God's People and Me!

A Vacation Bible School Curriculum by Barry McWilliams
an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America
Using the New International Bible

Introduction to Study Manual

For the next few weeks, you will be learning about the People of God - both who they are and also how they live together. You will be teaching children the importance of being a part of a congregation.This manual is intended to guide you in learning what the Bible teaches about God's people and how they minister to one another.

While the Doctrine of the Church is not the chief focus of your lessons, you will begin your study with a brief summary of the basic teachingof the Bible concerning the church.

You will especially want to know by heart the memory passage: Acts 2: 42 - 47. These meanings will be further visualized for the children in the daily Object Lessons done by the Pastor or Director. Please take particular note of the use of the "Keywords", and other ways to emphasize the themes each day.

Then you will study the particular passages and stories you will be sharing with the children during their Bible lessons. Our stories come from Acts 1 - 11. Don't limit your preparation to the material contained in this study guide. Read and study the Bible passages on your own till you are very familiar with them. You may find Bible encyclopedia's, Atlases, or Handbooks helpful in getting to know the background, historical setting and culture. Ask yourself questions about anything you don't understand, and share these questions and insights with the rest of your V.B.S team. Teachers will want to study the passage until they are excited about it. Then their own excitement will carry over into the preparation and presentation of the stories and lessons.

The Lessons and Stories:

Each Lesson should be studied and the Scriptures looked up and read. It would be good it the teams could discuss them together as well. Each lesson also has some practical study questions and a couple of addtional passages for added study at the end. This material is for the teachers and is therefore much deeper than the children's stories.

Storytelling guides are also provided in this material. Suggestions for telling the stories and visual aids which are needed for the stories are given and a written "text" of the story is also provided, though it is much better if the teachers prepare to tell it in their own words. The use of a variety of methods will give the teachers opportunity to try different ways of teaching Bible lessons, however you may want to use a different method for your story presentation than that which is suggested. Suggestions for why particular methods are chosen and more on different methods of teaching are also on this Web page.

The Lessons and Stories: