Dear Theo Conversations
Part 5: Over the Edge
Dear Theo
Conversations
With 10 to 14-year-olds
Reading the Bible,
worshipping, and talking about God can be seen by
some young people as odd things
to do. This resource is designed to normalise Bible engagement,
to help create a time together that is as natural as playing a game, eating food, and chatting, while creating a safe space where meaningful conversations can take place. It is important to recognize that the Bible was written in a very different time and culture to the one we now find ourselves. To engage with it we must attempt to understand that cultural context. You will find throughout the resource thoughts and ideas to help you do that. As we understand the context of the Bible, the better chance we have to understand God’s great story that is contained within it. The sessions for small groups (aimed at 10 -14 year olds) have 2 elements to them:
1) Conversations with the Bible using 2 simple questions This is to help you create a space to chat about the Bible passage. The activity around it attempts to set the scene of the story and quite often involves food!
2) Conversations with the Bible using 4 different styles These are 4 different zones to continue the conversation around the Bible and create spaces to
connect with God through it and to consider what it means for each of us.
Creative
For people who may connect with God creatively, perhaps through the arts and nature.
Wordstuff
For people who like to talk and use words to connect with God.
Reflective
For people who may connect with God through their emotions.
Active
For people who connect with God while doing things together.
Read
Page 48 (Jesus and…) to page 49 (…for him)
Conversation with the Bible
using 2 simple questions
Play a game of draw/act/make to start your time together. Split into 2 or more teams with a minimum of 3 in each team. Give each team a large piece of paper, pens, a dice and some playdough. The leader of the game stands equidistant from each group with the following list of “Things that change” (produce appendix with images to go with each word). • Weather • Moon • Seasons • Egg • Fruit • Seeds • Technology • People • Caterpillar • Fashion • World • Politicians
Explain to the teams that all the words on the list are things that change. One person from
each team comes up to the game leader and is shown the first item on the list (without being able to see the rest of the list), and they then return to their team. They are not allowed to speak to their team. The team throws the dice, the person who has been shown the item must do one of the following 3 things depending on what number is thrown… • 1 or 2 – Charades, mime out the word • 3 or 4 – Pictionary, draw the word • 5 or 6 – Sculpting, make the
word with playdough
They cannot speak while attempting to explain the word or do actions while doing Pictionary or Sculpting. When someone in the team guesses the word (encourage them not to shout out the answer as the other teams will hear) they, or someone else, goes up to the game leader and whispers the answer in their ear and is then shown the next word on the list. They then go back to their team and repeat as before. The first team to guess all the words wins!
Gather together in one group, or smaller groups if your group is large, and enjoy looking at the drawings and sculptures! Explain that the story today from Dear Theo is all about a person who was completely changed when he met Jesus. Chat about how quite a lot has happened since the last bit you read together. Jesus has pulled together his disciple team, there have been loads of people healed, Jesus has given a big talk on a hill about how we should live and told some fascinating stories, and Jesus and the disciples have just been caught in a crazy storm on the Sea of Galilee which Jesus stopped just by telling it too! The disciples are amazed, they sail on and they are met on the far side of the lake, not by a storm at sea, but by a human storm, a man who is deeply troubled… Read the story from Dear Theo together. You can read the passage in whatever way you like but ensure that everyone is following/reading it in their copy of ‘Dear Theo’ if they can. Ask someone to read it who is confident, animated, and has a sensitivity to the tone and mood of what they are reading, make this time special.
Have quality pens available and invite the young people to doodle/mark the book as you read, encouraging them to circle/underline/
highlight (whatever they prefer) the following things… • Things they don’t understand and want to chat about • Things that they like and want to remember
After you have read together enjoy chatting through each other’s responses to these questions as you explore and wonder about this part of the Bible together.
