Spice Rack©
E-Curriculum
Note to the Teachers: The easiest thing to do (which actually becomes the most difficult before the end of the class!) is to use the same teaching method for the entire class period. What most of us are used to is simply lecturing or asking questions. And hey, if your kids are walking out each week saying, “Man, that connected with me. The hour just flew by!,” then those two methods are fine. What this curriculum seeks to do is to give you active exercises that take the kids’ attention off of you and their own discomfort enough that they CAN naturally answer the questions you want them to get at. Remember the rule: 1 minute of attention for each year of life lived. That means that even in our older classes, we should be shooting for changing our teaching methods 3 times in the class period. The reason there are seven different exercises is that I’m guessing that 4 of them won’t work for your group. If an exercise doesn’t work, try the next one. But please try to engage the kids with something besides the standard lecture and Q&A. Thanks for all your work in loving God’s kids! Also, to aid you in your preparation, any special supplies recommended for this lesson are outlined in a box. Contact with any questions!
“final instructions”
I Peter 5: 6-11
I. Gathering (Announcements, Attendance, First-Timer cards).
II. Engaging the Brain
A. How About a Little Droopy Cartoon? (This one may require a visit to Blockbuster)
1. Show a clip from any “Droopy” cartoon.
2. Process Questions
Æ When the Bible talks about humility, do you think it is talking about being like Droopy?
Æ How is Droopy like or unlike the Bible’s idea of humility?
B. Last Minute Instruction Fest
1. Imagine…
a. Have the group imagine that each of them is about to head out alone on a one year journey to a place they’ve never been before.
b. Have them imagine as well that they are about to receive a few last minute instructions.
2. Distribute scrap paper and pencils.
3. Predictions…
a. Ask the group to predict what kind of last minute instructions they might receive from each of these people:
Your best friend
Your mom
Your dad
Your Sunday School teacher
Jesus
b. Explain that they have 2 minutes to write their predictions.
4. Before they write, invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
5. After the group has written, ask the following process questions:
Æ What kind of last minute instructions do you think you might get from your moms?
Æ What about your dads?
Æ How were your best friends’ last minute instructions different from what you might predict your parents would say?
Æ Of all of these people (besides Jesus), whom would you tend to listen to the most?
Æ What do you think I would say?
Æ What do you think Jesus would say?
Æ Which of these was the hardest to predict?
Æ Today, we’ll be looking at some final instructions from one of Jesus’ closest friends. Any idea who we’ll be talking about?
C. Best Definition or Best Example
1. Divide the class into teams.
2. Explain that each team will have two minutes to come up with the best definition or the best example of what the Bible means when it talks about “humility” or when it commands Christians to “humble themselves.”
3. Remind the groups that they will, of course, get bonus points for creativity.
4. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
5. Give the groups two minutes to come up with their definitions or examples.
6. Process Questions
Æ Did you hear anything in these definitions that made you look at the whole subject of humility a little differently?
Æ What is the difference between humility and weakness?
Æ How would a truly humble person get a long at your school?
Æ Who is the least humble in arguments in your home—you or your parents?
D. Forced Choice
1. Explain that you want the group to engage in an exercise to help them begin thinking about some of the final instructions given in the passage from Scripture that the group will be looking at today.
2. Give the following instructions
a. Everyone stands in the center of the room.
b. The group will be given sets of options.
c. For each pair of statements, everyone will move to one side of the room or the other to indicate which idea they agree with the most.
d. No one can stay in the middle; everyone must move to either one side or the other.
e. Once everyone has moved to one side of the room or the other, a couple people from each side will explain why they think that the side they have chosen is the more correct side.
3. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
4. Present these sets of options:
a. Forced Choice # 1
Satan is real and Christians should be informed of his tactics.
People who talk a lot about the devil are missing the point.
b. Forced Choice #2
God wants his children to be humble.
God wants his children to be aware of how gifted they are.
c. Forced Choice #3
God wants to take care of my problems.
God expects me to take care of my problems.
III. Igniting the Heart
A. The Text: Did You Get the Instructions?
1. Personal Story Options
a. Teacher Story: Tell about a time that you failed to follow instructions and regretted it (e.g., my story of not brushing my teeth as a teenager, not going to the dentist for 3 years and winding up with not one, not two, not three, but with 26 (count ‘em) cavities).
b. Group Stories: Invite any members of the group to tell funny stories about times that they didn’t follow instructions (maybe a story of not asking for directions or trying to put something together without instructions).
2. Explain that our text for today is loaded with instructions.
3. Active Option (for the classic hyperactive class)
a. Divide the class into two teams.
b. Have each team line up in double-file lines facing each other.
c. Explain that speed is everything in this contest.
d. Explain that two pairs will be given the same challenge and that the first pair to find the answer gets 10,000 points (in other words, only four people are involved in each question).
e. The game is won by the team who answers the most questions correctly, (and gets the most points).
f. Allow the class to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
g. Play the game using the following active option questions:
1) Find I Peter in the Bible
2) (After closing the Bible), Find I Peter, chapter 5.
