Context

‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ is an SRE curriculum developed by the Narrabri Schools Ministry to fit the context of the Special Religious Education program at Narrabri High School. Most publicised SRE curriculums available in NSW at the time of writing this curriculum were designed for a full year’s weekly program. These wouldn’t work in the context of Narrabri High School because SRE currently is allocated three one-hour sessions in years seven and eight. Other whole school assemblies are also permitted. 

‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ is designed to follow on from what was taught in year seven SRE. Year seven SRE is an overview of the bible viewing the bible as one story. ‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ for year eight focusses on the person of Jesus and the claims he made along with the claims people make about him. ‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ has been designed to be flexible to cater for the various places where students will be up to in their own spiritual journey. This program has also been designed to be sensitive to students whose views diverge from mainstream Christianity.

 

Objectives

The primary aim of ‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ is to give students an opportunity to think seriously and discuss the person of Jesus.

• For students to discover the various points of view about Jesus

• For students to consider the impact of Jesus own claims

• For students to uncover the difference that Jesus can make for their life both now and in the future

Outcomes

At the end of this program students will be:

• Able to discuss some of the converging perspectives on Jesus

• Challenged by the claims of Jesus, considering the implications of his claims

• Given the opportunity to hear about the difference Jesus has already made to people’s lives

 

 

Overview

‘Who Do You Say I Am?’ is a three-session curriculum. 

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Session One – Foundations

• Session one sets the foundations for the remaining two sessions. During this session ground rules are set around mutual respect and confidentiality. Students need to feel safe in the SRE room to share their own views about Jesus. 

• Much of the time of session one is dedicated to building relationships with the students, the teachers getting to know the students and the students getting to know the teachers. A game such as ‘My Name Is And I Like To’ is a good example of how to get to know each other.

• During this session student will be asked to accept Jesus as a real historical person for the purposes of this subject. Students will be presented with some reasons why the historicity of Jesus can be can be established.

• Students will be given opportunity to vocalise the diverging views about Jesus. Students will be encouraged particularly to speak of the negatives as well as the positives.

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Session two – The claims of Jesus

• During session two students will have the opportunity to hear from community members who Jesus is to them. Guests will be asked to answer the following three questions;

  • Who do you say Jesus is?

  • Why do you say that?

  • What difference does this make to your life?

• Students will be asked to contribute to the class discussion by telling the stories they can remember about Jesus. The SRE facilitators need to connect the stories being shared with the divinity of Jesus. 

• The take home message of this lesson is that if Jesus really said and did these things then he really thought he was God’s Son.

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Session Three – How do people respond?

• Lesson three considers five significant events in the life of Jesus. Birth, two miracles, Death, Resurrection. The students are asked to consider how people might and do respond to these stories.

• Students are shown that people can respond in multiple ways to hearing the Gospel of Jesus.