So is the flow of a Shine session.
As we ease into a new curriculum year, we want to share the image of an hourglass to help us think about how a Shine session welcomes children and youth, forms and shapes them to receive and engage the Bible story, and sends them into the world to live out what they have learned. Carrie Martens, a former editor for Shine, shared this helpful image at a writers’ orientation several years ago. Let’s take a tour through the current Shine session plan using Carrie’s image of the hourglass.
Connect is the time when children, youth, and leaders engage with each other and with God through conversation, activities, prayer, and song. They become community so that they can encounter God together. Encountering God takes some vulnerability, and we need to know one another in order to be vulnerable with each other. In Connect to Each Other we engage with each other; in Connect to God we come together to become aware of God in our midst. We are with each other and with God. Prayers and songs form us and shape us to listen and receive the word of God in the session and in our lives. Note that PreK–Kindergarten has different headings under Connect—Make Friends, Sing, and Pray.
Within Connect, we also engage children in Bible Memory or Learn a Verse (PreK–Kindergarten) activities. There are two Bible memory verses or passages each quarter. The teacher’s guide includes interactive ways to help children understand and memorize the passage. For instance, children may sing the words to the tune of a simple song, use motions or call-and-response, or create clapping rhythms.
Junior Youth also has two Bible passages to explore in greater depth throughout the quarter. The Words to Live By activities are included during Explore. While youth may end up memorizing the verses, the emphasis is placed on the meaning and application of the verses to their lives.
Encounter is the center of the session, but it is not just about hearing the story. It is also about being shaped and prepared to encounter God in the story. In Elementary, Encounter begins with The Back Story using the “Follow the Story” Cards to reacquaint children with the previous Bible stories from the quarter. These cards help children visually understand how the stories and characters are related. Sometimes The Back Story includes learning how to find the text in the Bible, giving helpful background information, or explaining the context of the story.
Each age level has its own method of encountering the Bible story. PreK–Kindergarten children enjoy a colorful story picture and an age-appropriate retelling of the story. The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible is the source of the story for elementary-age children. Junior youth read the story directly from the Bible. Each age level may also include additional ideas for sharing the story using readers’ theaters, story figures, actions, and so on.
Within Encounter are questions that help children and youth engage more deeply with the Bible story: Wonder for PreK–Kindergarten, God’s Story/My Story for Elementary, and Dig In/Live It for Junior Youth. Use this time to allow children and youth to sit with what they’ve heard, to dig in, to ask questions, to imagine, to push and pull, and to wrestle. The questions are focused on the story and our lives in relation to that story.
Explore. With each Explore option, we pull back a bit—not away from the story as much as into our own lives. How can we engage this story, have it sink deeper, play with it, see it in a broader context of the biblical narrative, and see it in relation to our own lives of faith? Each age level has its own set of options. Consider your available planning time, length of session, and available materials as you choose the activities that will work best for your group.
Bless or Empower (Junior Youth). We often think of Bless or Empower as worship, but at the end of the session. Here we acknowledge that God has been with us. We sing and pray to bring our time with God and each other to a close. This is also the space to send children and youth out with significant and central messages, such as God’s constant love, the light of Christ among us, and how all are created in God’s image. The goal is to connect with and affirm children and youth, and inspire them for the week ahead.
Adapted from an article by Carrie Martens that first appeared in the Winter 2018–19 issue of Prism.