The days of ambivalence in the Christian life are drawing to an end. Having one foot in the world and the other in the church has caused only pain and imbalance. It is time for us to stop walking along the shore, dreaming of the other side but staying put. It is time to act on our faith—come what may.
Fear of sharing our faith, except for those with the unstoppable sanguine temperament, causes many of us to experience faith-sharing paralysis. We just can’t do it. And since we can’t, we don’t. So another chance to trust in Jesus may have evaporated into thin air. When Christ told us to proclaim forgiveness of sins to all (Luke 24:46-48), He did not discriminate: • He did not isolate His command to Peter, James, and John, the big three. • He did not exclude the women in the room.
He did not pass over timid Thomas a week later (John 20:24-29).
Jesus saw a mighty army eager to share what they had learned from Him. He included everyone in His band of witnesses to the good news. Let’s follow His lead, shall we?
The first time I gave a gospel presentation to someone I didn’t do a very good job. And the second time I didn’t do much better. But I kept presenting. I kept focusing on those wonderful words of life in Scripture, and people began to listen and surrender to the love of God in Christ. Now the verses, illustrations, and analogies come to me naturally—awake or asleep.
Practice does make perfect. Let’s practice giving away our faith, and God will take our humble efforts and one day show us on the Sea of Glass the fruit of this wonderful labor.
Remember: “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
Again it’s time to act on our faith—come what may.
Ron E. M. Clouzet, D.Min., is ministerial secretary and director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute (NADEI). He is also professor of Christian ministry and practical theology in Andrews University Theological Seminary.
LEAD gets to local churches up to six months ahead of local Sabbath School programming, so we are giving local leaders a few file cards of information that can be used for VBS for two reasons:
First, as the old proverb confesses, “The best laid plans of mice and men have often gone astray.” Unforseen difficulties arise. Plans change. Leaders get stressed.
Some churches have not had VBS for a number of years. These programs offer hope and direction for starting again, starting where you are, and starting now.
1. The central theme for Vacation Bible School at the Cloverdale church in Boise, Idaho, led children to investigate “My Community.”
The information and activities revolved around how children can serve and witness for Jesus within their home, school, church, country—and their community. The children enjoyed (A) singing songs, (B) reciting memory verses, (C) hearing interesting Bible lessons and stories, (D) assembling unique crafts, (E) indulging in tasty treats, and (F) unveiling amazing discoveries in nature.
The attendance was consistent throughout the week: 35 children.
Watching a child’s eyes and face light up because they learned something new about Jesus is a heartwarming feeling that cannot be described.
And that was the purpose of this year’s Vacation Bible School at Cloverdale.
Story by Gerry Eslink, a Vacation Bible School volunteer for Cloverdale church.
2. In the long, hot, lazy days of summer, Vacation Bible School provides children with a fun, faith-based environment to learn about Jesus and build friendships.
Wilma Bing, Washington Conference family ministries director, says that local church volunteers have two purposes to fulfill with “Vacation Bible School programs:
1. To reach out to children and their parents.
2. To brings the entire church together for a common evangelistic goal.”
Through the years, Vacation Bible School has emerged as an effective way to bring Adventist and community children together for child-friendly evangelism.
“When I first got involved with VBS about 12 years ago, the majority of the kids were Adventist with only a handful of kids from the neighborhood,” says Linda Burman, VBS director fot the church in Auburn City, Washington. “Initially we found the process of integrating the neighborhood kids into our programs very difficult, as they were basically outnumbered. However, in the last couple years, the majority of kids attending VBS are from the surrounding neighborhood.”
Children in Kirkland (Wash.), Bellevue (Wash.), and Auburn City explored facing fears at Crocodile Dock, while children at Shelton Valley’s (Wash.) summer daycare camp discovered Bible royalty in Castles and Crowns. Graham (Wash.) children explored creation, while children at Auburn Academy Church visited “Rome” and the underground church in the church’s “Journey to Bethlehem” facility.
The Crocodile Dock theme, about not being afraid, was particularly relevant for a young boy with leukemia who attended the Bellevue VBS. The staff and children prayed for him to not be afraid of his treatment. When he came back, he said because of God, he hadn’t been afraid.
“VBS benefits our church,” says Dixie Robinson, Bellevue VBS leader, “because such a large percentage of people work together as a team to put on this evangelistic effort, which has a great impact on our community.”
Story by Heidi Martell, Washington Conference associate communication director
In-a-minute Resources
• Your local Sabbath School and Children’s Ministries directors.
• Candy DeVore, Children’s Ministries director, Review and Herald Publishing Association
Cindy Chamberlin, Gleaner managing editor, shared Vacation Bible School reports for 2009.
