Teaching Tip of the Week

I could hardly believe that what I was reading was supposed to be a news piece. It obviously belonged on the editorial page. The religion page of our local paper ran an “article” from the Scripps Howard News Service that lambasted the Southern Baptists for a prayer guide that focused on praying for Hindus to come to Christ. The piece was the typical Post-Modern line. However, it made for a great Sunday School lesson.

First I made copies and distributed them to each student. Then we divided into two smaller discussion groups. They were first to listen as it was read. Then they were to address two questions:

1. Did they agree with the viewpoint of the author? (Of course to do this they would have to discern what the viewpoint was.)

2. If they disagreed on biblical grounds, how would they respond to him biblically?

I was, first of all, relieved that each of them disagreed with the viewpoint. After about 15 minutes of small group discussion we discussed as a class how a Christian would answer this person biblically.

The viewpoint espoused in the paper is one that the children will not only come in contact with, but if they attend public school, is one that is made a presupposition in everday school life. An exercize like this can help young believers be ready to give an answer. Be on the watch for unbiblical viewpoints in the popular media and use them as opportunities to train.