LiftLid

July 2019

How do you share the good news of God's love with your community?

Making disciples is not a course, it’s a lifestyle and we can all have a heart for those who don’t know Jesus and a life of following Him, explains Malcolm Dyer, pastor at Elim Ryedale.

“Many teachers have limited resources, limited training and limited time to teach Christianity, so our children’s worker started to put interactive boxes together to support teachers on key syllabus themes such as creation, Christmas and Easter, also covering topics like evil and suffering, and personal identity.

“These were initially delivered to over 40 schools in North Yorkshire and were designed around the Education Authority curriculum.

“The plastic boxes include quizzes, story sheets, Q-cards and dressing up clothes for juniors, to make them as user-friendly as possible for teachers to use. We even made a crown of thorns and sent these out in the boxes to prompt discussion around Easter.

“The ‘Lift the Lid’ project was launched nationally this year with different types of boxes available for secondary and primary schools, as well as Christmas and Easter Experience boxes.

“One Yorkshire church had no children’s work, so they took the boxes into their local school and now put on the Christmas and Easter experience in their church building every year, and now have many openings to school assemblies.

“At Elim Ryedale we aspire to be a church for all generations, passing on our experience of God to the generations below us. Two-thirds of the population have no interest in church, but our challenge is to engage with them.

“We must do this in our daily lives, showing people the relevance of Christianity, being a follower of Jesus and finding followers.

“We also recognise the need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. It’s about picking up the mantel of George Jeffreys and many other Pentecostal pioneers, making their experience real in this day and age.”

For more Elim stories, view and download Elim's Annual Review at elim.org.uk/annualreview

Enjoy this article? Don't forget to share

 
 
Spirit and Study: Why it’s not either/or
Should believers study theology or enrol in the ‘school of the Holy Spirit’? Michelle Nunn considers the options.
20 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled
The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ saw the fulfilment of an astonishing number of Old Testament prophecies, as Jesus himself pointed out to the two dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27)
A new day dawning in the favelas
When a mission team from Ingatestone Elim visited a charity ministering in a Brazilian shanty town or ‘favela’ they saw God’s love in action. Sophie Rickett told Chris Rolfe about the trip
Are we peacekeepers or peacemakers?
God’s peace flows ‘to’ us, but it should also flow ‘through’ us, says Malcolm Duncan
Answering the call: From leading to serving
Kevin Kirkland has served at Rugby Elim for decades, but wonders if God is now calling him from secular management into ministry? In the second of our series on Elim’s Ministers in Training he shares how he is finding out.
 

Sign up to our email list to keep informed of news and updates about Elim.

 Keep Informed