No one on Planet Earth is perfect. In the area of facilitation the opportunities to make mistakes are comparable to the minutes of the gathering. Mistakes can scuttle the best-laid plans. Some mistakes you will recognize immediately, because you’ve seen so many facilitators use them, others may come as quite the surprise. Let’s take a look at three solutions. Challenge 1. Repeatedly calling on—or allowing—the same people to speak.
Solutions:
• Scan and walk the room to direct questions to table groups or people who have not participated much or at all. Make sure that the question is not challenging. Ask something that is “right” for them in their experience: e.g., “Joe, what has been our experience or opinion about this?”
•Rotate group leaders and the people who record group decisions. Challenge 2. Facilitating or presenting during distractions.
Solutions:
• Stop the show. Ask the group to stand to take a stretch or engage in a physical activity.
• Divert the attraction. Lead the group in singing a rousing gospel song or chorus that most people would know.
• Move the stage. Move away from the distracters to divert the eyes and attention—and probably the posture of the group will swivel, turn, or whatever to get their eyes back on you. Or if the distraction is, for example, a noise outside the window, move the group to the hall or send them to refresh themselves while you address the problem with the person in charge of maintaining the facility—a deacon, the Sabbath School coordinator/superintendent, or the workshop assistant assigned to you by the event coordinator. Challenge 3. Refusing to defuse the tension in the room.
Solutions:
• Address the situation. Tell the group that you would be doing them a disservice if you ignored the tension.
• Remind them that sometimes tension can be a good way to move people out of their comfort zones.
• Ask for their input about how they would like you to address the tension, possibly dividing the group into small teams to discuss and record their solutions.
• If the tension centers on the content of the lesson, assure them that your lesson objectives will address those concerns.
• Share a story about a time when tension occurring early in a session helped lead to a sensational session.
• Thank the group for their participation in resolving the tension.
Hi, a number of bloggers have expressed an interest in hosting boot camps for their leaders. You can make arrangements for Boot Camps by directly contacting the LEAD magazine editor who also directs the Boot Camps: fcrumbly@rhpa.org/301-393-4094. I’ll be delighted to talk with you about this.
I just received another e-mail promoting an atheist author’s book for Christian readers. There’s been a splash of books by atheists with directions for how Christians should handle their faith. But I’m asking myself and you, “Why would Christians follow blind ’swimmers’, so to speak, when they can dive deeply into the treasure house ofGod’s Word with our own Christian leaders?”
I’m all for respectfully listening to what atheists and other non-believers have to say, but when it’s my time to speak in the conversation cycle, I want to be sure to reach their heart as well as their ears—and definitely influence their thinking.That’s why I’m so happy to have the Exegesis pages in LEAD that take me to depths I would not reach alone in my Sabbath School lesson study. Also the Exegesis and Hermaneutics section of LEAD teaches me how to troll the depths of Scripture in general.Authors for these sections, Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller and Dr. Kwabena Donkor not only know the fine points of theology, they are active in the “real world” so their answers connect with real questions.
Ekkehardt Mueller playing the harpsichord on a Sabbath afternoon
D T H V R K T P O X Y X K K H Q J M T E S R X Y V
Q E Z Z N E J R G H C K W I E T I O M N P O T M E
K K T E M H T K T R F O Y I J U A O H J I T I E Z
U P E N P P C A Q R R N N A T X C E T T R A E S U
E L B A I L E R W T U F H T A R W N D S I E V S H
L Z D I I O W Y H G M T N U E O O I O N T R R I S
U N V E K M N Y H E M P H V F N B G I W U C E A E
I O U W N I M N Z L P K O H F L L A U U A C S H L
X E L Y B Y U O A O T O Y N A Y T G I Z L B U V F
J C K S X B W J R Y C L S C M N G U N R A M S B F
M Z R J K U B C T T U V L S U W E X C P P N P V E
S P O L I T I C S N A N B O Z G H W T L O K J Z H
Y L H T R A E M L K E L F G Z A S I P B P I C G C
P I D L D D L L H I R M I T S G S R E T E R N A L
U C A Y S L Z A J S M S G T N M X D T P W Y P M G
C Y S E R E H N V A P I J D Y R I H L V O E P F G
H P P R B E L I E V E H L G U E Y R A U T C N A S
A F R F I B W G T Y V Y U I N J E T P C G T X C E
R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C T V X I I F H F U E S
I A U I M B B R D O V E E D I A H U Z N H R T T S
S S S I Z I S O T F I G O D X S R Z L H I D I S E
M T R U S T S J M N P O E K R O G Y E X G R E S N
A X V P G D S E J Z L N B O Y A W A X Z N L T Y T
H I G T A V S T J B C C W E S M R B Z Q B Z V R I
P G A R C E X D Q E A F Y J W Z A D Q A R C U J W
ABLE
ANNOINTED
BAPTISM
BELIEVE
BLOOD
CHARISMA
CHRIST
CREATOR
DEATH
DENY
DOVE
EARTHLY
ETERNAL
EVIDENCE
FACETS
FEAST
FLESH
FOUNTAIN
GIFT
HEAR
HERESY
IMMORTALITY
JUDGMENT
KNEEL
MESSIAH
MILITARY
OBEDIENCE
ONLY
ORIGINAL
OVERCOME
POLITICS
PROMISE
RELIABLE
REVOLUTIONARY
SANCTUARY
SERVE
SPIRITUAL
TRINITY
TRUST
TRUTH
WATER
WITNESSES
WON
WORSHIP
WORTHY
WRATH
Wikipedia Report: “Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways‘ third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Wednesday 21 December 1988, the aircraft flying this route—a Boeing 747-121 named Clipper Maid of the Seas—was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members.[1] Eleven people in Lockerbie, southern Scotland, were killed as large sections of the plane fell in and around the town, bringing total fatalities to 270. As a result, the event has been named by the media as the Lockerbie Bombing.
