We are using Simply Youth Ministry’s Jesus Centered Life curriculum for our small groups. Tonights lesson was talking about parables. We talked about why Jesus used parables, and the types of parables he told. The instructions were then to have students discuss a parable and determine what it means.
We decided to make it a little more interactive and I had each group act out their parable. I gave them 5 minutes to come up with a way to bring their parable to life. It worked well. The were all engaged, some built props, some wrote out screen play, some did a readers theater, and all did a wonderful job.
Here are three things I learned from the experience.
Three reasons to have your group act out the scriptures:
1. The students had to dissect the parable. Before they could act out the parable, they had to figure out how to act it out. They read it several times, and had to determine what parts were to be action, what would be read, how many actors to use etc…
2. The students saw the parable from a different viewpoint. One group had the prodigal son parable. The one who played the older son had to act as if she was in the shoes of the prodigal son. It made it more real, instead of just a story on a black and white page.
3. The students taught each other the parables. After they had figured out how they would act out their parable, we had a little show. Each group acted out their parable, then they read the parable from the bible, then they had to explain what it was saying about God or the Kingdom of God. Those watching saw it, heard it and thought about it.
Next time you are teaching a passage of scripture. Have your group act it out. You may be amazed how creative they can be, and how it will help them to retain what they learn.
Have you ever had your group act out a scripture? How did it work? What suggestions do you have?