Created
by God
Created by God
brings together fifth and sixth graders, their
parents, and adult leaders for a faith-filled, comprehensive study of
human sexuality—anatomy, growth and development, reproduction, and God’s
call to intimacy and responsibility. Jim developed this study for
Abingdon Press and has been teaching it across the country for more than
15 years. An advocate for the appropriateness of helping preteens deal
with their rapidly emerging sexuality in a Godly setting, Jim both
promotes the study and trains new leaders.
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Created
by God:
A
Church-based Human Sexuality Education Experience
for Fifth
and Sixth Graders and Their Parents
Running and Hiding
We can
tell ourselves that our children aren’t ready at fifth or sixth
grade to acquire a full understanding of the changes that have already
begun to take place in their bodies, minds, emotions, and relationships.
We can attempt to shield our children from the impact of their
friends’ limited (and often very incorrect) information regarding
sexuality, and from the misleading and abusive attitudes toward
sexuality that come from our culture. We can allow our own
insecurities, lack of information, or guilt to send us into hiding in
order to avoid the subject of sex. In the process, we waste a lot of
time and a lot of energy—time and energy that would be much more
productively invested in a program of sexuality education where the
energies of church and family are united to communicate to our preteens
that they both were and are being created by the God who
calls them into intimate relationships with God and others.
In the Beginning…Created
by God
Created by God: About Human Sexuality for Older Girls and Boys (and the
Loving Adults Who Watch and Help Them Grow) is an educational
program developed at The United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville,
Tennessee. Dr. James H. Ritchie, Jr., a United Methodist pastor and
former children’s curriculum editor at The United Methodist Publishing
House, was editor and co-writer (with Dorlis Brown Glass) of the
original Created by God resources published in 1989. He began to
teach the study in 1991 and since then has traveled across the country,
taking over a thousand young persons and their parents through the
program. Since 2002 and the founding of Ritchie Faith Span Ministries,
Dr. Ritchie has committed much of his time and energy teaching
and promoting Created by God and training leaders. The current
resources were revised, updated, and edited in 1999 for Abingdon Press
by Dr. Ritchie.
Distinctive Characteristics of
Created by God
1.
Faith-based and church-sponsored.
God and values form the very
foundation for our understanding of sexuality as people of faith. In the
church, unlike in other settings, those values need not be avoided.
Created by God begins with the assumption that our sexuality is
God’s idea and is therefore, like the whole of God’s creation, very
good.
2.
Understands and is sensitive to preteens/young adolescents.
Created by God is far from a passive, lecture-based study. It is
active, engages all learning styles/intelligences, acknowledges that
preteens are ready to deal with issues regarding their sexuality—even
more willing to do so than teens, and recognizes that they need to be
equipped with accurate, faithful information in order to process (and
often counteract) what they are already getting elsewhere.
3.
Incorporates parents into the experience.
Parents are prepared for
what their sons and daughters will experience in the course of the
study, introduced to a common vocabulary and provided with common
experiences to facilitate communication within the family, and given an
opportunity to practice communication skills. Time after time, parents
report how general lines of communication are opened in the home and
conversation on any subject is facilitated.
4.
Comprehensive.
Created by God provides a solid foundation
upon which young persons can develop a healthy and Godly understanding
of their sexuality and prepare to respond in a responsible manner. It is
a holistic approach, dealing with sexual anatomy and growth and
development, relationships and the true meaning of intimacy,
reproduction, attitudes, responsible behaviors, and all other crucial
issues—those raised by the students and their parents as well as the
study leaders.
5.
Explores the meaning of intimacy and contrasts intimacy and sexual
activity.
Created by God starts with the assumption that
God’s desire for us is intimacy with God and intimacy with one another.
Intimacy is taught experientially—students and leaders sitting
together on the floor, close together, without the barriers of tables
and chairs, talking together openly about important, sometimes difficult
subjects. Created by God teaches intimacy dramatically,
involving students in skits that help them grasp the meaning of intimacy
in a concrete fashion, relating it to real life preteen situations.
Created by God clearly differentiates between intimacy as deep
friendship and the common notion that intimacy represents sexual
contact.
6.
Responds to all questions.
Participants (both parents and kids) are
free to ask any question, either publicly or anonymously. Every question
posed receives a response. When preteens are placed in a setting where
they feel safe, comfortable, and respected—a setting like Created by
God, they will ask absolutely anything.
7.
Girls and boys remain together for the entire event.
The barriers we
have historically placed between males and females when doing sexuality
education are both artificial and unnecessary. Boys and girls have no
problem experiencing this together. Sensitivity toward, understanding
of, and respect for the other gender has to begin somewhere, and at a
time when these very attitudes are being shaped seems the appropriate
“somewhere” to begin.
RFSMinistries can schedule Jim Ritchie to lead
your Created by God event, help you identify other leadership for
your event, or train persons from your church or area to provide
leadership.
