Monday 17 June 2013

4: Lego Bible Study

Lego Nativity
Bible Study! Anything with the word 'study' in the title sounds boring, right? But Lego....hmmm.

There is a way of reading the Bible called 'Ignatian', because it was invented by St.Ignatius. The idea is that you read a Bible story, and imagine yourself there. What does it feel like (hot?), smell like (camels?), sound like (busy? shouting?), and so on. Then you imagine yourself in the scene and ask yourself what part you are playing. And then you imagine Jesus turning to you. What does he say?

This is a bit like that, but less 'sit still and think' and more 'get out the Lego and build'. You are going to recreate, in Lego, a story from the Bible. The challenge is to think about what the characters in the story are thinking or feeling, and try to choose Lego figures with appropriate facial expressions, and pose them in ways that expresses what you think they are feeling. So in the nativity above (courtesy of Noah last Christmas), the shepherd looks terrified, because the angel is saying 'do not be afraid'.

You could choose any story you like, but if you can't think of one how about giving the story of the Good Samaritan a go? You probably know it already, but you can also read it here.

Show your model to friends and family, compare how different your version is from your friends and discuss why, and put the pictures on facebook or tweet them to me @MirandaTHolmes!


2 comments:

  1. Great idea! Can I detect a godly play influence?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stumbled across your humble offerings and noticed that you have also tried using lego. Once a year our Sunday school class have a legos morning. we spread a huge sheet and dump a few kilos of bricks onto it and let the kids loose. Invariably its plain houses, cops, robbers, bandits and space pirates. Then just one child will render the crucifixion - or a heart made of bricks. For more inspiration next time you try this, type "lego nativity" into youtube.
    Marks:
    Ease : 7/10 keeping the lego on the sheet to makes it easy to clean up.
    Spirit : 2/10 not much at all really, with an age group range of 6-11 years.

    ReplyDelete

We welcome your comments, especially if you have tried the week's exercise yourself! Give it marks out of ten, or just let us know what you think. Please be aware we may quote you if we ever do write this up as book!