3) (After closing the Bible), Find I Peter 5:6.
4) (After closing the Bible), Find how many instructions (commands) there are in I Peter 5:6-11.
5) (After closing the Bible), Read the four commands found in I Peter 5:6-11.
6) Find the one command that you think is the easiest to obey. Be prepared to say why.
7) Find the one command that you think is hardest to obey. Be prepared to say why.
8) Give one example of how a person from this class could “humble himself/herself.”
9) Give one situation in which a person in this class could “Cast his or her anxiety on God.”
10) Give a description of a Christian who is not “self-controlled and alert.”
h. Active Option Process Questions
Æ Now that the game is over, what do you remember from these few verses in I Peter 5?
Æ How many Christians do you think follow these instructions?
Æ One of the commands in these verses is for us to humble ourselves? How can a young Christian humble himself or herself when someone is “dissing” (disrespecting) him or her?
Æ In these verses, did you pick up any promise about suffering? Do these verses promise that God will rescue us from suffering?
4. Cerebral Option (for the more pensive groups)
a. Have one of the class members read through I Peter 5:6-11. Invite the class to make some sort of sound each time an instruction or command is read.
b. Process Questions
Æ What commands do you remember?
Æ Do any of those commands raise questions for you?
c. 3x3
1) Divide the class into groups of three.
2) Have each person in their group of three tell the one thing in these verses that they connect with and want to put into practice and one thing that confuses them (give 3 minutes for this discussion).
d. Process Questions
Æ What were the things about these verses that confused you?
Æ How many Christians do you think follow these instructions?
Æ In these verses, did you pick up any promise about suffering? Do these verses promise that God will rescue us from suffering?
Æ What changes do you think these verses are calling you to make in your life of faith?
Æ What keeps you from putting these changes into practice?
B. Sparkplug Sentence Stems
1. Write each of the following sentence stems on a slip of paper:
a. When people talk about “the devil,” I think...
b. The weirdest story I’ve ever heard about the devil is...
c. Movies about the devil make me feel...
d. When it comes to the devil, I really don’t believe...
e. When people say that the devil doesn’t really exist, I want to say...
f. The one thing I know that the Bible says about the devil is...
g. Some people think that the devil tempts us to do bad stuff, but I think...
2. Ask for a few volunteers to help get the discussion going today.
3. Explain how the process will work.
a. The first volunteer will draw a slip of paper, read the sentence stem written on it and then complete the sentence.
b. The idea is for the volunteers to give their real opinions, not necessarily “the right answer.”
c. Once the volunteer has finished his or her comments, he or she can call on someone else in the group to respond to the same question or say, “Let’s go on to the next one.”
d. The next volunteer responds to the first volunteer’s comments or draws another slip of paper.
e. The process is repeated until all the slips are used up.
4. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
5. Play “Sparkplug Sentence Stems” as you have just explained it.
6. Process Questions
Æ What does the writer of I Peter think about the devil?
Æ What parts of I Peter’s perspective do you agree with and what do you have some questions about?
Æ Which one of the spark-plug sentences was the most controversial?
Æ As a class, what things can we agree on about the whole topic of “the devil?”
C. Journal Sheets: A Look at Yourself
1. Invite the group to look at this text a little deeper by placing themselves in the commands.
2. Distribute the Journal sheets and have the group members answer question 1.
3. Self-Discovery Go-Around
a. Starting with yourself, go around the group, asking each person tell about one of his or her answers on the journal sheet.
b. Give the group members this way of beginning their answers: “What I discovered about myself was…”
c. Before the group starts talking, invite them to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
4. Process Questions
Æ Which was harder—coming up with your answers for the journal sheet or talking about them together? Any idea why?
Æ Did you notice any patterns of things that some of us might have in common with each other?
Æ What are the biggest obstacles a teenager might face in obeying these commands?
D. And We Couldn’t End the Book Without a Little Suffering...
1. Intro Process Questions
Æ From the past few weeks, do you remember what the key theme of I Peter is?
Æ How do the verses we’ve looked at today tie in with the whole theme of suffering?
2. A Look at Some Words We’d Rather Not Hear...
a. Have someone read I Peter 5:10.
b. Process Questions
Æ Does this verse promise to keep us from suffering?
Æ What does it promise?
Æ Look at verse 7. Does it promise to remove our anxieties?
Æ What would you say to the Christian who says, “It’s just not fair! I’m doing the right things, and still I’m suffering!”?
IV. Taking It Home
A. Just Imagine...
1. Have the group members close their eyes and imagine...
...what God could do with a group of young people who weren’t afraid of a little suffering.
...what their faith could be like if they linked all their anxiety, all their suffering, all their frustration to their relationships with Christ.
...what it would be like to be in real partnership with God, not just being religious but working and suffering along side him.