Sunday School Roundtable Chats
A new series of live Web chats sponsored by TMC Youth
Part 5: Sunday School Resources
With Susie Rynerson Jostyn and Chet Manchester
Monday, November 17, 2008, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET
Listen to the chat replay:
Download or Listen to the MP3 audio file: (scroll down to the bottom of this blog and hit the play button or right-click the “Download” link and save the chat to your computer)
Please join us for our continuing series of live chats with Sunday School teachers and superintendents around the world. This month, we’ll explore an arena that has lots of room for expression and adaptation: Sunday School resources.
At the heart of Sunday School there are three primary resources defined in the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy: the Bible, the weekly Bible Lesson and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy. But what is the best way to instruct students “according to their understanding or ability to grasp the simpler meanings of the divine Principle they are taught?” Many of today’s students find it helpful and inspiring to learn via a wide variety of media including video, graphics, audio, games, and interactive web media. Using these wisely in a lesson plan can make for a rich, engaging experience for everyone. So how can this media be used to introduce the ideas of “absolute Christian Science” and successfully lead students back to the Scriptures and “their textbook,” Science and Health? How can Sunday School teachers around the world share with each other when they create things that work really well in their classes?
Listeners to this chat are invited to send in questions live via computer. Susie Rynerson Jostyn and Chet Manchester of TMC Youth will provide answers based on their collective experience as students and teachers and will present a few new resources available on the Internet, on tmcyouth.com, and used in branch churches around the world.
The chat will be hosted live in English on www.tmcyouth.com. Everyone is also invited to stop by the Reading Room at 194 Massachusetts Ave. in Boston, MA to listen in with the public and a group of local Sunday School teachers.
If you can’t join the chat, you can post questions beforehand in the Sunday School Discussion Forum on the website and listen to the recorded chat afterwards.
Download the MP3 audio file (right-click and save)
November 17th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I love “my Bible Lesson” and started subscribing to it as soon as it was available by subscription. When my young mostly 5 year old students in kindergarten saw it for the very first time, they loved the pictures on the cover and wanted to see what was inside, so I showed them. Then I got permission to share 2 of the pictures with thoughts and ideas they can understand with them each week, and I add appropriate, simple thoughts also. I gave them each a colorful loose-leaf notebook to take home to keep their thoughts in. I hole punch the pages to make it easy for them to keep these “Spiritual Goodies” from “my Bible Lesson” together at home. They have colorful Word Art stickers with “my Bible Lesson”, the synonyms for God, and the 5 G’s they use to decorate their notebooks. A couple of children have brought their notebooks in to show everyone else in Sunday School their “treasures”. They’ve added other things we’ve done in Sunday School to their notebooks which I had no idea they were doing!!! When they bring these in, they care for them, watch them, and take them home every week, making sure nothing gets lost!!! What a joy it is to see how valuable these things are to them!!!
November 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Here are some ideas I was thinking while listening to you. Maybe they can help someone else.
I brought in a bushel basket and flashlights to teach preschoolers “ye are the light of the world” and don’t hide your light under a bushel.
I connect with the college students on Aim,facebook as well as email when students cannot be in Sunday school. We made a webpage with healings from myself and other students
We rewrote the trial with modern diseases for middle school children
When the Matrix movie was really big, the high school students and I were able to discuss the concept that the life we are appearing to experience is to be questioned as Reality.
Sunday school is really about listening. As much as we prepare, the questions a student brings to Sunday school makes us grow and are the most memorable
I had figgety students so I got each student a notebook, so they could draw and listen at the same time. It kept them focused
One day a student couldn’t get to church but wanted to participate, so we called him and put him on speaker phone and included him
We use tape players to play music to set the tone, to listen to articles etc.
We had a picnic for just the students and the neighbors so they could get to know each other outside of Sunday school
We are starting a special night a church for teens to read the lesson or sing, whatever they want to do to help them prepare for Sunday school.
