What is taught must be in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus; (If your school is outside of Cambridgeshire: the S.C.A.A Model 2 syllabus has been included to help in matching this lesson plan with your local Agreed Syllabus).
Cambs Agreed Syllabus:
NW (The Natural World)
Enable pupils to:
know some of the ways in which Christians express and respond to their belief that God is Creator...
Pupils should consider this:
Are there any difficult questions about life that you would like to find the answer to?
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S.C.A.A. Model syllabuses:
KEY TEACHINGS / FOCUS:
GOD
- creating & sustaining, loving, just, saving.
AT1 Explore ways in which Christians respond to the belief that God is ultimately responsible for order & purpose in the world.
AT2 Consider the experiences & feelings which give rise to questions about meaning & purpose.
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RESOURCES:
A football or something similar to pretend to give to someone to use, but also to look after.
A measuring ruler.
STARTER:
Here is a football (or some sort of 'gift'). Let's pretend I am going to lend you this.
You can use it at home but you must look after it.
In fact I want you to keep it in good condition until you get too old to use it, then I want you to pass it on to somebody else & give them the same instructions.
Q. Do you think you could do that?
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Imagine if you were the next ones to receive this 'gift' & it was given to you in a totally wrecked condition.
Q. What would you feel like?
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Now let's keep the same situation, but instead of this gift being a football (or whatever) it is now the whole world! Christians believe that God created the world for us, & that includes everyone before us & everyone after us. It is lent to all of us.
So we have a responsibility to keep the world in good condition, so that other people coming after us can enjoy it too. They would not be happy to receive a wrecked world from us!
Q. What sort of things can wreck the world?
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War, pollution, greed (for ivory, etc), selfishness (not willing to cut back on energy hungry goods to reduce CO2 emissions), etc.
This world is not owned by us. It is like a rented house, we live in it & we can move the furniture around, but we don't own it - the landlord does.
The landlord of this world is God & He expects us to live by certain standards so we don't wreck each other & so we don't wreck this planet!
MAIN TEACHING:
Some people may say; OK God made the world & He wants us to look after it, so why did He give us the materials to make bombs & destructive things like that?
Q. To answer that, this ruler is used for what?
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For measuring things & drawing straight lines.
But it can also be used to hit someone.
Just about anything good can be used in a bad way.
The explosives in a bomb may seem totally bad, but explosives are needed to blast through solid rock in quarries, mines, & road or rail tunnels .
Explosives can be good, but bad people use them for terrible things.
God wants us to use all the things that He has provided, in a responsible manner.
So let's continue to think about ownership:
The football (or some sort of 'gift') belonged to the original person who gave it. We could use the football, but it was only lent to us. We didn't own it.
The world is lent to the whole of humanity by God, it doesn't belong to us, but we can use it & it needs to be handed onto the next generation of people.
But the Bible takes this thought further: The world is owned by God, but because He designed & made each one of us, He 'owns' us as well!
To help us with this thought of being owned, we will now look at 2 examples of ownership:
[1] Imagine an army unit is ordered to move to another base. The soldiers jump to it, & start loading all the equipment onto the lorries.
But one soldier decides to spend the day in a pub, & then to go shopping the next day!
Meantime his unit has moved, has set up a new camp & are now on defensive duties trying to do their job with one man less than they should have.
Q. What do you think of that?
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If you sign up for the army, then the army owns you. All your time is no longer your time - it all belongs to the army. If the army tells you to get up in the middle of the night, then you do it without question.
But soldiers want to be in the British Army. They choose to join up & they appreciate the discipline. On the whole they like being soldiers, so when they are woken up in the middle of the night they accept that as being part of the job.
That is one example of ownership.
[2] The other example is where you own a favourite pencil. It's always there when you want it, & with the occasional bit of sharpening it always works when you use it.
You keep it in a sensible, safe place where it won't get damaged. You wouldn't dream of putting your it under the wheel of a car, because it probably would get crushed & ruined.
You look after your favourite pencil.
So what have these two examples got to do with God owning the world?
Christians believe that because God made everything, He has the right of ownership on everything - including every person.
He wants them to be available to Him. He is looking for willing 'soldiers'.
There are many benefits from this ownership:
a) People get a great deal of satisfaction from following God's instructions.
b) Christians believe that they will receive an 'inheritance' & rewards from God when they leave this world.
c) God won't put them in a situation that will crush them - like putting the pencil under the wheel of a car - He will keep them safe.
But what happens when a Christian experiences a difficult situation?
For example; a family member gets seriously ill, or family relationships split apart.
Q. Does that mean that God has allowed them to be crushed, that He is not keeping them safe?
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A Christian should not see hardships like these as God disowning them. They should trust that God will work all these things out. The Bible says:
"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,
who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 NIV
The "good" in a difficult situation is often hard to see at the time. Sometimes we can look back & see some answers to why it happened. But other times we may never know why it happened & it needs a total trust in God.
The world has got so many people suffering from lack of food & diseases, etc.
Q. Is this God's fault? Discuss.
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To answer this question let's think about some facts:
1) There is enough food on this planet to feed everybody. Some countries horde up food (food mountains), & vast quantities of food are thrown away. This food does not get through to those countries who desperately need it.
2) A lot of famine is caused by war. The crops get destroyed or they don't even get sown because it is too dangerous to go into the fields.
3) Famine can also be caused by greed, where people strip the land bare of trees, or they quarry out minerals, & then the land becomes a man made desert.
4) Some diseases are caused by people who don't understand basic hygiene rules. They don't dispose of their toilet waste properly & it contaminates their drinking water, etc.
5) Some dieases are caused by wrong moral values. (Teachers note: In parts of Africa, the wife sleeps with any male guest, because it is the custom to show hospitality in this way!) By not keeping faithful to one marriage partner &/or having sex before marriage, then sexually transmitted diseases have spread rapidly.
Q. Do these facts make you want to rethink the answer to the last question about the world suffering from famine, disease, etc: "Is this God's fault?"
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Christians believe that God created the world & that He gives us our life. So they believe it is good to give God thanks for things in their lives.
Because the Bible says:
"Every good & perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father (God).." James 1:17
PLENARY:
Q. Are there any difficult questions about life that you would like to find the answer to?
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Either take a short time to discuss this, or leave it with them.
(Teachers note: There are two worksheets to accompany this lesson plan).