“In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted of involvement in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 20 August 2009, the Scottish Government released him on compassionate grounds to return to Libya as he was suffering from terminalprostate cancer and had a life expectancy of less than 3 months.”
How has the Sabbath School lessons Loved and Loving: John’s Epistles, especially Lesson 8, impacted your response—emotional and visible—to the freeing of the convicted bomber and Libya’s response? How does the thought that “love costs and pays” in response to Lesson 8 direct your witness about this world news media blitz?
Reading Marcia Conner’s article in Training and Development confirmed my thoughts that Tweeting could benefit Sabbath School leaders in local churches.Here are some possibilities:
• Supplement your training programs and those provided by conference leaders. Tweeting could enable you to follow up with workshop facilitators to sharpen skills that you had only limited time to internalize in a meeting filled with other sharp learners.
• Only so much can be said during the time allocated for a Sabbath School class strategy session. Tweeting can enable the planning—plus discussion and fellowship—to continue.
• Leaders who twitter can follow up the limited time for fellowshipping at training events, connecting more firmly with other workshop attendees who have similar challenges. You could also be affirmed for your successes.
• Sabbath School members can become better acquainted. Shut-ins who can twitter have another pipeline through which to share their thoughts and insights about the Sabbath School lesson.
• Although tweeting tutorials are readily available via blogs, online courses, in-person workshops, and video instructions on YouTube, perhaps “Tweeting” would be a valuable workshop to host for Sabbath School leaders (including class facilitators) and the Sabbath School Council in your local church.
• Need facilitators? Chat with your communication leaders—and all those savvy youth and young adults in your church and area churches. Hosting tweeting tutorials could provide that teachable format for enabling members to see their Adventist education dollars paying off—invite the staff of your school, academy, or university to come in and share their tweeting abilities.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled. She founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, August 11, 2009.
The Special Olympics, which started as summer camps held in the Shrivers’ backyard, now serves about 2.5 million mentally disabled people in 190 countries, according to the Special Olympics website. And today, 3.1 million people with mental disabilities participate in 228 programs in 170 nations, according to the Special Olympics.
For many mentally challenged adults, Sabbath School is an oasis, a bright spot, a warm and welcoming place. LEAD magazine helps members and their friends who want to study the Word of God do so by providing volunteer class facilitators practical tips and lesson activities on the same subjects that the rest of the adult division Bible students are enjoying—and growing with.
Helene Hubbard, PhD, MD prepares the Bible study materials for this special needs group in her section of The Bridge called Emmaus Eyes. She has won an award for her work with this population in Florida.
You will want to make sure that your church provides this option for your Sabbath School discipleship and evangelism. And then share the experience.
In his book, Unshakable Faith, Evangelist Mark Finley focuses on the bond of Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley, and Hugh Latimer, the Oxford martyrs of the Reformation. He notes: “How did these men spearhead the Reformation in England? By studying God’s Word together, by praying together. They stood in a circle based on Scripture. They discovered truth in a circle. . . . These men give us a glimpse of what God’s last day church, called the ‘remnant,’ will be like” (pp. 31, 36.
His closing on this subject that he calls, “Standing in a Circle” asks some important questions, including, “Are you making exciting discoveries with a group of believers?” (p. 36, emphasis supplied). I think that Sabbath School is so much more engaging when members and their friends meet not to review the lesson day by day but to share what they have learned and applied during the week. Then the lesson session becomes a time of discovery.
Are you having this experience in your Sabbath School? Please, share what’s happening.
