The Barnabas Bible goes large!The Barnabas Team |
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October is the month when many Christians celebrate Bible Sunday, so when better to introduce you to our new The Barnabas Children’s Bible and alongside it the first instalment of some exciting and innovative resources that the Barnabas Team has developed to support it. The Barnabas Children’s Bible is already proving a big hit in the shops with a refreshing approach to the retelling of its stories that are actually designed to be read by children of about 7 to 12 years old. This version of the Good Book in 365 sections tells everything in chronological order. So at last children (and adults…) can follow the true historical flow of events with, for example, the words of the prophets appearing in their proper time and context and Paul’s letters linked in with the journeys he made, as the good news spread throughout the world. And that’s not all. The illustrations are delightful—bright, detailed and appealing to children without being remotely babyish. There’s an attractive encyclopedia at the back with information about key people, places and Bible words to help children better understand what they are reading, removing some of the traditional stumbling blocks to their enjoyment of the story and to hearing God speak to them of his love page after page. You can make up your own minds by visiting your local bookshop or perhaps browsing some of the pages online. At £12.99, this is a great Christmas present for children, grandchildren, godchildren or for the children in your church group. Enough of the sales pitch! On to the creative ideas. Now, the Barnabas Team is keen to encourage children’s leaders to use this Bible with your groups week by week. To do this we have put our creative heads together to work on a particular—and we believe exciting—way you might like to do this. Many of us who love the Bible are often saddened and frustrated that its stories are so little known and read… even by Christians! And when it is read, there is sadly a tendency just to focus on a few well-known stories—particularly when working with children. The result is that we are in danger of nurturing a faith that has a very patchy and disjointed understanding of our precious story. Children and indeed adults may well be able to reel off a few stories that they know but may not have enough of an idea of how those stories fit together and where they come in the overall thread of the Bible. Many programmes and even sermon series reinforce this with periodic focuses on particular themes, characters or books, leaving those participating with a lot of fragments of the Bible, but no sense of the whole. Even the lectionary approach can lead to this confusion. Now of course God can and does speak to us through scripture, even if it is confusingly presented (such is God’s grace) but what about using an approach to the Bible that regularly connects up the whole story and attempts to give an overview of God’s purposes; an approach that sees the Bible not as collection of unrelated if inspiring events but as an amazing and ordered revelation of God’s love? The Barnabas Children’s Bible with its unique reordering of the stories into a proper time line has inspired the Barnabas Team to produce materials that can help children and their leaders gain this bigger perspective. We have put together a series of stories and ideas based on some big themes from God’s special book, and these will be coming out regularly over the coming year. The first of these big themes is Light and Dark, which of course is very appropriate as we begin our journey through autumn into Advent. We would love you try out some of this in your sessions with children and let us know how it goes. Each big theme is introduced by a reflective story that steps back and connects up a whole series of stories from across the Bible that relate to the theme. This introductory story sets the scene and then there are suggestions and ideas for sessions that focus in on the particular stories that are referred to. The reflective story is key to this approach and can of course be used in a variety of ways to suit your group and the time you have available. For example, while one church group might use this as an eight-week series, another might use the Light and Dark reflective story as a stand-alone to begin thinking about Advent. Another might tell the reflective story but only pick out two or three of the individual stories to accompany it over a few weeks, while another might use the reflective story and the six individual stories as the basis for a children’s activity day or holiday club. The Barnabas Team is excited by this approach and hopes that you will be, too. We would love to hear from you if you use these stories so we might develop and refine them. The Light and Dark theme and support material is available now. Click on the topics below to find what you need: A reflective story on the theme of Light and Dark for the Barnabas Bible A suggested eight-session plan with some activity ideas for the theme of Light and Dark Ideas for individual sessions on the stories for the light and dark theme, namely: Sinai shining: Moses shines the light for God
Of course these ideas are only suggestions, and you will need to tailor them to suit your group of children. The reflective story and the related sessions are all referenced primarily to The Barnabas Children’s Bible to encourage children to read the book for themselves. Further big theme stories are already planned and have been written, including the big themes of Life and Death; Friends and Enemies; Feast and Famine; Heights and Depths and with more to come! The story of God’s people as recorded in the Bible is such an amazing resource to nurture our faith and particularly the faith of our children that we need to invest time in finding creative ways to pass on to them a love of the Bible. Many of us are grateful to those who first gave us a feel for the big picture of God’s love as told in its pages and are grateful to those who helped us to find our own story written there. We offer you this particular set of materials and big theme approach along with all the ideas and other resources you can find on our Barnabas website in the same spirit of commitment to the Word of God, for: ‘Everything in scripture is God’s word. All of it is useful for teaching and helping people and for correcting them and showing them how to live. The scriptures train God’s servants do all kinds of good deeds’ (2 Timothy 3:16-17, CEV). The Barnabas Team |
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