by Joe on October 19, 2009
For tonight’s class, my plan is to continue walking the young people through the story of salvation history in the Bible, setting the stage for the unit on Jesus that we are beginning.
You may recall that 2 weeks ago (we were off last week for Columbus Day), I began walking them through the story of salvation history in the Bible and, because of a few interruptions (fire drill, etc.) only got as far as the Exodus event.
Tonight, we’ll begin with the giving of the Ten Commandments and move forward using the Bible in a Nutshell outline that I created. I can tell that the young people are not particularly thrilled with reading all of these Bible passages but they have been pretty well-behaved and I know that as we go through the unit on Jesus, we will find ourselves referring back to many of the things that we read in the Old Testament. It’s important for them to see the “whole story.”
We will also, this evening, be distributing their confirmation packets which contain all of the information they need to prepare for the sacrament (service, confirmation name, sponsor, etc.) I plan to give this to them at the door as they enter so that they immediately realize that they’ve got some work to do!
Finally, I absolutely must leave time for sacred space tonight (reflective prayer). Last time I had to go without it and they were disappointed, one of them saying, “But that’s my favorite part!”
I hope you all have a good week of classes. I’ll fill you in on how tonight’s class goes and I’ll also give some details about the Jesus unit we are beginning and how we will be using a segment of the film Jesus of Nazareth.

by Joe on October 14, 2009
by Joe on October 12, 2009
by Joe on October 6, 2009
For last night’s class, I did my best to walk the young people through the Bible. Unfortunately, as happens, we had some interruptions (a fire drill and a time out to have the kids sign a banner for the Year of the Priest) so in the end I only had about 40 minutes to teach…I got as far as getting the Jewish people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea and ran out of time just as they were receiving the Ten Commandments! We’ll pick up there next time.
In the meantime, here are some pics to show you…I built a model of “God’s Library.” It’s a mock-up of what the Bible would look like if it were indeed a building…a library. (I use this metaphor in my book, The Bible Blueprint) It took me a few hours to put together at home using cardboard, tape, some images I printed off of my computer, and a label machine.




by Joe on October 5, 2009
I’ve decided that, since we’ll have no class next Monday (Columbus Day) and that when we return, we jump right into a unit on Jesus Christ, tonight will be a good night to do an overview of the Bible with my 8th graders, taking them through the story of salvation history that culminates with Jesus Christ.
Click here for an outline of passages that tell the narrative of the story of salvation history in a chronological sequence and in a nutshell (very brief passages that I will elaborate on and connect one to another to tell the story). The young people will have Bibles and we’re going to get them leafing through its pages by using this outline. I plan to also use a couple of posters (from the Finding God program) that show a Bible timeline and a map of the Holy Land.
Time will be of the essence since we are supposed to have a fire drill tonight. If it looks like things are going to be too tight, I’ll limit our exploration to the Old Testament, and begin the Jesus unit by taking them through the New Testament.