Well, the newly-discovered school assembly bug has truly bitten. The assembly at the beginning of September at Little Waltham went well, and I soon went to the Guy Harlings Resource Centre to search for some more. There I discovered what I now regard as a little gem: ‘Stories For Interactive Assemblies’ by Nigel Bishop. Bishop is a primary school head who has retold fifteen of Jesus’ parables in the setting of a primary school. Not only that, there is follow-up material for teachers after each story.
Last week I went back to Little Waltham and told one of his stories. It went down tremendously well with children and staff. They then asked me at short notice to go back yesterday and fill in at their Harvest Festival, because the local vicar and URC ministers have both recently retired. Again, one of Bishop’s retold parables worked wonders.
I happen to differ with Bishop on biblical studies issues about the parables. He takes the standard critical view that parables only make one point, there is no allegory and therefore the couple of times that Jesus explains them are not original to him. I follow Craig Blomberg in his book ‘Interpreting The Parables’ who argues for limited allegory and takes the issue of concealment more seriously, rather than explaining it away on the grounds of inclusiveness.
However, that said, the great thing is that although Bishop is more liberal in his tendencies and I am more conservative in mine it has so far made little or no difference to the power and application of the stories. If you are looking for something new and creative for primary school assemblies I recommend this book highly. Just don’t start using it on my patch in this part of Essex!
Technorati Tags: primary+school, assembly, Little+Waltham, Guy+Harlings, Stories+For+Interactive+Assemblies, Nigel+Bishop, parables, Craig+Blomberg, Interpreting+The+Parables
Big Circumstance 
Hi Dave
I’m a bit new to blogs, even though my Reverend brother Neil Bishop has had one for a while. I found it very interesting poking around in yours. My daughter Nicola found a reference to your very encouraging review of my recent publication. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve asked my publisher BRF to have a look at it as it’s the first one I’ve seen. It’s very kind of you to endorse what I hope will be a useful resource to many more hard-pushed ministers, teacher and volunteers.
Best wishes
Nigel
LikeLike
Hi Nigel,
My wife saw the notification from Typepad of your comment for moderation and said, ‘You’ve got an email from the Bishop of Grimsby!’ 🙂
Seriously, I’m perfectly happy for BRF to look at what I’ve said. The book has continued to receive an excellent reception at school: the children and staff look forward to the next episode.
I didn’t realise you were Neil Bishop’s brother – not that I know him, but I do occasionally look at his blog.
Happy Christmas, and every success with the book.
LikeLike