I'm sharing with the Preteens tonight. We're doing a 4 week series with them called "Pictures of God." Each "picture" is really looking at a metaphor that explains who God is...
... God is a Captain.
... God is a Guide.
... God is a Judge.
Tonight, we look at God as a Father.
It's been a tricky one to think through. First off, as we try to take a concept and bring it home in the mind of a 5th/6th Grade student. Object Lessons are the way to bring things home with Preteens. Conceptual teaching can run the risk of disconnect.
The other tough part is for the varying understanding of the word "Father" present in the room. If I stand up before these preteens and say God plays a similar role in their lives to what their dads play, I may be painting a fantastic picture of a loving God who is present, sharing his wisdom, insight and inheritance with his children. To others, I may be presenting a picture of a physcially, emotionally, or spiritually absent presence in their lives.
Messages like this challenge me to communicate clearly and applicably to the crowd I'm presenting to. At the same time, and maybe more significantly I'm challenged to be a good example of a Father. Not just so my children will live a good life, but so they'll be able to better understand who God.
It's been a tricky one to think through. First off, as we try to take a concept and bring it home in the mind of a 5th/6th Grade student. Object Lessons are the way to bring things home with Preteens. Conceptual teaching can run the risk of disconnect.
The other tough part is for the varying understanding of the word "Father" present in the room. If I stand up before these preteens and say God plays a similar role in their lives to what their dads play, I may be painting a fantastic picture of a loving God who is present, sharing his wisdom, insight and inheritance with his children. To others, I may be presenting a picture of a physcially, emotionally, or spiritually absent presence in their lives.
Messages like this challenge me to communicate clearly and applicably to the crowd I'm presenting to. At the same time, and maybe more significantly I'm challenged to be a good example of a Father. Not just so my children will live a good life, but so they'll be able to better understand who God.
1 comment:
I love that my preteen is sitting under this teaching. The junior came back from ChicaGo so fired up and is using the things he learned in the halls of NWHS. In the lunch room. In the classroom. In the surge.
He talks about the principles that were taught there and how he's trying to put it in shoe leather with his peers.
Love it.
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