Living the Journey

Good evening everybody! Tonight’s session on teaching children was a lot of fun. We learned practical tips about using object lessons from Alissa Christiansen and Esther Staddon from In the Gap.

An object lesson uses common objects to teach spiritual truths in a way that is clear, interesting, and memorable.

Psychologically, it has been proven that we remember:

• 10% of what we hear
• 50% of what we hear and see
• 90% of what we hear, see, and do

Object lessons give children something to look at to help hold their attention. Children begin to understand new concepts by connecting the known with the unknown. They give you a reference point to refer to later on in your lesson or when reviewing later.

How do you come up with an object lesson?

• Pray!
• Start with knowing the main point that you want to cover and think of objects that would help explain the point.
• Look for key phrases in the material you’re teaching and ask “What would help me understand or remember this better?”
• Look at the objects around you to get ideas. Go to a craft store like Hobby Lobby.
• Be creative! Instead of killing an idea, think “What could I do to make this idea work?”

Tips for using object lessons:

• Be prepared! Make sure you have all your materials ahead of time.
• Be clear and simple.
• Use common objects that the children can relate to. (Think of the simple objects that Jesus used.)
• Use only one main point. Don’t try to teach lots of lessons off the same lesson.
• Involve the children. Use volunteers or ask questions.
• Make application throughout the object lesson. Give at least three practical examples that the children can relate to.
• Give an invitation or chance for response.

From oranges to diamonds to building blocks to paper, we laughed and learned through the whole evening. There are so many great object lesson possibilities. Be creative! The sky is the limit.

Can you think of a good object lesson that a teacher used and you’ve never forgot? Leave a comment and share it with us!

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Good morning! Our team gathered at 8:00 this morning for another great hour of training with Chad Christiansen from In the Gap!

This morning we talked about getting comfortable with stepping out on stage!

1. Pray before you start
2. Be prepared
• Have a plan of what you intend to accomplish in the time you are given
• Know the definition with hand motions
• Make your motions exaggerated
• Keep things simple
• Know how you are transitioning into the next song and/or story
• Know the song
• Know the story
3. When you go up there, realize that you have the floor—Use your time wisely
4. Be confident!
• Project your voice
• Don’t just stand in one spot – Move comfortably
• Avoid nervous habits
• If you are going to be wrong, be confidently wrong. <g>
• Be joyful!
• Be real!
5. Be enthusiastic!!!
• Your enthusiasm cut in half is how much enthusiasm your audience will have.
• Be excited about your message, not doing “a show".”
• Praise and encourage the children.
• Remain focused on your goal and never loose your cool.
• No dead time!
• Review definition
• Sing
• Tell a personal story
• Ask questions
6. Get everyone on the same page using simple group games
• Clap! Clap! Don’t Clap!
• Touch your head…
• Do “this” but don’t do “that”!
• Clapping rhythms
7. Introductions
• Tell them your name and where you are from
• Remember that the kids are interested about you

Smile!

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Hey everyone! This evening I’m blogging from a training weekend with Chad and Alissa Christiansen from In the Gap ministries. It’s being held here at the IBLP Headquarters in Oak Brook, IL.

Tonight’s session was on 5 Levels of Learning:

1. Rote Learning – The student will have the ability to repeat the words without understanding the meaning.
• The children can repeat as little parrots without understanding the meaning.
2. Recognition – The student will remember the lesson and recognize its meaning.
• If learning has been achieved at this level, the teacher will be able to give a test and the student will be able to choose the right answers.
• It is not difficult to teach at this level because all that is required is that the student have the ability to recognize what has been said.
3. Restatement – The student will have the ability to express concepts and there meaning in his own words.
• This level requires the student to understand the content and the ideas.
• At this level everything is information or knowledge.
4. Relation – The student will have the ability to relate truths to his personal life.
• This level is reached when a person thinks about a certain truth and begins to see the implications for his life.
5. Realization – The student will put truths into practice in his everyday life.
• The truths become real in a person’s life.
• It is one thing to understand an appropriate response to truth, but it is another thing to put this into practice.

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About four years ago due to a set of circumstances which were NOT Gods will my three older sisters left the home overnight, leaving the rest of my family (two younger sisters and one younger brother) and I in shock. We had never dreamed that anything like this would ever happen to us. We had always been a very close family and did everything together.

When I saw the hurt that it caused my parents, who had poured their lives into us and raised us to be Godly children, teaching us His principles and Biblical truth’s, and the amount of damage that it did to my siblings, I became very bitter at them and at God for letting it happen.

One thing I had noticed though about one year before this all happened was that my three older sisters had started getting into contemporary Christian music. This soon led to country music, and then it just progressed further and further. My parents did not know about this.

