Sporočila za osnovnošolce in kako jih pripraviti
Oblika
Digitalna datoteka
Ustvarjalec/-ka
Heidi Ansiel
Kategorija/-e
Sporočila / čveki
Vodenje/trening/skrb za ekipe
Izziv/-i
1. Pridi in poglej.
2. Spreobrni se in veruj.
Priporočena starost/-i
11-14 let
Jezik/-i
Angleščina
Izobraževanje
za ekipo
Dodal/a
Heidi Ansiel
Kje najti to orodje
Shared Google Drive, Mladinska Orodjarna
Če še ne poznaš 5ih izzivov, ki jih je jezus zastavil svojim učencem si poglej dokument tukaj.
“What is Grow Time” - useful for thinking through how to prepare an interactive learning sporočilo for middle schoolers or training your team on how to give a brief čvek.
Click here to view a folder with examples of interactive learning activities and sporočila for loving middle schoolers well - giving them practical tools and pointing them to Jesus.
What is Grow Time? 🌱
Grow time is like gardening.
What do plants need to grow? 👩🏻🌾🧑🏽🌾
🛡💛 A good environment - a safe space
Listen well - safe to explore thoughts/ideas/feelings
Protect from attacks/predators: shame, judgment, bullying, an over-emphasis on performance-based appreciation/acknowledgment
🪴🚜 Good soil - cultivated soil
We don't want to just “give answers” - we want to encourage/cultivate critical thinking, curiosity, and wonder. When Jesus was asked a question, he often replied back with a question. Let’s grow in asking helpful questions that encourage self-reflection, that poke at existing worldviews, that press into or help gently expose motivations of the heart so that those rocks can be removed, and roots can grow deep into Jesus.
We want to invite them into stories to explore and discover God for themselves.
⛲️💦 Water - refreshment
Our Grow time, it’s not overwhelming or a to-do list or overbearing or controlling; it’s refreshing and life-giving, built on trust and relationship.
🥗🍗 Nutrients - food
the right kind of food at the right time in the right amount
Too much or too frequently can kill plants. Not enough, and they won't grow. The right amount of truth and direction.
Spiritual milk, not solid food.
☀️✝️ Sun - :) The SON. Jesus Christ.
Apollos watered, Paul planted, but God gave the growth. I’ll leave the mystery of photosynthesis and the miracle of growth up to God. But we can also do what we can to “set the plants in the light,” …aka we can expose them to Jesus. And we can pray to God to reveal Jesus to them. To cause that growth.
How does this translate to Grow Time?
We want our Grow time to meet the kids where they’re at and provide something helpful and practical for them. We want them to see and experience the character of Jesus through what we talk about and the questions we ask.
We don’t need it to be a straight-up “turn to your bible in the book of Revelation…” but rather, sharing stories of our personal experience with Jesus and our appreciation of Him and the kind of things he talked about or the ways he interacted with people. Instead of having everyone read the story of the prodigal son, we can summarize it in our own words and introduce it by saying something like,
Have you ever felt like you needed a second chance? Maybe you messed up. And you just wished someone would let you start over and try again? I really love this story that Jesus shares where he describes a guy just like that… this dude had everything and he blew it… but he was given a second chance… what are times in your life when you’ve wished you had a second chance?
We want to be vulnerable and express our hearts. Our goal is not to paint a perfect picture of how religion saves us, and now that we have Jesus, everything is super great. We want to share the gospel (the person of Jesus). This means being honest about our mistakes and struggles and pointing to the God who helps us through them or who rescues us from them and how he is the one that gives us the abundant life that we don’t deserve but that we were created for to live with God. We want to emphasize that things are not how they are supposed to be, but we have found hope in Jesus.
Awareness: We want to encourage self-awareness, self-reflection, emotional awareness, and social awareness. This means we want our stories to help the kids see themselves for who they really are and help them to see other people around them and how their actions impact others.
