📖

Spiritual Fire: The Great Awakening Begins

The Great Awakening and Colonial Culture

Day 41of 180
Week 9of 36
35Minutes
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🖨️ Download Worksheet (PDF)
🎯 What You'll Learn

Learning Objectives

1

Understand the concept of religious revival

2

Describe the basic characteristics of the Great Awakening

3

Recognize how faith can inspire social change

📖 Scripture Connection

Jeremiah 29:13

“You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”

— Jeremiah 29:13 (WEB)

Illustrates the spiritual seeking that characterized the Great Awakening

📦 Materials Needed

  • Large map of colonial America
  • Colored markers
  • Timeline poster board
  • Construction paper
  • Glue sticks
📚 Step-by-Step

Lesson Plan

1Opening (5 min)

Gather students and explain how people sometimes experience special times of spiritual excitement called revivals

💭 Review Question: What do you know about times when many people become excited about learning about God?
2Teaching (15 min)

Explain the Great Awakening as a time when many colonists became passionate about their faith, with powerful preachers helping people understand God's love

📌 Key Talking Points:
  • Happened in 1730s and 1740s
  • Spread across different colonies
  • Encouraged personal relationship with God
  • Challenged existing church structures
💬 Discussion Questions:
  • How might people feel during a religious revival?
  • Why is personal faith important?
  • How can faith inspire people to help others?
3Activity: Revival Map Creation (10 min)
hands-on

Students create a collaborative map showing how the Great Awakening spread

📝 Instructions:
  1. Divide large map among students
  2. Color different regions showing revival spread
  3. Add small illustrations of churches or preachers
🔄 Variations:

Simpler: Pre-draw regions for students to color

Challenge: Include dates and specific preacher locations

4Closing (5 min)

Recap how the Great Awakening showed people's desire to know God personally

📝 Review Questions:
  • What made the Great Awakening special?
  • How did people learn about God during this time?
🙏 Prayer:

Dear Jesus, help us always seek You with our whole heart, just like the colonists did during the Great Awakening.

Coming up: Tomorrow we'll learn about Jonathan Edwards, an important preacher during this time

💎 Memory Verse

Jeremiah 29:13

“You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”

— Jeremiah 29:13 (WEB)

🎯 Activity: Heart Search: Students create paper hearts with the verse, cutting out letters

👨‍👩‍👧 For Parents

Teaching Notes

📚 Background:

The Great Awakening was a significant religious movement that emphasized personal faith and individual spiritual experiences

💡 Teaching Tips:
  • Discuss how faith can inspire positive social change
  • Emphasize personal relationship with God
  • Connect historical events to modern spiritual experiences
🤔 Common Struggles:

Children might find historical religious concepts abstract

👀 Signs of Understanding:

Understanding of revival as a time of spiritual excitement and personal connection with faith

🚀 Want More?

Extension Activities

  • Research a preacher from the Great Awakening
  • Create a dramatic reading of a revival sermon
  • Draw a comic strip showing revival experiences

Ready for Tomorrow?

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