills.   

It all starts with you reading the text.  If you truly want to become a Jedi master storyteller, put down your curriculum and pick up your Bible.

So, Jason, you’re telling me the number one place to start when you want to present the Bible in an engaging way is to actually read the Bible? 

Um, yeah.  Look, I know it’s not rocket science, but I had to say it.  I’m ashamed to tell you the number of times in the past I’ve taught a curriculum without actually cracking open my Bible.  But that’s in the past.  That’s before I set out to become a Bible Story Ninja.  Now that the spiritual nunchucks are out, it’s game on!

Kids need for us, deserve for us, to take time to live in the passage we’re teaching.  We can’t deliver a powerful, life-changing lesson without going back to the source.  All of the technique and presentation skills we’ll talk about over the coming weeks won’t do you much good without reading the passage for yourself.

 I don’t care how well you know it.  Read it again.  Read it with fresh eyes.  Invite God into the process.  Trust me, He has something to say to both you and the kids. 

So, make a commitment each time you teach that you’ll start the process by experiencing what you’re going to be communicating first hand.  Read the Bible. 

In my next post we’ll look at the process I use for how to really dig into Scripture to present it to kids in a way that will rock their world . . . and yours.