Love: above everything, we want our Grow Time to be about loving these kids. We want to ask the question, “What do they need to hear right now? What will help them hear it? What can I do to love them well with my words, stories, and questions, how I set up the time, how I listen well to their processing, how I leave space for silent reflection, how I let the talk go in a different direction if that’s where they start to run with it and the Holy Spirit is leading, how I help them listen by creating an environment that feels safe, free of distractions, etc….
Practically speaking…
There are three legs to “the stool” where we want to see growth happen. We want to incorporate these three as much as possible into our Grow Time
Knowledge - learning new ideas and ways of thinking and interacting (that show the heart of Jesus)
Practice - actually doing something with what they learn, helping them practice it - going away with action steps or one assignment at the end of the time - a challenge that we will check in on in two weeks (example: here's 5 EUR, you can't spend it on yourself, how can you bless someone (level 2 - can you do it without them noticing))
Sharing - sharing how that challenge or “I will statement” went, leaving space to share all kinds of attempts, successes, failures, what held you back, why, what was great about it, what was hard, etc.
When a kid asks a question - a really easy response to encourage self-reflection is just to turn it back to them and say, “ya, wow, that’s interesting; what do you think about that?” or “Hmm. Great question. Why is that important to you? Why does that matter?” Try to get to the heart with questions.
We have some life experience - sharing from our mistakes - coming from the angle of: we don't want you to make the same mistakes - vulnerability - here's what I wish I had known when I was in 8th grade. Connect with their experience. They aren’t thinking about big life decisions like you - they’re thinking about homework, school, parents, and friendship.
More on curiosity and wonder - how to see people's hearts and wonder about their story? Things are not always as they appear. When someone makes a judgment statement about something, reply with an “I wonder…” statement.
Helping kids understand their parents - they have great intentions - they might fail miserably - help them see why their parents are trying to do some things...
Helping kids ask how they can love Trnovo and contribute to the community. What are the issues we see? Needs? How can we help? Awareness of other people.
Even more practical…
A Template for Grow Time:
Grow Time is 20-30 mins
Gather the kids, set the tone, have them get settled, and remove distractions when possible. Maybe move to a quiet spot, sit on blankets, and consider: Would having them journal/write/draw help them engage?
Your posture/role: You are the guide, walking alongside them as someone with more life experience. Your goal is to share with them to help them along on their own journey through life. They are the hero of the story, not you. You are “the Yoda” that helps give them the guidance and next steps they need toward success. Success is: more deeply discovering God and marking the path of next-steps toward relationship with him.
Sharing & Review (5 mins)
What did we talk about last week? What do you remember?
What was your challenge for this week?
How did that go? (Use tools like thumbs up/down, leaders can share and model how to talk about the challenge, remember: we want to talk about the attempt at the challenge and what that was like for that person, why it was hard, what they learned, what went well, etc. It’s not about “checking a box and saying good job, you succeeded,” but more about learning from the attempt.
Knowledge (10-20 mins)
What is your main line or theme? (see spreadsheet schedule)
What is a question you can ask them at the beginning to engage them on the subject? Something about their experience with it or if they’ve ever felt a certain way. Or to remember a time when… something was like this for them.
What is an activity or demonstration that you can do together (motion and movement is key for this stage of learning and development… they learn by “doing”) that helps to illustrate this point?
What is a story or experience from your life that illustrates this point?
What are questions you can ask to help them reflect on the illustration or the story, to help them draw conclusions from it on their own? A simple one is,
“What stood out to you from this example?”
“Why do you think that is important?”
“What can you learn from this story/activity?”
“Why does it matter?”
What further questions can you ask to continue to help them reflect on their own experiences? How can you help them make the connection from this story or activity to their own life? How does it practically connect and what questions can you ask to help them connect it?
“When have you experienced a situation like this?”
“Have you ever felt like this? When? Why?”
“If this is true, how would that change how you live today?”
Practice (5 mins)
How can you help them brainstorm ways for them to implement this into their life or apply it this week?
Leave space for coming up with ideas and guide them with examples as needed. Come up with a few challenges to offer them if they get stuck.
Finish with a simple challenge for them to walk away with. Tell them we will talk about how it went next week.
