As smart than a 5th grader? Please help.

[Lynn]

Over the years, my wife and I have taught 5th grade Sunday school. The students are typically 10 and 11 years old.

Part of the class involves them bringing in Christianity/Bible related questions that they are wondering about. We call this "Inquiring Minds Want To Know".

The "kiddos" bring in their question(s) at the start of the class. Sometimes the answer can be immediate, but usually not. We make it a priority to get to their question, although it can take a month or longer. We look ahead to upcoming lessons to try to "match" the question with the material. At best, there can be really satisfying and God honoring "teachable moments".

One of the "points" of this is to let them know it is more than ok to ask questions, and that most have answers (recognizing that Deut 29:29 applies ... God has hidden ... )

Our hope and prayer for this forum board is that members would help out this "not smarter than a 5th grader" by puttng in their 2¢ worth. God promises to answer our appropriate prayers for wisdom. If we're doing our part by listening, we have found that we will have a more or less organized response (hopefully through His Spirit and not in our own strength).

So far about 5 questions are being handed in each week (see following topics for some of them). Note that the same or similar questions come up over and over. In the topics below within this board, I've just provided a "stub" outline of "What does the Bible say?" and some my thoughts.

If you have something to add to a previously discussed topic, feel free to pitch in, even if the question was first brought up 6 months earlier. If you won't "tell on us" to the Sunday school superintendent, perhaps a previous question will be revisited. Shhhh. 

Perhaps our Father can use you to supplement the "talking points" that occur to me?

TIA

[Manu]

Some time ago I found some nice resources here...

http://christiananswers.net/kids/

[Manu]

5th graders ask some very tough questions. I guess they simply won't settle for an answer like, "God works in mysterious ways"
Perhaps add an apologetics discussion board for adults?

[Lynn]

5th graders ask some very tough questions. I guess they simply won't settle for an answer like, "God works in mysterious ways"
Perhaps add an apologetics discussion board for adults?

Nor should they be told, "you have to take that on faith".

Mark Twain considered Christians to be gullible, superstitious, and uninformed. He wrote something like:
"Faith is chosing to believe something you are pretty sure ain't so."

My impression is that Fideism (sp? feidism?) is very close to agnostism. It can mean, "believe because it consoles". Life can be at times so frustrating and depressing that many people reluctantly accept something/anything to avoid the implications of a meaningless, purposeless, and undirected universe.

In the USA, Christianity is respectable and perceived to be low-cost, so "why not." My understanding is that one of the former US presidents chose to be a Quaker "because it was so easy."

THIS IS NOT CHRISTIANITY, but the "wide road that leads to destruction."

[Lynn]

Good resources:

R.C. Sproul, "Now That's a Good Question"

Charles Colson: "Answers to Your Kid's Questions"

[Lynn]

Also, just phrase the question to Google and see what turns up. Be interesting to see what the recent Google search competitors come up with when compared to Google search results, like Microsoft's Bing and Wolfram's Alpha.

The different church confessions and catechisms generally address the questions that people have, such as the Baptism confession of Faith and Message,  Westminster Confession, etc.

Maybe I'm the only one this applies to, but catechisms oriented to children tend to be much more readable.

But always remember that information from Google, confessions, catechisms, etc. ARE NOT INSPIRED. They can be very helpful, but it is a useful exercise to check the supplied "proof texts", as applicable.

[Lynn]

To teachers considering having something like IMWTK (Inquiring Minds Want to Know)

* Do consistently.

* My experience was that several of the kiddos thought I was avoiding the question if I didn't answer within a reasonable amount of time. Ooops.

* At least try to answer the question briefly on the day it is brought in. Be willing to expand on their question within a reasonable period of time if other ideas come to mind, or you were less than satisfied with your original, brief reply. Also be willing to express, "I don't know" and later, "this is what I found out, but I'm not sure I understand the question all that well."

* Early on, express Deut 29:29 (secret things of God) and Isaish 55:8-9 (My thoughts and ways are not like yours.) and 1 Cor 13:9-11 (understood and thought as a child, dimly through a mirror)

* Don't let time allocated for IMWTK take up more than a certain amount of time, or you may not get to the actual lesson, or do it justice.

* Try to emphasize IMWTK relatively early on in the year to build up a backlog. Then try to find questions that apply to the specific lesson for that week as the year goes on.

* Try to have an "agenda" for the year that is consistent with the church for the main points to cover (like one of our childrens' pastor emphasis on the Lordship of Jesus Christ). Try to give special attention to questions that pertain. One of the emphasis in the teacher's guide is "Examine Yourself".

* Reward heavily, like multiple scrips. Great questions can be rewarded with candy, especially first time asked.

* Make sure you understand the question they are asking, and try to figure out why they are asking.

* Ask the person with the question how they would answer, so to be aware of whether they already knew the answer, or what part of the answer they were aware of. Really good questions tend to come from when they have a partial answer, and aren't satisified with their partial answer, or aren't all that satisfied with answers they've heard from teachers, including parents.

* Ask the other kiddos in the class what they think the answer is. Encourage everything (with scrips to encourage discussison), but be gentle to express, "that's not (quite) the answer I was looking for", or "not really" if the answer has problems.

* I'm confident that we will learn much more about these questions in heaven when we are conformed to Christ. But we may still not learn everything or fully.