After it all happened I started to stray from the Lord and to listen to music that I knew in my spirit was wrong but my mind was able to rationalize away. As I started this downhill slide I would look around and see my friends who were not Christians and would say to myself, “Well, I will never be like them,” or “I will never listen to the kind of music that they do.” And so I continued down this road worshiping the lust of the flesh and satisfying my lustful desires for whatever I wanted to hear and what made ME feel good. However, the entire time I was doing it behind my parents back and keeping up a “good Christian young man” front for the rest of the world to see.

It all really hit me one day how far I had fallen when I told one of my friends who was not a Christian that I liked a certain song, and they responded, “that song is
terrible.” Right then I realized that I was down just as low as anyone else, even though I did read the Bible and I did sing the hymns and I could talk about the Bible with anyone that wanted to. It all didn’t matter because I had an unclean spirit in me that I had received from this music.

So about three years went by and I got a job working at a place that played the wrong kind of music all day and the people there were really nice but they were SO godless that it drug me down even farther than I was before. However, I still did not take any action to change anything, letting my mind rationalize away any pricks that I would get from my conscience about the lifestyle that I was living.

After working for one year there, I quit my job and went on a Journey to The Heart. There I was able to confess a lot of things and clean my life up. However, even though I didn’t listen to that music anymore and I had turned my life around, the words of all those songs would still come to my mind whenever I would see or hear anything that would remind me of them. This was a huge stronghold in my life, and the devil used it over and over again to attack me whenever I would try to do anything for God’s kingdom.

I told Mr. Gothard about my problem, and asked his advice on what to do to remove those words from my heart and mind. He said to write them out and then to find Scriptures that contradict the hidden messages and phrases in the songs.

So I wrote them out and went over them with him, listening as he pointed out to me all of the Scriptures that conflicted with the messages that each song was giving. As I saw how wrong these songs were and how they were feeding the unclean spirit I had, I felt a whole new freedom and joy as they left my heart and were replaced with the truths of Scripture.

If you are having the same struggle I am, I would encourage you to write out those lyrics. Then search the Scriptures and find the verses which reveal the lies hidden in the worldly messages of the songs. It will open your eyes to the damage they are having on your life, but it will also give you a tremendous freedom as you win the victory over this mighty stronghold!

- Eddie

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Part of "bringing the Journey home" is sharing our faith in Christ with others. This is something most, if not all, of Journey Alumni feel burdened to do, yet many of us are not sure how to begin. However, as Philippians 2:15-16 says, we are not only to be shining as lights in this dark age, we are also to be speaking truth. Psalm 107:2a says, "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so . . . " I find it helpful to hear others share their witnessing stories, so my hope is you, too, will be encouraged to witness to someone this very day after I recount a short witnessing encounter from a couple weeks ago.

Saturday wasn’t going to work after all — some of us had a wedding to attend, and some of us were otherwise committed with appointments. Sunday morning found us in church, and the afternoon and evening were additionally called for by two separate hospitality invitations. Monday was likewise packed to the brim with pressing projects, but . . . there really never is a convenient time to witness. With this truth in mind, our little group of six headed out on Monday afternoon to a local famers’ market, wondering how many people might be there in the 90 degree heat. We agreed to set aside 45 minutes to an hour for initiating conversations about the Gospel, prayed together that the Lord would multiply our efforts for the small amount of time we had, and broke off in pairs.

Melodie and I spotted a woman and two girls sitting at a picnic table. Walking up to the woman, we smiled and said,
"Hello! Are you having a nice day?" She smiled back and indicated she was. I continued, "My friend and I are doing a little survey, and we wondered if we could ask you a few questions?"
"Oh, I do not speak English . . ." she said with a thick accent.
Turning to the young girl beside me, I asked, "Do you?" Her English was perfectly understandable, and she agreed to interpret for us.
Melodie began, "In the last six months, has your interest in God increased, decreased, or stayed about the same?"
"Definitely increased!" the girl to our right exclaimed. She repeated the question to her mother, and her mother agreed.
"Do you consider yourself to be a Christian? If so, why?"
"I am a Christian," the girl replied, "and my sister is a Christian," she pointed to the younger girl in front of her, "and my dad is a Christian, but Mom is not."
"You are not a Christian?" I asked the woman directly.
"No," she shook her head.
"What do you believe?" I inquired.
"I am a Muslim. I am from Indonesia."

continue reading…

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1. Form a Group of Two or Three

2. Be in One Accord

3. Pray Out Loud

4. Use the Names of Jesus

5. Disable Satan

6. Use Precise “Rhemas” of Scripture

7. Have a “Heart Belief”

“Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” (Mark 11:23)

When we use the right name of Jesus and pray the precise rhemas of Scripture, we can be confident that God will answer. Without this confidence, we will be like a wave of the sea cast to and fro with the wind. “Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord” (James 1:7).

~

This is the final article in a series on seven keys to praying with power. It was based on an IBLP publication. Feel free to download the PDF.

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