Conversation with the Bible using 4 different styles
Creative
Read the story from Dear Theo and chat together about what the man was like before he met Jesus. Try and go deeper than just creating a list of things that are in the passage, think together of what life was like for the man e.g. lonely, ill, isolated, excluded, ill, violent, cold, terrified, confused, dying, lost etc. Then think of what happened when he met Jesus, how did Jesus treat him, and what did he become? Again, think beyond the description in the passage e.g. relaxed, restored, warm, connected, self-aware, rational, peaceful, calm, has an identity, has a purpose, able to communicate. Chat about how meeting Jesus helped him to be himself again. Take a photo of everyone in the group and print them off (it will work well if you can bring a laptop and printer to the group to do this, rather than delaying the production of the photo). While the printing is happening give everyone a wooden frame and ask them to think about how they are now, what things would they like Jesus to help them with and to change? Use these ideas to decorate the frame which will surround the photo of them. Perhaps they are anxious and want peace, or fearful and need reassurance, or lonely and need to know they are loved by God. Pro-vide pens that work on wood and use these thoughts to create a frame that will remind them of what Jesus can do for them when life is chaotic and difficult. Once you have done this, pray as a group - that you would all know Jesus in whatever life brings.
Read the story from Dear Theo together and then lay out some printed images of different emojis. Have a large supply of scrabble letters available and ask the group to look at the emojis and to choose one (you can change this number depending on how many people are in your group and what you think will work best for them) each that represent how they think the man felt before he met Jesus. Once they have made their choice ask them to use the scrabble letters to make a word to describe how he felt alongside the image. Chat about what they create. Then do the same for how he felt after he met Jesus and chat about that as well. Then ask them to choose an emoji that sums up how they feel just now and use the scrabble letters to create words to describe these feelings, be sensitive to your group as to whether they want to do this exercise privately or are happy for everyone to see the cards that they choose. Once they have
Active
done that ask them to choose an emoji that shows how they would like to feel and once again to use the scrabble letters to create a word to describe those feelings. Invite the group to take a photo of the feelings they want to have so they can remember after the group is over. Finally ask everyone to remember the final emoji they chose. Then pray this prayer together…
Lord Jesus,
You met a man who must have felt terrible Lonely
Starving Abandoned Excluded
(add words that came up in your activity). You know how we feel just now
Come and be with us Give us these feelings By your presence
(Invite the group to shout out altogether one feeling that they wanted when they chose their last lot of cards)
Thank you that you Are able to make Us the people You always wanted Us to be
Amen
Read the story from Dear Theo as a group. Chat together about the what the man was like before he met Jesus. Try and go deeper than just creating a list of things that are in the passage – consider what life was like for the man, e.g., lonely, ill, isolated, excluded, violent, cold, terrified, confused, dying, lost, etc. Have a number of tennis balls available and permanent marker pens. Give each young person one of the words, a tennis ball, and a permanent pen and ask them to write that word and draw an emoji face that goes with the word on the ball. Put these balls to one side.
words, a tennis ball, and a sharpie and ask them to write that word and draw an emoji face that goes with the word on the ball. Put these balls to one side.
Gather all the balls together and have a game of rounders with them, in this version everyone is a fielder, apart from the people who are bowling and batting, they can be changed as often as you like. The bowler should bowl one of the balls and shout out the word that is on the ball. The batter then attempts to hit the ball and shouts out the word as well. All the fielders try to catch the ball. Once the ball is caught it is put in one of 2 buckets (which can be placed at either end of the playing area). Bucket 1 is labelled – before, and bucket 2 labelled – after. Once all the balls are in the buckets ask everyone to sit down in a circle and place
the buckets of balls in the middle. Give everyone at least one of the balls, if you have a very large group people may need to share. Pray this prayer together…
Lord Jesus,
You met a man who must have felt terrible
(ask everyone who has a negative word on their tennis ball to shout it out) You know how we feel just now
Come and be with us Give us these feelings By your presence
(Ask everyone who has a positive word on their tennis ball to shout it out) Thank you that you
Can make Us the people You always wanted Us to be To change us To bring us from Chaos to Calm Sadness to hope Confusion to understanding Isolation to community Amen
Be available to chat with any young people who want to discuss further about how they are feeling and any help and prayer they may need.
Wordstuff
Read the story from Dear Theo together and comment that at the end it says, “He told people all over town how much Jesus had done for him.” Give out pens and paper to the group and ask them to write what the man would have been telling everyone. What would he have focused on? What would have been the most important thing he would want to tell? How would he have said it? What words would he have used? Once everyone has had enough time to write their scripts ask if anyone would like to be filmed giving this story to camera. Film as many as you can and enjoy showing them to the rest of the group or to the whole congregation at some point in the future.
