 Programs
of Religious Activities with Youth
P.R.A.Y. God and
Country News Bulletin
Second Quarter 2005
Welcome to
P.R.A.Y.’s God and Country News Bulletin. This Bulletin is written for
pastors, counselors, mentors, and parents associated with Protestant and
Independent Christian churches. It includes program helps, best practices,
and special features to support a God and Country ministry. We hope you
enjoy this bulletin and take the time to share it with others.
New “Duty to God Promotion Patch” Available from P.R.A.Y.
A new “Duty to God
Promotion Patch” has been designed to increase the number of religious
emblems recipients among young people.
The new patch will
recognize youth and adults who participate in a presentation or
information seminar for religious emblems. The new patch is a four-segment
puzzle patch.
Click here to see the new design. Only one segment will be offered
in any given year. The new patch is available as of August 2005 and will
only be available online at
www.praypub.org. Patches may
be pre-ordered for distribution at the presentation/information seminar.
In order to earn
this Duty to God patch, youth and adults must:
1. Attend or coordinate a presentation
or information seminar on religious emblems (sample resources and
suggestions are available at
http://www.praypub.org/dutytogod.htm).
2. Make a commitment to fulfill their
“Duty to God”
Adults
can commit to having 50% of families
participate in the religious emblems programs, nominating a worthy adult
to be recognized with an adult religious award, serving as counselor in
their local congregation, etc.
Youth
can commit to earning the religious emblem of their faith at an
appropriate time, making a presentation on religious emblems to another
unit, helping younger Scouts earn their religious emblem, helping to
establish a religious emblems program in their local congregation, etc.
Currently less than
3% of all youth members receive a religious emblem in any given year. It
is hoped that the new Duty to God patch will increase knowledge of and
participation in these programs.
The Role of the Pastor in God and Country
Pastors are often
“caught off guard” when Scouts approach them about earning their religious
award. Sometimes a pastor doesn’t know about the God and Country program
until a Scout wants to earn it. What is the role of the pastor in the God
and Country series? Is the pastor automatically the counselor? What are
realistic expectations for the pastor when setting up the program? What
options do pastors have?
The God and Country
program requires pastors to do the following: oversee the program and
conduct a final review with the participants. That’s it. This gives
pastors many options to choose from.
The first choice is whether or not to serve as “counselor.”
The counselor is the person who teaches the child (or class). Many pastors
welcome the opportunity to serve as counselors (and the children in turn
welcome the opportunity to get to know their pastors!), but pastors may
also ask parents or other lay leaders (such as Sunday school teachers,
elders, etc.) to serve in this capacity. Adults sometimes are willing to
volunteer for the God and Country program because it has a definite
beginning and end to the program. It’s a nice way to get involved in
children’s ministry.
Another
choice for pastors is whether to take children through the program
individually or to offer structured classes. Teaching on an individual
basis gets the family involved. Offering structured classes requires more
organization and adult volunteers because it draws more young people. It
also becomes an outreach ministry when you open your classes to Scouts in
the community.
Structured classes
do not necessarily eliminate parental involvement in the program. Pastors
can choose to require parents to attend, and even require parents to
complete the Adult Mentor curriculum.
Within a classroom
setting, pastors have several options. The class time can be used for
traditional instruction (counselors/teachers present the lesson and help
students complete the answers in their books) or the class time can be
used as a review (students complete the lessons at home with their parents
prior to class to allow for a more in-depth review and discussion
with the pastor or counselor).
Even the final
review – which must be conducted by the pastor – has options. Pastors can
require individual interviews with each participant or they can choose to
do the final review with the entire class.
And don’t forget the
finances. Again there are options. Some congregations charge a fee to
cover the cost of the book, award, snacks and supplies. Other
congregations assume all costs as part of the Christian Education
department or find a group (such as a men’s or women’s group) to sponsor
the God and Country program. And still others leave it up to the parents
to order and pay for all books and awards on their own.
What’s the upshot of
all this? That the God and Country program is flexible and offers no
“right” or “wrong” way to do it. That pastors do not have to be
pigeonholed into doing the God and Country program one particular way.
That pastors, when approached to do the program, have a myriad of choices
depending on their circumstances and needs.
Ministry comes in
many different shapes and sizes. So does God and Country!
United Methodist
Church Urges Congregations to
Step Up as Chartering Organizations
The Boy Scouts of
America is offering to relocate the charters of scouting units from all
public schools and government agencies. This action is designed to protect
these organizations from lawsuits by the ACLU on the issues of religious
discrimination and separation of church and state. This is an opportunity
for churches to step in and give support to the Scouting program.
Read how the United Methodist Church has responded.
Findings by the
National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR)
The National Study
of Youth and Religion conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and
their parents, as well as in-depth face-to-face interviews with more than
250 of the survey respondents and published its findings in Soul
Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.
The web site
www.youthandreligion.org indicates that “the authors find that
teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices
of their parents and other adults than is commonly thought. They challenge
the conventional wisdom that many teens today are ‘spiritual seekers’. And
they show that greater teenage religious involvement is significantly
associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes.” The web site also
posts the following review:
"Soul Searching
is a bombshell, and one that is long overdue. It convincingly demonstrates
that many of our assumptions about youth and religion in the U.S. are well
off the mark. Instead of finding hostility toward religion, we meet young
people from every corner of the culture who echo their parents'
religiosity to an astonishing degree--but this, as it turns out, is hardly
a formula for vibrant faith. Soul Searching puts American
religious communities on notice: if religion matters, then we had better
stop 'exposing' young people to faith and start teaching it to them.
