Alright, this will be our first attempt at on-line collaboration. And the only way it will work is if you bring your very own creativity...and post your ideas as comments on the information presented. So here goes.
PURPOSE OF "WATER":
This Summer we will spend 12 weeks discussing and experiencing WATER. We will look at a bunch of water's characteristics and how water can show us who God is. The 12 weeks to be very tactile / visual so that the students will not just walk away from each week with a teaching, but also a sensory experience. For senior high, this will be accomplished by going offsite, encountering smells from locations, see, touching actual places and things. For junior high, we will be using video and various other techniques to bring the tangible experiences into our services at Crossroads. Each week should stand alone, but they will also culminate to a point at the end of the summer - water washing away sins and crap in their life through baptism. The final “do” in the series would be to interact with the students' new understanding of water and have them give water away as a service project. It's gonna be a wet summer for CSM.
WEEK 1 - ALL AROUND US
- Intro series and the idea of modern day experimental parables.
- Water is all around us vital to life, beautiful to the eyes…God same way
WEEK 2 - TRANSPORTATION
- Water moves people / connects people
WEEK 3 - FREE FLOWING vs CONTAINED
- We can try to put God in a box...but our attempts will fail
WEEK 4 - COVERS US
- Covered in prayer. Covered in water
WEEK 5 - UNKNOWN / MYSTERIOUS
- We can see the surface, but God has depth that we can't always see
WEEK 6 - LEAK!
- Question what you thought was solid in your life.
WEEK 7 - DRY vs WET
- Water’s impact come into contact with it. God’s impact when you come into contact with him
WEEK 8 - HOT vs COLD
- You become what you encounter. Hot or Cold. Not lukewarm
WEEK 9 - SEPARATES
- Two banks. Where you are now, your end goal. Water divides
WEEK 10 - PURIFY
- Water can be renewed. God renews/forgives
WEEK 11 - BAPTISM
- Dive in. Surround you.
WEEK 12 - REFRESH
- Refreshing. God is refreshing.
- Interact with new found respect or “knowledge” of water. Give out water
SO...those are all of the preliminary concepts for the summer WATER weeks. We are looking for locations - that are not Crossroads - that a large group of students can actually go to and experience water based on the characteristic of God for that week. If you've seen a NOOMA video...think like that. We will hold CSM at each location and actually teach there...in that setting to experience the smells, sounds and sights of WATER in that scenario. Be creative. This is a brainstorm. Post your thoughts. No idea is too big or too small. Just get them out there. We'll collect them...and we'll let you know what we decide on. Cool? Any questions...you can post those too. I'll probably assign a deadline for ideas very soon, but we're not that far yet. Think WATER.
(wow...all this WATER talk...well...now i need to pee. nice.)
PO, JW, KR
8 comments:
So, what about a water park experience? Or just an afternoon of water activities that remind us of being a kid? Slip N Slide, water gun fights, sprinklers, drinking water from a hose, water ballon fights, walking in the rain, snorkeling...
Or watching movie blips that include water... Sandlot's trip to the pool... (I can only think of this one right now)
How about a lifeguard that protects us when we are out swimming? Isn't that what God does for us?
Perhaps revisiting Fresh Water vs. Salt Water?
Water park, definitely. I was even thinking a night retreat at the new Great Wolf Lodge at Kings Island, an indoor water park, not only to participate in the water fun but to watch people and their experience with water. Could also be done at the Beach. Other water thoughts would be going to a nearby and relating it to the effective damns we put up in our own lives. Could a damn = sin. Keeps water from flowing and collects alot of garbage, crap left in the water. Water becomes stagnant there and can create a stench. Another idea along that lines, a water treatment facility. Taking dirty water, filtering it, turning it back into life-filled, drinkable water. Idea three, maybe doing a service project of creating a garden in a low rent part of town. The kicker would be to put in an irrigation system, underground, that would be provide a steady, controlled flow of water for the growing plants. We could return to it at the end of the series and see what is growing. Last one for those of you who are going to fall asleep. Finding a waterfall at a local park, if there is one, or worst case going to Fountain Square and see how life, even in a city, is focused around the effects and sounds of water. Enough, I know. Aren't you mad our basketball league was cancelled tonight!! Have a good night. Love the concept.
Just a couple quick thoughts on the water theme . . .
We did an interesting exercise at the NYWC as part of a prayer labyrinth.
It was for a step called “Letting Go.” Here is a brief excerpt about it from the labyrinth web site:
“In front of you is a pile of stones and a pool of water.
Take a stone from the pile.
Imagine that all your concerns and worries are held in the stone.
Hold the stone tightly and name the concerns and worries in your mind.
Hold the stone over the pool of water.
In your own time let it go.
Watch your concerns and worries fall.
Imagine them falling into God's lap.
How does it feel to release them?”
I don’t know if we could use that somehow, but it provided an interest, contemplative, and tactile exercise. I figured it could be used something like the handful or dirt and the bush exercise we did last year.
When I first read about the water idea, I was reminded of John 3:5, part of the exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus where Christ mentions water.
“I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
We had to research this for class. Not only does it happen to reference water (usually interpreted as referring to baptism in this verse), but it led to a lot of information concerning how the Greek word for water was used in the New Testament.
I don’t know if any of this technical information can be useful, but I figure that (with a little research) one or two interesting facts might be found that might inspire or add something to the message.
Just from this verse . . .
<5204> hudor hoo'-dore genitive case; hudatos hoo'-dat-os, etc.
AV-water 79; 79 (the word is used 79 times.)
1) water
1a) of water in rivers, in fountains, in pools
1b) of the water of the deluge
1c) of water in any of the earth's repositories
1d) of water as the primary element, out of and through which the world that was before the deluge, arose and was compacted
1e) of the waves of the sea
1f) fig. used of many peoples
The word “water” appears 442 times in the NIV. If you add in rain (85), sea (352), ocean (2), and river (116); that’s almost 1000 times water is mentioned in some form . . . without even counting plurals.
I'm not suggesting that we try to give junior high kids a college course, but little facts like how many times water is mentioned in the Bible might help communicate its importance.
One added thought popped into my head today. Before that, of course in my earlier comment I meant dam, and not damn. Pretty funny. Late night brainstorming! Love the idea of biblical references of water from steve. My added thought... The idea of water being powerful. Water is capable of reshaping river valleys, capable of reshaping rock even. It has a shaping quality to all of life. Can we summarize this in a video of some sort with excerpts of different examples? National Geographic like stuff. Transition this to water reshaping people through baptism. Reshapes you the person, your actions, your spirit.
We can tangibly teach the power of water by playing a new game. Not RPS (rock paper scissor) but WRPS (water rock paper scissor). Water beats everything. But you can only play water once in a single game, exhibited by holding your fingers out like paper, but wiggling them to show movement. Then you play best of five, water can only be played once per person. If water matches water, noone wins and you cant throw it anymore. WRPS. I have no idea where that came from. Could be a cool game the kids might like. I know I would. Who wants some???
I love the idea of life-giving water and all of the analogies that can be made as it relates to God. My dad has a cabin on Lake Cumberland and for the last couple of years, we have spent many weekends on the water. However, every single time we have been out on the lake, we have learned of a tragic drowning that happened that day...a couple of times we actually witnessed the aftermath first hand. It always reminds me of just how dangerous water can be too. How awful would it be to drown? I remember being in the ocean with my dad when I was about 6 or 7 years old. He was right beside me, but a huge wave came in and I remember being completely engulfed by the water and tumbling over and over in slow motion under water. I was freaking out and I was sure that I was being washed out to sea. My chest actully started to hurt and just as I started to really gasp for air something grabbed my ankle and pulled me out of the water. It wasn't until years later that my dad confessed how terrified he was as he frantically searched the water and how relieved he was to finally feel my leg and pull me out, upside down and coughing. Luckily, he didn't let on at the time and seeing that he wasn't upset enabled me to continue to enjoy the water. Anyway, as I ramble on, my point is, should we address this aspect of water too and relate it to fears the kids may have entering into a real relationship with Jesus? It can be overwhelming and scary just like water...but we need both to sustain life. Just a thought.
I like the fear concept Angie. I'm thinking that it might be a good opportunity to explore what "God fearing" means, as it is described in the Bible.
ooohhhh...i liked angie's story...water can be scary...sorry...that's about all i got right now...
I received a book in the mail last week from the American Bible Society. The book, Inside the Mysteries of the Bible, offered several potentially useful comments on water.
• Chapter 2, The Wonders of Nature, opens with an eloquent dissertation concerning the “cycle of life”. The opening lines are all about water:
“April showers fall to earth, and a rainbow blooms in the eastern sky. Some of the rainwater runs into the sea; some is drawn up by the heat of the sun and transformed into vapor, forming towering clouds. And the cycle of life begins again.”
• Chapter 5, Unnatural Disasters, contains some interesting speculation concerning the flood.
• Chapter 10, Strange but True, shares several water related stories:
The tale of the 11th century English king, Canute, who disproved his fawning courtier’s boast that even the sea would obey his mandates, by going down to the sea and commanding the waves to stop. The wave did not stop, and Canute’s point was made—only the King of heaven has power over the waters.
The book offers descriptions of Mose’s parting of the Red Sea, Joshua’s stopping of the Jordan, and Elijah’s parting of the Jordan. Some of the descriptive imagery used in the Moses story could be effectively used to help put the power of water in perspective.
The book provides excellent depictions of the incidents at Marah, and Mount Sinai concerning water.
One of the best offerings in the book is a section titled Working Wonders with Water. Among other things, it points out that the first miracle that Jesus performed involved water. The introduction also points to water as a metaphor for life itself.
“In the desert spaces of the Holy Land, water is a precious substance, a metaphor for life itself. So when Jesus demonstrated his miraculous powers over water, he was demonstrating his dominion not only over nature’s power but over life’s very essence. It’s significant that the first miracle attributed to Jesus involved water (John 2:1-12), when he heeded his mother’s call at a wedding feast in Cana and transformed common water into the finest wine—even as the Bible promises that God can transform our lives from drudgery to divine inspiration.”
In general, I found this book to be written in a style and on a level that was easily accessible to an average reader from junior high through junior college. Since that pretty much includes us and our target audience, I figured it might be a helpful resource when putting messages and/or small group discussions together.
If you are interested in picking up a copy of the book you can get one for $13.57 from Amazon; or $ 19.95 from Borders, Barean Christian Store, and Barnes and Nobles. If the link still works, you might even score a free copy here: http://salememail.com/SpecialOffers/ABS_new/email.asp
Our you can borrow my copy. ;)
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