Wednesday, December 12, 2007

RE

a Jesus thought...
"You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.” (Matthew 5:8)

a Godly thought...
Prayer does not aim at any direct effect on the world; it is addressed to God alone, and is therefore the perfect example of undemonstrative action. (p146 Bonhoeffer)

a leading thought...
Good questions help to clarify situations as well as dispel doubt and suspicion. (p34 Barber)

a Dave thought...
Yesterday I attended my son’s Religious Education concert at Birralee primary school. It was good to see the message of Christmas shared and what I was particularly impressed with was the gift of a bible to every grade 6 student as they graduate to high school in the new year.
Although the ladies did their best I had to admit having bad memories of very boring RE classes when I attended school. It makes me ask the question are we best to have RE in all primary schools regardless of how boring or irrelevant it is taught or are we doing Christianity a disservice?
Why is it that only older ladies volunteer to do RE and even though they do their best use very old material, ancient songs and sometimes leave primary school students so bored with their lack of creativity? Well the challenge is to us younger guys to make ourselves available or help provide those that kindly volunteer with fresh material otherwise PS children across Australia may continue thinking God as old, obsolete and not worth having a relationship with.

Just a thought.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why doesn't every youth worker teach RE to grade 6 kids at their local primary school? That way they build relationship with the kids so that when the kids enter high school, they know the local youth leaders and may want to check out their youth ministry? I'll be attempting to teach RE to grade 6 next year. Oh...and the material is new now apparently...!

james said...

hahaha i know what you mean dave! i got moved to the front of the class right infront of the teacher because i kept talking. I fell asleep and woke up a bit later and the RE teacher was still going, didnt have a clue...

im hoping to do RE next year. how and where do we sign up?

mycomment said...

so does this mean that the great TY is going to commit to CRE for the sake of his son? oh your not... for the sake of Your career.

salvotim said...

I agree with grazer! Teaching RE for the past two years has been one of the highlights of each week. Even as an officer it's not often I get to share the gospel for 30 minutes with 20 people! Where do you sign up? If you're in Victoria check out: http://www.accessministries.org.au/index.php?section=christian_education&id=47

Lieutenant Jo said...

As a CRE teacher (previous to college), I've gotta say that it is one of the most fulfilling times of my week, because the kids you hang out with are like little sponges, they are so ready to hear about God!
There are rules of course about what you can and can't say, but I found that talking about my OWN experience of God is the easiest way to get the kids engaged and not break the rules.

Oh, by the way, some of the songs are sucky, but be creative, find new songs, do HEAPS of actions and make it fun! Getting kids to pray is so easy, there's always volunteers to pray (but I only had grade 2's, I think they're the best!).

Anyway, uni students... sleeping in is for complacent bludgers, get involved with your local CRE team and take on a class or two, it only takes about 2-3 hours a week to do a really good lesson that connects awesomely and gets tha gospel in kids hearts!!!! ;o)