An Overview of P&S in Action
From the Leader of a Housing Project in Michigan
Pebbles and Stones is a intergenerational teaching style that helps children grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ: It is based on the verses in I Peter 2:4-5 “As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
I have taught P/S (Pebbles and Stones) for over 10 years in inner city ministries, with children who have little or no knowledge of the Bible and Jesus. But, I also have watched it being used in churches where the foundations of faith are already strong. Using P/S and through experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit, these churches have become even stronger.
Let me first describe how I use this method within the housing project that we work:
Welcome and Praise Time: we begin with welcoming the children making sure to connect with them individually by asking about their week or talking with them about a challenge that they were struggling with that they asked for prayer for. Then we call the children together in a large circle. We welcome them all and then begin with prayer
- Call to Worship: This is not done in all P/S but I do it with ours because it is a wonderful way to prepare the children for listening to what God is going to teach them. I ask the children several questions – but I help them with the answers. After a couple of weeks they have the answers memorized.
- Questions:
- What is this place? I ask. They reply: A Holy place. (we do the sign language sign for Holy – pointer and tall man fingers on the right hand form a “h” and then brush it over the palm of your left hand, showing “clean”
- Who are we? I ask. They replay: Children of God. (hand motions – pretend you are tapping a child on the head – for child, and then God is your hand open with thumb pointed toward your nose and run it down the length of your face.
- Why are we here? I ask. They reply: To worship the Lord. (Hand motions – make a large circle with arms for praise and then make an “L” and pull it from shoulder to the hip on the other side.)
- How do we worship? I ask. They reply: With all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind and all of our strength. (hand motions – make a heart with your fingers, for soul – make a fist with one hand that represents the body, and take your pointer finger and make a winding motion out of the middle of the fist to represent the Spirit., Mind is just placing both hands on the head, Strength is doing muscles)
So the children can see several things from this call to worship - that there is nothing left out of our worship of God, that whenever we come into His presence it is a Holy Place and He will teach us there, and finally we come expectant.
- Next we sing some songs – there is a P/S song that has hand motions, or any songs that draw them into worshipful praise. I usually end with a song having to do with the lesson I am teaching.
- Lesson time sitting still together in a full circle. (Prayer)
- I often start out with a “prompting” question that helps the children to start thinking about the topic – eg. Do you have something or someone in your life that is a huge challenge to you? Then, I may give an example from my own life of a “giant”. Then I go into the story of David and Goliath with these words: “There is a story in the Bible that tells about a boy and his people who had a huge problem that they did not know how to solve alone. Let me tell it to you and maybe we can learn something from him, to solve our challenge.”
- Read the story of David and Goliath straight from the NIrV children’s Bible or I love the Catherine Vos Children’s Bible – 1950/1960 editions. I also love the book with sound doctrine - Leading Little Ones to God by M. Schoolland.
- When we are done reading the story I ask them what David did when coming against his giant – “He called on the name of the Lord”
- We often use the acronym GOOD to draw the children into thinking about how this story can help them know God better.
- G – What do you learn about God in this story?
- O – What do you learn about ourselves in this story?
- O – What do you learn about others in this story?
- D – What are you going to do with what you’ve learned?
Reflection Time – Break into small groups of 5-7 kids with a facilitator teen or adult in each group. Hand out a piece of paper with a verse that matches the story you told. Then ask them to draw or write words about what they learned in this lesson – who or what is the giant that they need to come against in the name of the Lord? You can play quiet classical music during the drawing time and tell the kids that they should be able to hear the music while they are working – this helps them to be quiet during the drawing time
Sharing what they learned – This is a precious time when you get to witness how the Holy Spirit showed up to teach the child right where she/he was at. In the example of David and Goliath, I would have 5 different responses to the same story. One little girl draws a man in the corner with a huge mouth, and there is a little girl in the other corner with tears on her face and a puddle of tears on the floor. Her giant is her dad who yells at her all the time. We encourage the child on either side of this child to lay their hands on the hurting little girl and the facilitator prays for her. Once the kids are more comfortable with each other, we ask one of the kids on either side to pray for the child. (You will ask this child when she comes in next week during the beginning one on one time, how it went with her dad) Another child may draw a bully at school, or a math book – whatever the giant is that they need to come against in the name of the Lord.
Come back together as a full group – sing a song or two in closing – I try to have one song at the beginning and at the end that we sing every week – children love predictability and this helps them feel secure.
Some additional details:
- This looks over simplified – and it is really hard to relay a process of teaching that is free flowing and effective like this one. Seeing it done makes it much clearer.
- When you get 5 different responses in a circle to the same story you start to realize that God’s Word is Living – it taught each child a different lesson – or touched them in their very struggles and joys in life. When you have taught them several lessons they begin to understand that God does speak to them through His Word and through their circumstances which leads to a clearer understanding that the Holy Spirit is present and they are starting to listen for what He will teach them. I have been a witness of this miracle in the children that I teach over and over again.
- Lastly, you don’t need some sophisticated program to teach this method – you need God’s Word in an easy to understand format. The Bible itself tells us His Word will not return void – so why not use His words to teach.
- There are many curriculums out there that are good but as a teacher I wanted something that the kids would come to love – Pebbles and Stones was it for us. If you look closely at other curriculums, often you see that they end with questions that are comprehension questions instead of relationship building questions. Which would you rather have a child knew when they left you? How many of each animal went into the ark or that there is a God who loves them so much that He surrounds them with protection?
- Examples from my own experience – Noah’s Ark – one child drew animals because she was so thankful that God thought to save the animals, another child drew tools because he thought it was so cool that God gave Noah and his sons the exact blueprint for the ark and wondered about such a God of detail, and the third child drew a huge window, with a black haired boy looking out at a drug dealer closing a deal, and a couple of gang members with guns ready to shoot each other. This boy was drawing a picture of himself – thankful that he was the boy on the inside of the window safe like Noah, in the protection of God’s hand with all the wickedness around him. He lives in a housing project where God’s story of protection for Noah extended all the way to Carlos in his dangerous living conditions. The Tower of Babel - we work with primarily Muslim children in the projects. During Lent the chief of their tribe told us that we were still going to be able to teach their children but we were not to talk about Jesus or even use His name. We asked how you journey though Lent without mentioning Jesus but we wanted to respect them so we prayerfully waited to see how the Holy Spirit would work this one out. When I had finished the story and we were sharing reflections from what we had learned, the chief’s ten year old daughter stood to share her picture – it was a huge tower but the words of explanation were precious to us as we listened to her teach what we could not. This is what she said, “Ms. Heidi, if man cannot build a tower up to God, then God better send someone down to them.” “Who should He send?” I asked. “Jesus, His Son” she answered. “Why does He need to come down?” I asked. “Because we have a huge sin problem and He is the only one who can fix it.” She answered. “How can He fix it?” I asked “He will die on the cross for our sins but then He will beat death by coming alive again in three days” she replied. This story still brings tears to my eyes.