Themes

God's Sheep (updated, 2013)

Sheep are all over the place in the Bible, used as examples and illustrations for a variety of things in both testaments. They're also cute and make for easy decorations, so naturally we had to use them for a Bible School theme. The lessons we take from this theme talk about sin, salvation, obedience, security, and the church. In Galion this was our 2007 theme, which we tentatively expect to use for the second time in 2013. Most of the materials for this theme are online! To view them, see lessons, verses, crafts, games, snacks, missions, decorations, and SVG documents, or you can use the God's Sheep summary page to get them all in one place.

Soldiers of God

Soldiers and warfare occur repeatedly in both testaments. We thought about doing an entire week on just the armor of God, but we decided it might be better to generalise the theme. We ended up with lessons covering salvation by faith, obedience to Christ, resisting temptation, enduring the world's contempt, and prayer. In Galion this was our 2008 theme, which we tentatively expect to revisit in 2014. Most of the materials for this theme are online! To view them, see lessons, verses, missions, crafts, games, snacks, and decorations, or you can use the Soldiers of God summary page to get them all from one place.

Fishing for Christ

This was the first theme we thought up, and while it's not the most conceptually cohesive, it does make for great decorations. The lessons here are pretty basic, covering the deity of Christ, his substitutionary death, his resurrection, and the commission he gave to his disciples. There is an emphasis on salvation. We re-used this theme in Galion in August of 2009, so we revamped and posted the materials then. The Bible lessons, memory verses, games, snacks, missions lessons, decoration plans and most of the crafts for this theme are online now. You can get them all in one place from the Fishing for Christ summary page.

Following the Footsteps

We wanted to include Old Testament saints in our Bible School, and it seemed obvious we would want to talk about following their example. That sounded hard to decorate for until we realised we could use footprints. After much deliberation we ended up with lessons on trusting and obeying God, studying his word, salvation, prayer, and Christian service. Materials for this theme were developed in 2010 and are now essentially complete and online. See the Following in the Footsteps overview page for details.

Running the Race

We found five passages in the New Testament that speak of the Christian life as a race that we run, and so we wrote from them five lessons that emphasise lordship, faithfulness, the importance of God's word, holiness, and heavenly rewards. In Galion we initially developed these materials for use in 2005, then we polished them up and used them for the second time in 2011, so they're fairly complete at this point.

Back to the Beginning

Sometimes you have to get down to the basics and remember how it all got started. We went back to the beginning and wrote lessons on creation, sin, salvation, faith, and the church. In Galion we tentatively expect to use these materials for the second time in 2012, so we'll be going through them and polishing them up in the coming months. The elementary Bible lessons are already online, and more will be coming.