In a city like the one where I live, most growth is up. So all of us spend a lot of time on elevators. Thus we all know elevator etiquette: Do not speak to anyone. Do not make eye contact. Stare at the numbers as the floors change.
Live the Stories: Noah’s Ark
June 14, 2023 by
Remind the children of how Adam and Eve made a mistake in last week’s story. That mistake caused the world to be an unhappy place where people didn’t treat God or each other the right way. Begin by asking the children if they know what an ark is. They may respond by stating that an ark is a boat or something that Noah built.
Live the Stories: Jesus Gives Peter Instructions
June 29, 2021 by
Remind the children that many of the disciples who followed Jesus were fishermen before they left their jobs to learn from him. When Jesus died, they returned to their jobs of catching fish.
Our Stories Will Probably Be Small, But They Will Matter
January 1, 2020 by
Sometimes I get discouraged because I feel like my story is very small. I live in a small city. I go to a small church in a land where churches can be quite enormous.
Flame: The Calling of Levi with Colored Cards
September 19, 2017 by
We’re always trying different ways to tell stories in visual ways, so here is what we tried in our scaled-down summer group (3-11 years old). We told the story of Jesus calling Levi (Luke 5:27-32) using colored pieces of paper to represent the characters.
Connections 06.25.2017: Birth Stories
June 18, 2017 by
An angel flew up to me and asked, “What circumstances would you like to be born into?” I said, “I’ve been watching those folks Champ and Sara Ruffin down there in Barnesville, Georgia. They’ve wanted a child for years. They’re hard-working folks. They’re good Baptists. I’d like to be born to them.”
Formations 11.01.2015: Fragile Things
October 25, 2015 by
Think about strong, permanent things. What are they made of? How big are they? I think of stone structures that stand for centuries. When we want to build something that lasts forever, we consider materials even stronger than stone and wood.
A Bunch of Stories
February 3, 2015 by
“I don’t read that article by Ronnie McBrayer,” I heard a critic say not long ago; a critic who did not know I was within earshot. “He thinks the Bible is just a bunch of stories.”
Uniform 02.08.2015: A Need for Fresh Eyes
February 1, 2015 by
In every community, there are stories that have been told so many times that people develop a shorthand code for telling them. For my family, the mention of “sunny-side-up eggs” evokes a cautionary tale against overeating before church.
Don’t Be Mean: A Covenant Story
December 10, 2014 by
Ben says one of our Covenant mottos is, “Don’t be mean.” I really like that in a church. There are more Scriptural-sounding ways to say the same thing, but something about stripping wisdom of its religious jargon seems to keep us more honest.