On May 15, 2021, the K-9th grade students of the Three Angels Seventh-day Adventist School planned and led the entire worship service at the Three Angels Church in Wichita, Kansas. The service included a slideshow testimonial of the students and their experiences throughout the school year.
Students told the children’s story, rendered a memory verse recital, and sang beautiful acapella music in both Swahili and English. The sermon was presented principal/head teacher Mrs. Tara Bailey, along with the 8th grade class of 2021. The sanctuary was transformed into a Bible classroom and everyone was able to experience a lesson from North American Division’s recently adopted Bible Encounter Curriculum for Adventist Bible classes. Mrs. Bailey, a certified trainer for the Encounter Curriculum, began “class” with an overview of the curriculum’s transitional planning framework.
The four phases of this framework are used to build a solid knowledge of the Scripture and provide time and opportunity to nurture every student’s relationship with Christ. The objective for the morning’s Bible class was two-fold. The essential question: How does God get my attention? The Big Idea: God sometimes gets our attention by sending people to us with a message from Him.
These objectives were met by intentionally focusing on the important fact that God does not give up on bringing us to His side but continues to call for us to come to Him! When beginning the lesson, the congregation was presented an important note: Talking is not teaching and listening is not learning. Your involvement will seal your learning.
The congregation instantly involved themselves in an interactive lesson on the prophet Elijah and how important it is to answer when God calls. They were able to share the power of a Bible story and make discoveries for themselves. Real life encounters in Scripture were recalled and they were able to reflect on how we can make God’s Word central in our lives.
The 8th graders shared their research on biblical examples of God’s call to different individuals in the Bible, messages from God provided in the story of Elijah, and how the division of God’s people resulted in the reign of good and bad kings. All this emphasized how important it is to trust God as He leads.
The message culminated with a demonstration of how distractions in this world take us from the Lord’s side and far from hearing His call. The demonstration included the three 8th grade students holding a bowl that represented Elijah, Baal and Ashtoreth. Each bowl held small balls that represented the nation of Israel. As Elijah took balls from the other bowls, Baal and Ashtoreth could simultaneously take balls from his bowl. This was to illustrate how distractions and sin in our lives take us away from God. At the conclusion of the message, everyone received an invitation in their hands to choose to spend time with their Heavenly Father!
You can enjoy a recording of the service on YouTube entitled Three Angels Church Service 5-15-2021.
Submitted by Tara Bailey, head teacher at the Three Angels Seventh-day Adventist School in Wichita, Kansas
