TRINITARIAN CHANTING
Lots of kids would like to know what God looks like, but Christianity mostly says we don’t know that. What we do know is what God does. The verse-form, beloved of Vikings, called the ‘kenning’ can help. Kennings tell you what a thing does, so instead of calling his axe ‘my axe’, Erik the Bloodthirsty calls it ‘Skull Splitter.’ Tell your group that Christians believe God has lots of different roles. The poem uses 18 ‘kennings’ to describe a Christian understanding of the actions of God and I get the class to repeat after me to a thigh slapping rhythm. I know this sounds absurd, but it works. The poem has two three line stanzas about each of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Try a slow start before seeing if they can double the speed, making it as fun as possible. Ask the pupils if they can see why each line is something to do with what Christians say about God. If there are any lines they don’t understand see if someone else in the class can explain, before explaining yourself. Ask them to take one line (i.e. two words!) of the poem each, and create an image to show what it means (ban drawings of men in clouds with beards). If two students do an image for each line you can make a display or presentation of the whole poem. (A piece of advice: don’t let them all do devil crusher, they’ll all want to!) You could tell the class about your own Pentecostal experiences in relation to the last six kennings.
WHO?
TIME STARTER
SPACE MAKER
EARTH SHAPER
MUD MODELLER
GARDEN PLANTER
FRUIT GROWER
STABLE SLEEPER
MIRACLE MAKER
EYE OPENER
CROSS CARRIER
DEVIL CRUSHER
GRAVE BUSTER
PROMISE KEEPER
HAND HOLDER
HEART WARMER
CHEERER UPPER
ENERGY BOOSTER
LIFE GIVER
STAR GAZING
Set this up one week for the next week, and get a teacher to add authority to it, making it official homework - but one that will only take eight minutes! Students are to choose a clear night of the week, and stand outside alone for eight minutes, looking into the sky. For the first two minutes they should just look. For the next two they should think about why this view makes some people believe God created the universe by the Spirit. For the next two minutes, ask them to think about how an atheist feels or thinks about this view. For the last two minutes, encourage them to stop thinking and just look. Why does this experience lead some people to believe in God or in the spirituality of life? Why do some others not believe? In class, compare their experience of watching the night sky with what scripture records about Abraham (Genesis 15), and what Immanuel Kant said: ‘Two things fill the mind with ever growing awe and wonder: the starry sky above and the moral law within.’ Ask your students to create short poems about the starry sky above.
THE STORY OF THE FLAMING DISCIPLES
Acts chapter two is a key text for Christians, so deserves study in RE lessons. Tell the story of the demoralised disciples turning into bold-as-lions preachers. A great way to do this is to look at some artwork by students which express their own ideas about the spirit of God. Ask your students to connect Acts chapter two with the artwork at the start of this page. An explanation and further pieces of artwork are available on the links section of the website (www.youthwork.co.uk).
FOUR QUESTIONS
Ask the class to choose four questions from these ten:
• How is ‘spiritual’ different from ‘religious’?
• What crushes the human spirit most? How / why?
• Are you a spirited person?
• Does every human have a spiritual side?
• Can the spirit live on when the body dies?
• Could the Spirit of God warm people’s hearts?
• Is the Spirit of God more like water or more like fire?
• Can people be inspired by the Spirit of God? What are some examples of this?
• Is talk of God’s Spirit an illusion, or a delusion?
• Does the Spirit of God inspire music, art and poetry more than prayer or religious worship?
Stick the chosen questions on the wall on big sheets of flipchart paper, and ask students to graffiti their thoughts onto them.
I like the way these activities work in this order, but you could pick your way through any way you like. The learning model, from good RE, is simple: present ideas, seek responses, expect arguments, link to personal ideas and keep creative. Give the ideas a try, and if they work for you, contact me – I’d love to hear how it goes.
