Sharing the Gospel with firecrackers!
well more like poppers…little safe firecrackers
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:12-14
One of the best things that ever happened to help me in my Christian walk was becoming a Sunday School teacher. The funny thing I actually had no intentions of working with kids at the time. My brother was teaching at the time, and when it came to kids he was a pushover. He just didn’t have the heart to command discipline…He didn’t want to be the bad guy. I guess he figured that I didn’t have a problem with being the bad guy (he must have been talking to my oldest child) so he asked me and my wife to sit in on his class and be the enforcers so to speak.
Long story short my wife and I ended up being the teachers. I wasn’t a stranger to ministry at the time and to be honest I had set my sights on bigger fish…not kids…but something happen when we took over that class. You see I had dealt with grown ups before, and most of the time they just listen to what you have to say, they might ask a few questions, but they save their real criticisms for later when you are not around, that’s when they reveal all the bad stuff. Kids aren’t like that, at least my kids weren’t. They wouldn’t take my word for stuff, they wanted to know why and they would not settle for any empty Christian Rhetoric, they were hungry and they knew that there was something different out there and they wanted to hear from someone who knew what that something was. I was forced to not just study, but to be able to condense what I knew into language that a sixth grader could understand, what I discovered was that standing in front of the room just talking wasn’t the best way to do that.
One particular week, we were dealing with the above passage. We were talking about standing your ground. There was even a song we used to sing “Stand you Ground Stand Your Ground…When You’ve Done All You Can…Stand Your Ground!” It was the perfect message for them at that time, as they were just beginning to feel the real heat of peer pressure at the time. As we went through the verses and the lessons I could tell by their questions that they still weren’t getting it. I was praying earnestly that the message would sink in and that’s when it hit me. I was so excited and couldn’t wait for the week to end. I took a drive up to a flea market in Sacramento and purchased a bunch of those poppers, those little things you can throw or squeeze and make them pop really loud. I bought enough of them to make any kid go into a frenzy.
The weekend came and I couldn’t wait to get to class. We started of the lesson with a brief review, and then I asked for some brave volunteers who could commit to standing their ground no matter what. Initially most of the class volunteered, but they had no idea what was in store, and as I began to emphasize the “No Matter What” part a large part of them returned to their seats. The few who remained promised that no matter what they would stand their ground and would not move an inch.
I could see that mixed look that was part worry, part anxiety and part resolve. To the best of their ability they were gonna stand their ground. They still didn’t have a clue as to what was about to happen. I asked them to begin singing the Song…”Stand Your Ground, Stand Your Ground…When You’ve done All you Can Stand your Ground…When the missiles of satan are flaming all around…Stand Your Ground!
We sang the verse once and then again only this time I dimmed the lights to the point where my volunteers could only hear my voice, but they couldn’t see me…they began to sing even louder…”Stand Your Ground…Stand Your Ground” I began moving around Icould almost hear them straining to try and see what I was up to. Just as they began singing “While the Missiles of satan are flaming all around…” I began throwing the poppers at them on the stage. In the dark those poppers were really lighting up like they were major fireworks. The first pops/mini-explosions drew shrieks from the audience…but my volunteers continued to sing and to stand their ground. After several minutes of testing they remained steadfast. I turned the lights back on and we concluded the class, afterward we all played and threw poppers at each other. When we returned the following week the message and the scriptures had been burned into their minds and hearts they were able to articulate an understanding, but what’s more they were able to share real world applications they had experienced during the week.
Our classes were never the same after that. I realized that there was a visual application of every lesson in the Bible and that through prayer and study I could present the Gospel in such a manner that it would come alive in both their hearts and minds. Maybe next post I will share with you how we learned to appreciate the beauty of grace by taking a look at the old testament law in action, and how we demonstrated what happened to disobedient children during the Law Era.
The lessons I learned during that time taught me that we must maintain that childlike approach. Some of us are so deep and Spiritual that we can recite the info but we really don’t have a clues as to what we are talking about…and you can tell because our behavior and demeanor is most unpleasant and most unchanged from what we were before Life in Christ…ummm my friend it’s called the GOOD NEWS for a reason!
Those techniques I learned not only worked on the 6th graders it has worked on teenagers, and even grown ups…I’ve used it on hardened hearts while working with the homeless ministry, I have even used it in schools where they wont let me say the name Jesus, but the kids follow me afterward begging to know more even finding their way to my church (which I never mentioned or advertised to them)
The point I guess I am making here today is don’t be so uptight and super religious that you can’t do something simple and exciting or fun to share the gospel…if you really want to see how well you have grasped the material try explaining it to a little kid…if you can’t explain it to them… maybe you are forgetting the old acronym K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid….)
I feel that I must add that some of my teaching colleagues thought I was nuts and was crossing the line…and there were many times I felt like going back to the old boring way, but I felt peace between me and God and the kids were getting it, I finally came to complete peace with it one day when I was in the store and I heard some kids yelling out my name from across the building, I turned toward the commotion and saw two of my students. They had initially been somewhat inattentive in class but after my curriculum change they were among my better students. They ran over to hug and greet me, I stood there talking to them as their grandmother made her way over toward me.
“So… you… are the Sunday School teacher?” (probably caught her off guard with the braids, boots and baggy jeans) Yeah that would be me. She sent the boys off to grab something then turned and gave me a stern look and said. “Now I don’t know what you are teaching those boys over there……….but you keep teachin em! I have never seen them so well behave and excited!
That was all the encouragement I needed. Keep it simple fam, don’t water it down…just know it well enough to be able to articulate it to a child…think on it.
till next time peace & God Bless
da renegade youth minista
