YOUTH MINISTRY
Seeing the Big Picture
When the Pieces Don’t Seem to Fit
by Frank Granger
Have you ever come across one of those sessions where you just can’t connect, you can’t get a handle, you can’t make sense out of what the session writer is hoping for you to accomplish during the session? Perhaps the text is cumbersome and at first glance it doesn’t seem to fit the learning tension; perhaps the text is difficult and raises sensitive issues; or perhaps the text and its treatment are great, but you’re not sure it will connect with the youth in the group.
What do you do when this occurs? How do you find the “handle” for the session when there seems to be no place to get a grip?
Seeing the big picture, and keeping the big picture in mind when preparing and teaching is always important—handle or no handle. Having a perspective that is broader than the weekly session motivates you as a teacher in the good times, when the session really hums, and carries you when the session doesn’t do what you would have hoped.
Locke E. Bowman, Jr., a professor of Christian education and author, describes in his book, Teaching for Christian Hearts, Souls & Minds, four value-concepts that comprise the big picture of Christian teaching. A value-concept is more than an idea or theme that can be defined. It is an essential for life’s journey, a collection of experiences passed on through the generations, giving shape and direction to our understanding of faith and of our living. He names these concepts by adapting the four named elements of the Jewish tradition presented and expanded by Rabbi Kadushin.
Rabbi Kadushin named four elements of the Jewish tradition that have this transcending, transforming power. These are interrelated, and capture the essence of the faith and tradition of Jewish practice. These are: God’s Love, God’s Justice, Torah, and Israel. (Torah is the essence of the law and relationships; Israel points to the issues of personal and communal identity). These were characteristics of the faith and practice that were a part of the everyday lives of people.
Bowman’s value-concepts are: God’s Love, God’s Justice, the Gospel of Christ, and the Church (Christ’s Body). These are basic and foundational to all we teach and experience. Furthermore they are interrelated, each leading to the other three. These are related in and through a variety of experiences and descriptions.
Identifying the love of God naturally leads to our relationship within the body of Christ, and in understanding the presence of the gospel. Just as simply, we can address the justice of God, and the strength we receive for living by seeing the love of God as our source in our Christian community. Bowman claims that as Christian teachers we can come to realize all of our teaching could, and should, involve these four value-concepts.
As you prepare a session, begin to look for where these themes are present. How is this session and this text speaking about the love of God? What does this text say about the justice to which we are called? How does this point to the life and ministry of Christ? How are we to live, as a community of believers, how are we to relate to one another, because of what this passage is revealing?
These four concepts are to become part of the questions you and I ask as we approach a text. Teaching with a purpose of unveiling these four concepts, so they give shape to the session and to the lives of the youth, can help focus our purpose as teachers, and provide extra incentive for engaging in this act and art of service.
—From Intersections: Volume 11
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