We are going to start OTM’s ( operation testimony meeting) where teens got to chruch and then out for icecream afterward
One of the ways that keeps teens interested in Sunday school is taking an interest in the interests of each of the students: going to there soccer games, concerts, productions etc.
We have gathered some of the kids together to apply what they learn in Sunday school through community service project such as “Feed my starving children” and the local convelescent home.
I’ve had kids ask if what they saw in the Simpson’s or movies is really in the Bible
We use several versions of the Bible too
November 18th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I wanted to clarify something I think I heard in the conversation: that Gutenberg’s invention was frowned upon by the church who wanted the invention stopped for printing Bibles.
Wasn’t that the Roman Catholic church, the “church” that first corrupted the teachings and theology of Christ Jesus?
The comment suggested that anyone opposed to new inventions brought into the Christian Science Sunday Schools should be thought to be living in the Dark Ages!
I am one who is opposed to instruction that “deviates from the absolute Christian Science contained in their textbook.” Mrs. Eddy can “strengthen the faith by a written text as no one else can.” (Manual) The best way here would be to have Prose Works available, and the Manual, to further explain the teachings.
The “textbook” explains Christian Science, and Christian Science “to-day and forever” does all the interpreting. (S&H 577:18)
The internet provides a flood of information, and I like the Biblical endorsement of pitching within and without to keep out the flood.
The children need to be warned that the information on the internet is not always obviously helpful and reliable. It is best to stay within the safe confines of our published writings for instruction.
A definition of UNconfined is: “able to act at will.”
We want for our church “the might and wisdom of God,” (S&H 597) which our Leader left for us.
November 20th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Dear Anne,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I am so glad for the opportunity to clarify the points you raise.
Early in the chat, we talked about the example of Jesus, who taught with parables, and modern objects and images familiar to his audience, such as salt, candles, bushels, gifts, prison, a closet, birds, flowers, lamps, leaven, etc. Then we began to ponder the modern objects of today with which students might be taught in a similar fashion by the ever-present Christ.
We went on to cite Mrs. Eddy’s response to a question about “the pursuit of modern material inventions.” She writes, “Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. They light the way to the Church of Christ. We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us.” (My. 345)
And so we talked about the great need for prayer in deciding how to teach. There is a huge variety of Sunday School teaching resources and approaches. We talked about how two radically different methods can live side by side. So long as they both abide by the Manual, both of them can be, as you point out, “unconfined… able to act at will.” They need not oppose each other (as the church opposed Gutenberg). However, both of them will need fresh thought - manna collected for that day and not in the past - in order to be relevant and satisfying.
Now if you feel that for your students, in your church, and in your class, “the best way here would be to have Prose Works available, and the Manual, to further explain the teachings… to stay within the safe confines of our published writings for instruction,” then we encourage you to do just that. Others may be inspired to teach in another way, and still conform with our Leader’s direction, since the Manual By-laws for Sunday School do not say anything about (for or against) the use of Prose Works, the published writings, salt, bushels, flowers, or computers in class.
That being said, we too are opposed to instruction that “deviates from the absolute Christian science contained in their textbook.” Throughout the chat we emphasized how all teachings should lead students back to our primary Sunday School resources: the Bible, Science and Health, and the weekly Bible lesson. We feel this so strongly that we made it the topic of our next live chat on January 26: “Teaching the Bible and Science and Health together in Sunday School.”
So, thanks again for your thoughts here and we certainly hope you join us in January.
Much love, Susie
November 20th, 2008 at 11:20 am
One quick addition: as for the complexity of the internet (and some decidedly undesirable content there), we reiterated a point which professionals in this field have recommended: that adults should take as keen an interest in the activities of their children on the internet as they do in their activities at school and on the playground. That is the only way they will get the education, direction and protection they need to navigate safely. We mentioned some options for helping in this area, but again, it too requires individual prayer and choices.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
LR - what a wealth of ideas you’ve shared!! Thank you so much and I hope you’ll join us on the forums too! Here’s the link to where you and others can share even more ideas: http://tmcyouth.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6
Cheers, Susie