Anyone who lives or works with teenagers simply must read this book. You
won't be able to sit still after you do." --Kenda Creasy Dean, Princeton
Theological Seminary and author of Practicing Passion: Youth and the
Quest for a Passionate Church
This study and
review resonates with the P.R.A.Y. office: parents have often expressed
surprise at how eager their children are to learn about God. Let us be
encouraged in our efforts at family ministry. And let us encourage our
young people as they have spoken out on the importance of faith in their
lives.
Feature: The
God and Church Program
God and Church is the third program
in the God and Country series for Protestant young people in grades six
through eight. The most recent revision was completed in 2003.
The God and
Church program will lead young people on a journey. It will be a faith
journey with three parts: meeting Jesus, worshiping God, and witnessing
and ministering for Christ. Participants will create either a video or a
photo album to share what they have learned on their faith journeys.
For many congregations, the
God and Church curriculum corresponds
with confirmation and membership-type programs.
Here are some
lesson-by-lesson resources and/or suggestions:
Introduction
·
Opening Activity – To
reinforce the “journey” theme, have students bring a photo from one of
their favorite trips. Take turns sharing what made that trip so special.
·
Traffic signs – At our
lock-in we broke into smaller groups. Each group had to choose a traffic
sign as their group name. There are some traffic signs scattered
throughout the God and Church Student Workbook.
Here are sample interpretations of those signs.
·
PowerPoint Presentations –
Instead of making photo albums out of a scrapbook or notebook, perhaps
your students would like to make PowerPoint presentations. Students could
share their PowerPoint presentations at the final class, party, or award
ceremony.
·
Worship Banners – our class
chose to make church banners in place of the photo albums.
Lesson 1
·
Notecards (of the events
listed in Column B on page 5 of the Student Workbook) – these notecards
are needed for exercise 4 on page 5.
Note Cards Column B
·
Notecards (of the events
listed in Column A on page 5) – these notecards can be used for the
optional activity explained in the Counselor Manual on page 10.
Note Cards Column A
Lesson 2
·
Question 3: If your
students are “churched” youth and familiar with many of the Bible stories,
you can use “pictionary” to introduce the events in the Bible passages
listed for this exercise. Ask for volunteers to draw the event while the
rest of the class guess what they’re drawing and tell who witnessed that
event.
Click here for game cards.
Lesson 3
·
Question 3: Learn about
your denomination. If possible, show your students the many resources
available online for your denomination and/or congregation.
Project I: Daily
Bible Reading
·
Here is a sample handout
that can be used when reading the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthews Devotion Booklet
Lesson 4
·
Opening Activity (printout
of Isaiah 40 and Psalm 95)
Lesson 4 Opening Activity
·
Anticipating the Journey:
Click here for Agree/Disagree signs
·
Closing:
Click here to print the phrases for a closing activity.
·
Photo Album: if students
choose to find pictures of nature that give praise to God, here are some
Bible verses that they can use with their pictures
Scrapbook Bible Verses
Lesson 5
·
As you study the worship
service of your congregation, take the time to list all the different jobs
or tasks that must be completed in order to plan an effective service. Can
you name the individual people that perform each task?
Project II:
Discovering How I Can Worship God
·
Create a PowerPoint
presentation that recognizes the many people who contribute to the worship
service of your congregation, especially the people who work “behind the
scenes”. Talk to your counselor and pastor to find an appropriate time to
share your presentation with others.
Lesson 6
·
Question 2d (acting out
self-centered versus Christ-like responses): Use the parable of the Good
Samaritan to reinforce this lesson.
Lesson 7
·
Opening Activity: if you
don’t have time to gather actual objects,
here is a handout with pictures.
Project III:
Discovering How I Can Witness and Minister to Others
·
If you decide to set a
specific number of service hours, here is a log to help your students
track their service hours:
Community Service Hours;
Congregation Service Hours
What Others Have
Said about the God and Church Program
·
Joe is beginning to realize
the importance of reading God’s Word. To this point I believe that this
has been the most beneficial program that Joe has been involved in and
that through this Jesus has begun drawing Joe to Himself. I can’t
recommend it highly enough. Elk Grove, CA
·
The Counselor booklet made
my job easier, the hard part was deciding of all the options, which one we
were going to do. Counselor, Elk Grove, CA
·
This sure beats the
previous curriculum since it is divided into sections that can be covered
in 1-1/2 hours. Hickory, NC
·
This was great curriculum
and I will use it for confirmation class. Campbell, NY
·
My son enjoyed creating a
Sunday service that his Boy Scout Troop used on a camp out. Houston, TX
·
I enjoyed learning more
about God with my fellow Scouts and I learned a lot through the other
Scouts sharing their experiences. Charlotte, NC
·
Mike is more thankful for
what he has since he did his community service project. He worked with
mentally challenged adults. Our family witnessed this and we are thankful
as well.
·
My favorite lesson was
visiting other Christian churches and seeing different ways to worship.
·
Our son says that once he
starts reading in his Bible he has a desire to keep on reading. Amarillo,
TX
·
Kids learn in many
different ways now. I thought this was a good book. Pastor, Lakeland FL
·
My favorite part was when
we had to read from the Bible daily for a month. It was mandatory, and I
had to make time to read from the Bible. This was my favorite part.
Brookfield, CT
·
We enjoyed the
intentionality of the Bible study and reflections that occur when we
participate in the P.R.A.Y. programs. Morristown, NJ
·
The God and Church
curriculum is excellent! We met every week for three months. Each boy had
one parent present each week. Our associate pastor met with the boys, and
all ministers were invited to the final project presentations. Charlotte,
NC
Click here for additional comments online.
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