Theme: Josiah: A Clean Sweep Title: New Term, Fresh Start Target Group: Limited Church Background Age: 11-14 Aims: Equipment: Print-outs: to find out about the life of Josiah to reflect on the last year to encourage students that, like Josiah, they have the opportunity to make a clean sweep to challenge students about the power of the Bible Bibles, pens Print-out 1 (Bible passages); Print-out 2 (Reflections) Bible Base: 2 Kings 22 and 23 Opening Activity I want to be King! (5 mins) This is a variation of an old game, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Sit the group in a circle and title them starting with King, then Queen, then Jack followed by the numbers One, Two until all the students are titled or numbered. Set a time limit on how long you want to play. The aim of the game is to become King. The King starts. He/she states their own title and then someone else s, e.g. King to Three. The person whose title is called must then respond immediately by calling his or her own title followed by someone else s, e.g. Three to Jack. This continues until someone makes a mistake, e.g. they say someone else s title before their own, or they hesitate, or they answer to someone else s title, or they simply aren t paying attention and they miss their go altogether. At this point, the person who has made a mistake moves to the end, becoming the highest number and everyone who was behind them moves up one space to fill the empty chair. The students that have moved up now have a new title. If Three moved up then they become Two. If Jack moved up then they become Queen, etc. Clearly, to become King you need to knock out anybody between you and the King and ultimately dethrone the King! Too Young to be King! (5 mins) Ask the students if they would like to be a real King or Queen. What would be the benefits and disadvantages? In pairs give them a couple of minutes to discuss the topic If I became King tomorrow I would Now get them to feed back to the rest of the group. Give a short talk, making the following points: Tell them that today we re going to be looking at Josiah, one of the Kings in the Bible. He became King at the age of eight, when his father was assassinated. Ask them what it would be like having an eight-year-old rule over them. Do they think he would have much power?
How would he make decisions? Could it be dangerous having a child making important decisions? Mention some of the high profile footballers that are very young. Wayne Rooney for example has the world at his feet. He is tipped to become one of the greatest footballers in the world. He earns thousands of pounds a week, and has done so since he was eighteen. Ask them what they would do if they had over 50,000 a week to spend, and nothing to do in the afternoons or evenings. Some footballers handle the fame and the money well others make mistakes! We re going to find out how Josiah coped with the power. A Clean Sweep (10 mins) Split the group into teams of about four and give them Print-out 1 (Bible Passages). Each person in the team should take one of the passages, read it, and try to remember as many facts as possible. If your group is unfamiliar with the Bible they may need help finding the passages. If your group does not have access to lots of Bibles you could print out copies of the passage from the Darby Translation. This is one of the few free on-line translations in the UK. It is a bit of an old translation, but at least it is free. You can find it at www.biblegateway.com. After five minutes have a quiz based on the passages using the questions below. The first player to stand up, state the correct verse and read it gets ten points. 1. How old was Josiah when he became King? (eight years old 22:1) 2. With what did Josiah serve God? (all his heart, soul and strength 23:25) 3. Who reported the finding of the book to the King? (Shaphan 22:10) 4. What did the prophetess, Huldah, say was the reason that God would destroy Judah? (They d forsaken God. 22:17) 5. What did all the people do when they heard the words of the book? (pledged themselves to the covenant 23:3) 6. What did the King order to be celebrated that hadn t been done since the days of the Judges? (the Passover 23:22) 7. What did the King do when he heard the book of the law for the first time? (tore his robes 22:11) 8. Why did he desecrate (destroy) Topheth? (to stop anyone desecrating their son/daughter 23:10) Sum up by making the following points: Josiah became King at the age of eight in a land that did evil in the sight of the Lord. The book of the Law (part of the Old Testament) was discovered and Josiah realised that they needed to change. Chapter 23 is all about how he did that. A nation that had been repugnant to God became one that worshipped him. Josiah had a clean sweep.
Reflections (7 mins) Ask the students to reflect on the last school year using Print-out 2. For each area they need to choose a face that represents how they feel they did in that part of their life. Give them a few minutes to complete the sheet. Briefly discuss how they feel their last year went. Try not to put pressure on individuals to talk some may well feel uncomfortable about the previous year. Now ask them what they hope to achieve over the coming year, whether academic, relationships, behaviour, attitude whatever. Ask them to fill in the space at the bottom of the print-out. Encourage them that it doesn t matter what sort of year they had last year, like Josiah they can make changes if they need to. Get them to think of this new school year as a fresh start, an opportunity to make a clean sweep of things. Starting Again (5 mins) To finish off, give them a few minutes in silence to consider what they need to do to make a clean sweep. Remind them that it was God s word that transformed Josiah s life. Challenge them to start reading the Bible. Suggest some Bible reading notes they could use to help them understand the Bible; see the Scripture Union website www.scriptureunion.org.uk for ideas. Pray that God would help them to make the most of the fresh start at the beginning of a new school year.
Print-out 1 (Bible Passages) Print out this sheet enough times so that there is one per group. Cut the slips up and give each group a copy of each of the four slips.
Print-out 2: Spend some time thinking about your last year in school. How did it go? Circle one of the faces next to each aspect of the year to show how you feel about it. Attitude Behaviour School work Friendships Witness School/life balance Family Over the coming school year, I would like to..