Grab Bag Application
Most churches purchase some type of Sunday school
curriculum which provides their teachers with an organized, laid out
plan of what they will teach Sunday after Sunday. However, if you’ve
ever had to teach without curriculum, and you always have to come up
with your own lesson plan week after week, no matter how educated
you are, how knowledgeable or theologically trained, there are going
to be those times when your mind draws a blank as to what to teach.
If you find yourself in this situation (or even if you don’t), Grab
Bag Application is a really good substitute.
Scavenge your home and dollar store for random,
interesting objects, and place them in a “grab bag.” When it’s
lesson time, have your class members reach down into the bag and
draw out an item. Explain to them that they will have a designated
amount of time (i.e. 5, 10 or 15 minutes) to develop one or more
biblical/spiritual applications using the object they drew out. At
the end of the planning time, they will be asked to show their
object to the rest of the class and give a one to two minute
presentation about the application(s) they come up with.
Suggestions: Structure the assignment to fit your
class members. For example, if you know your introverted members
will get stressed out over this assignment and will be very
uncomfortable presenting in front of the class by themselves, then
consider letting the class members pair up by 2s, 3s or more, and
elect a primary presenter. This would also be appropriate if you
have a very large group.
Also, depending on your class size, have
concordances available so that the class members can use them to
look up verses and assist them in developing their applications.
Your primarily role in this lesson is to serve as facilitator.
Circulate throughout the room and determine if each individual/team
is on task, or if they’re having problems coming up with an
application. Be prepared to help those who are absolutely stumped,
so be sure not to put any object in the grab bag for which you
personally can’t think of an application. If there is at least one
object left in the bag, you might want to consider drawing it out
and make a biblical/spiritual application to provide your class
members an example of what you’re asking of them.
After each individual/team completes their
presentation, ask the rest of the class members if they have
additional comments or applications to make about the object that
wasn’t already mentioned. This gives everyone an opportunity to
contribute their thoughts on all the objects.
I hope your experience using this exercise is as
fulfilling as mine. While your initial motive in using this lesson
might be to give yourself a break from a lot of studying, don’t be
surprised if you are blessed and blown away from the applications
your class members come up with, and the comments they make.
Alternate Plan: The first time I used this lesson
format was for a Wednesday night youth Bible study. The church was
just a few blocks away from a real dollar store (every item $1), so
I loaded the teens on one of the church buses and drove them to the
dollar store. I told them they had five minutes to find one object
for which they would make a biblical/spiritual application when we
returned to the church, and I paid for all of the objects. They were
allowed to team up with a friend or several friends if they wished,
especially if more than one object was needed to make their
application. You might also want to consider this if you have a
large block of time (i.e. youth lock-in) for a Bible study and
really want to involve your youth. Wrap up your Bible study with a
final biblical/spiritual application of your own.
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