The project proposal is simple. We suggest that each household (or group of people who choose to collaborate) choose a project that they will work on each week, which will culminate in a big story project. Here are a few of our ideas, but let these be the yeast that gets your ideas growing!
|
Why Projects?
Talashia's Story:
When I was five years old, my family moved from Iowa to Kansas. It was a disruptive time in my young life, but because of a simply choice my parents made, it was a spiritually formative time. A few months before we moved, they decided to start our family on a journey through the Bible. Every Saturday night, we would eat our Sabbath meal, then Mom and Dad would tell/read a couple stories from the Bible. They chose the stories chronologically and did not shy away from some of the tough ones. Then we would unroll a scroll of paper and draw pictures for that week's stories. When one whole scroll of paper had been filled, it would get taped on the wall and we would begin a new one. The story moved with us to Kansas and got taped up in our new dining room. I'm not sure how long it took us to get through the biblical story, but it was at least a year. I remember eating my breakfast in the morning, looking at the pictures and telling the story in my head. The pictures stayed up for a few years, and during that time, we all ate at least two meals a day literally surrounded by God's big story. I have attended a lot of Sunday school and taken many Bible classes since then, but none of them so viscerally invited me into the story as that mural. When I read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, I picture our dining room walls.
When I was five years old, my family moved from Iowa to Kansas. It was a disruptive time in my young life, but because of a simply choice my parents made, it was a spiritually formative time. A few months before we moved, they decided to start our family on a journey through the Bible. Every Saturday night, we would eat our Sabbath meal, then Mom and Dad would tell/read a couple stories from the Bible. They chose the stories chronologically and did not shy away from some of the tough ones. Then we would unroll a scroll of paper and draw pictures for that week's stories. When one whole scroll of paper had been filled, it would get taped on the wall and we would begin a new one. The story moved with us to Kansas and got taped up in our new dining room. I'm not sure how long it took us to get through the biblical story, but it was at least a year. I remember eating my breakfast in the morning, looking at the pictures and telling the story in my head. The pictures stayed up for a few years, and during that time, we all ate at least two meals a day literally surrounded by God's big story. I have attended a lot of Sunday school and taken many Bible classes since then, but none of them so viscerally invited me into the story as that mural. When I read Deuteronomy 6:4-9, I picture our dining room walls.
Daniel's Story:
I have developed a curriculum called OurStory to do with the youth in our congregation. Each time we have done a version of it, I have been reminded in new ways of the power of telling God's story in community. When we learn the story this way, we are creating a scaffolding that will allow us to see each new story we learn throughout life in the context of the whole picture. One year, the youth helped create a huge map of the Middle East on the floor. We would regularly stand in the place on the map where our particular story was believed to have happened. The mapping project made the story come to life. Another year, we asked parents to join us on the first Sunday of each month. Families learned, created, and explored together. The story stuck more fully for the youth that year, because they could "talk about them when they were home and when they were away" (Deuteronomy 4:7). These experiences have convinced me that our learning is best when it is embodied and when it is done with the people with whom we share dairly life. |