One Very Simple Thing To Do To Have An Active Sabbath School Discussion
Sabbath school (SS) teachers and leaders, you know what we afraid of most; a dull, boring SS discussion in which almost no one participates and you do all the talk.
The chance is even a lot higher when the lesson is doctrinal. 😐
We all think that there should be something that can be done to prevent this from happening, and thank God, there is. 🙂
A Case Study
Jeff (his real name) was the assigned SS teacher last Sabbath in Boston Temple church and he did a really great job.
He isn’t a pastor or theologian, he wasn’t exceptionally knowledgeable about the lesson. The class members weren’t also any different from any other Sabbath.
So what was it that he did differently?
He didn’t start the SS class like any other teacher. He divided the class into group of three people, then he gave each group a piece of paper that has a paragraph of story, and at the end there is a simple, yet thought-provoking question about the story. He gave 5 minutes for each group to come up with their answer.
What even more interesting was, although the groups are given the same story and question, there was different details added to the other half of the group, that made the group response to be highly different.
It didn’t take long and the the class was filled with interesting discussions till the end, and what he needed to do is just to make sure the discussions are still within the lesson topic and scope.
But it’s not proven?!
Actually I did almost the same thing few years ago. Though, I had the grouping and question at the last half of the SS class rather than in the beginning. But it always work like a charm (ok, maybe we don’t believe in charm, just take it as an expression..).
So, if you’re going to lead an SS class you might want to try this simple idea, group the class into a smaller group (3 to 4 people), give each group real-life story they can relate to and question(s) at the end to answer, and see how the discussion will flow naturally.
God bless you brothers and sisters, and if you have any comment or ideas about teaching SS, feel free to drop some comments below. 😀