In the previous article,1the use of question sheets was presented as a way to get Sunday school students thinking and talking about important issues. When this happens, the teacher facilitates the discussion and becomes a listener and evaluator. It is an opportunity to find out what the students are thinking. Do they grasp the Biblical principles involved in the issue? Do they know how to apply the principles in their own lives? And in the end, are they convinced that God’s way really works?
The last piece is critical. God’s way does work, and the use of case studies can be an effective way to augment instruction and drive the point home. Case studies show principles at work in real life situations. They add credibility to what some students might otherwise think is theoretical, or even optional instruction. Let me illustrate this with an example.
Man’s way or God’s way?
Several years ago I came across an instructive pair of articles in our local news paper.2It was real life stuff, and it provided the substance for a case study that I have used with young people many times since. The situation bore directly on the question of facing violence in our personal lives.
The first article carried the headline: “Escapees Kill Tennessee Man”. The second had the headline: “Armed killer succumbs to home cooking, Bible”. The stories were related and you can imagine what they were about.
A major prison break took place in western Tennessee in February, 1984, and five heavily armed convicts went on the loose for several days. The man they killed was a Sunday school teacher who felt the need to pack a pistol in his belt when he stepped out of his house to grill steaks. He was no match for the two professional killers who smelled the cooking food and emerged from the nearby woods. One is left wondering what Bible this man taught Sunday school from. And one is left wondering what would have happened if he had offered the convicts something to eat rather than bullets.
The second article was about an elderly grandmother who discovered a third escapee curled up on her front porch with a shotgun in his hand. When he came into the house, she told him, “Put down your gun. I’m a Christian woman and I don’t want no violence.” The convict was a young man in his mid-twenties, and he obeyed. She talked to him about his life and she prayed for him. She also talked to him about the Bible and Jesus. Meanwhile, she prepared breakfast for him because he hadn’t eaten a good meal in three days. At the end, the man gave himself up and went back to prison where he was serving a 25-year sentence for murder.
Which way worked, man’s way or God’s way? Things may not always turn out as they did in this case, but the wise grandmother certainly did the right thing. To meet violence with violence produces only one outcome: violence. To meet violence with nonviolence stands at least a chance of producing a nonviolent outcome. It is in God’s hands, of course, but God’s ways are far more practical than many people think. We place our faith in this, and in the process, understand that God holds our eternal destiny in His hands no matter what happens in this life.
I use this case study as a follow up to a set of question sheets.3The question sheets pose the jail-break problem in hypothetical terms and give the students an opportunity to think and say what they would do if something like this happened to them. We talk the situation through together and get the alternatives on the table: man’s way and God’s way. If the students have any doubts that God’s way is an effective way of dealing with the problem, the case study comes as a real eye-opener. It’s my punch line.
It is important to drive the point home that God’s way works in real life. And it is important for the students to realize that God’s way is the only way that holds promise for the life to come.
Finding case studies
Case studies do not always have to be drawn from the newspaper or other modern media. They can be drawn from personal life experiences as well. Students can relate more easily to case studies when it is obvious that the stories come from the lives of real human beings, especially ones whom they know.
The Bible is full of good case studies, too. For example, David faced violence at the hands of Saul. (See 1Sam 23:25-29.) David found himself in a life and death situation in which he had to rely entirely on God for a way of escape. God intervened in a timely manner. It all seemed to happen circumstantially; we would call it “the ways of providence”, but David was saved and he recognized that God was with him. Psalm 54 is David’s prayer of faith and thanksgiving at this frightening time in his life.
The finest man in the Bible did not escape the violence that was perpetrated against him. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross; he suffered and died at the hands of ruthless men. His life, like ours, came with no guarantees other than death, but there is hardly a student in our Sunday schools who does not know the outcome of this: God raised him from the dead. God’s way works favorably for the faithful: sometimes in the short term and always in the long term.
Using case studies
Case studies are versatile. They do not have to be used just to culminate instruction. A good story can also be used to get instruction started. When this is done, the case study provides an immediate focal point for class discussion. Students can be asked to analyze the story and identify the Biblical principles involved. They can be asked to think how they might handle a similar situation and give reasons why they might or might not behave the same way. In either case, the value of God’s way of doing things can be brought to life and emphasized. How you use a case study in Sunday school depends on the makeup of your class and what you, as the teacher, want to accomplish by using the story.
- See “Getting Them Thinking and Talking! The Use of Question Sheets”, The Tidings, November, 2012.
- The first article appeared in the Record-Journal, Meriden, CT, February 23, 1984, p.10. The second one appeared in the same newspaper a day or two later. (I no longer have the dateline of the second article).
- E-mail me if you would like a copy of this case study and the question sheets that go with it. If you have a case study to share (i.e., an instructive anecdotal story), I would be pleased to receive a copy of it.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One