LearningCycles series The Body of Christ Creative Activities on Using Our Gifts for the Good of the Church

The LearningCycles series offers a creative approach to faith formation based on different learning styles, appropriate for K-5th graders.  Each LearningCycles unit generally includes seven workshops: Art, Story & Games, Drama & Activity, Music, Kitchen, Movie, and Publishing.  This series works well for whole family/intergenerational catechesis and is a great basis for grandparent camps or other vacation bible schools.

We are the Body of Christ. This ancient metaphor gives us a great picture of what the Church is intended to be. Each member is special, and has a unique combination of gifts to contribute to the larger body. The Church hopes to find ways to respect, value, and cherish all members. When we work together, each person contributing the best of her or his God-given gifts, we truly ARE the Church, the body of Christ. Together we become the hands, the feet, the voice, and the presence of God in the world.

When churches are functioning at their best, they invite their members in to take part in this important work and add their own special threads of gifts, talents, and abilities to the rich tapestry of all God’s people. We need the strength we find together as God’s gathered people to communally discern God’s will, to recognize and appreciate the gifts of other members, and then to get on with doing God’s work in the world around us.

• Art Workshop – Create a mosaic art piece and discuss the ways in which the Body of Christ is made up of lots of different pieces.
• Publishing Workshop – Explore ways that each person contributes to the life of the church and talk about what happens when part of the body is absent. Do outreach to people who are missing from the Church or cannot make it there regularly.
• Drama Workshop – Recall examples of people doing different jobs within the church (choir rehearsing, youth ministers teaching formation, ushers greeting people, the hospitality team preparing coffee hour) and make a video of themselves re-enacting these parts of the Body of Christ at work.
• Movie Workshop – Watch clips from the movie The Mighty Ducks and talk about what it means to stick together no matter what. (Supporting DVDs can be found for sale here.)
• Story Workshop – Trace body outlines and identify the gifts or characteristics God has given them that make them unique.
• Kitchen Workshop – Make “Monkey Bread” and use this as a tool to reflect on the concept of being part of one body with many members.
• Music Workshop – Use familiar hymns and some new music to discover and celebrate the unique gifts that we have and how we are called to be the Body of Christ.

Click to find additional resources for use with this unit.