Using Popular Christian T-shirt as Learning Tool
Uh-huh. You have agreed to teach a Sunday School class and are now surrounded by a group of squirmy five-year-olds; one has a cold and there are cracker crumbs all over the work table. You are feeling a lot older than your actual age. What do you do? In teaching, preparation is everything. What better way to begin a Sunday School lesson for toddlers than to show them a Christian T-shirt in their size that illuminates some aspect of what they’re going to be studying. Let that small Christian T become your audio-visual aide.
“Bible Story” Christian T’s make knowledge more accessible to young learners. If you have ten children to teach, buy ten different Christian T’s to display over the course of ten lessons. Talk about the stories their images represent. When these classes are over, give each student one of the T-shirts to take home. This way, the “Bible Story” T’s will continue to function as memory aids, reinforcing in-class learning.
If you are not teaching a class, but working with small children at home, a Christian T-shirt for both your daughter(s) and her doll will help you construct a pleasant learning experience. The messages on these Christian T’s should be simple and direct and easy to repeat and remember. The images should be age appropriate.
If you are facilitating teenage Bible study, gather a number of popular Christian T-shirts with images that match the messages in your lessons. Invite discussion at the beginning of each study session. Start by holding up the text-appropriate shirt and saying, “Take a close look at this Christian T-shirt. Before we begin our study, what does its message mean to you?” When everyone in your group has responded, lay the Christian T where it will remain visible throughout the lesson. At the end of the readings and discussion, hold up the Christian T-shirt again and ask the same question you asked before. Hopefully your young learners will be able to add something to what they said earlier that will show an increase in understanding. Before the lesson concludes, ask everyone in the group to write down at least one way they might be able to use what they’ve just learned. By the end of the year of study, you should have a large collection of popular Christian T-shirts to give away to your students.
Popular Christian T-shirts can become catalysts for lively discussion even in adult Bible classes. For adult study, choose a wide variety of Christian T’s, keeping in mind that each shirt you choose should work to illustrate something about the lessons you mean to cover. End each lesson by asking for opinions about the shirt itself. Ask for comments about its message and design. Inquire if your adult students would alter it in some way. When your series of lessons comes to an end, ask each of the class participants to find or order a customized Christian T-shirt that conveys one of the spiritual truths they have studied. Set a date approximately a month in the future and on that date, prepare a display for all your church members of the popular Christian T’s you used in your teaching and the Christian T’s your adult students found or special ordered. Some of the comments of the people who come to view the display will probably surprise you.
Remember. A Christian T-shirt is more than a shirt. It is a testimony of belief, a declaration of faith, an opportunity for praise, a celebration of God’s Infinite Power; a doorway to help those who see it learn about things visible and things mysterious and unseen. Other people notice what you wear. Everybody reads T-shirt messages. The “Message” shirt is a primary communication tool of our age. If you are a worship leader or a Sunday School teacher, create lessons that will emphasize the importance of sending a good message. A year of religious study supplemented by the use of popular Christian T-shirts will help you get that idea across.
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