Summary: What is a Christian Devotion?

Quite simply, a devotion devotes our day to God. It frames the day, recognising our reliance upon God for everything that we have and everything that we do. A devotion should include:

• A Bible passage
• A Christian Message
• Prayer

A Possible Weekly Devotion Overview

Classroom devotions are expected to occur each morning during homegroup (except where sub-school devotions or Worship occur). Homegroup teachers are responsible for ensuring devotions occur daily. When students are involved in writing and leading devotions, homegroup teachers should still be leading devotions regularly throughout the term so that they lead by example.

Staff Devotions

Devoting our day to God is an incredibly important part of the life of the College. It is expected that all teaching staff attend Staff Devotion on mornings when they are working. We also ask out of respect for Colleagues who have prepared the devotion that staff are ready for an 8:15 start. Though we understand the odd occasion when you’ll be unable to attend, if this needs to occur regularly, please discuss this with your Head of School.

What A Devotion Looks Like

Generally a devotion will include a short message, taken from the Bible. The message often reminds us of God’s grace or how God has been active in our lives. Where Christian character or ethical living is involved, it should be done in the context of a response to God’s grace, rather than something that earns God’s grace.

Christian songs may be used in devotion. At times, the message of a devotion could be taken from the words of a Christian song.

A devotion may include the invocation of the Trinitarian name. For example, “we begin this time in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” This is done to remind us that God is not a general god, or gods, but the one God who has revealed himself specifically as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

A devotion should conclude in prayer (see section below).

What a devotion is not

A devotion is not principles for good living, self-help, or professional development. Humanity should not be the centre of a devotion. God and His grace should always be the centre.

Stories and Devotions

Although a bible passage should be used as the basis for devotions, stories are also an incredibly important part of devotions (which makes sense, since the Bible is predominately narrative). Many people relate well to stories and find that they help to make meaning of their lives. At St Martins, staff devotions have a strong tradition of using personal stories. They have helped us get to know staff better and see how God has been active in their lives. Preparing a devotion is often an opportunity for personal spiritual growth and it is hoped that the process of reflecting upon stories is part of this growth.

When using stories, it is important to recognise God’s action in the story. Some possible questions to ask to help make a story into a devotion include:

1. How is God active in the story?
2. How does this story fit into God’s plan for creation?
3. What can we learn from the story about God’s love?

Possible Devotion Structures

There are many possible structures for devotions. As teachers across different Year levels and faculties, we bring different gifts and structure our devotions in different ways. Creativity is encouraged. However, the following three elements should be common to all devotions:

• A Bible passage
• A Christian Message with God as the central character
• Prayer

Many will choose to structure a devotion by telling a story, stating a bible verse and then answering one of the three questions in the above section on ‘Stories and Devotions’.

Another simple structure for preparing a devotion is: state a bible verse, give an explanation, an illustration and an application. When giving an application it should be remembered that if the application is an action on our part, it should always be in response to God’s grace, not something that earns God’s grace.

Prayer

It is normally expected that a devotion will begin or conclude with prayer. Prayer is quite simply talking with God.

A helpful practice of prayer is to begin with ‘Dear Father’ or ‘Dear Heavenly Father’ and then use: A TeaSPoon.
A: Adore - Praise God for who he is as creator and redeemer.
T: Thanks - Give thanks to God for all the good things he has provided to us.
S: Sorry - Say sorry to God for when we have sinned and not lived our lives as He wills.
P: Please - This is the bit people find easy ― to ask God for things!

Prayer usually ends with something similar to: ‘Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen’. This recognises that our relationship with God the Father has been made possible only because of Jesus’ death.

It is appropriate for some classroom devotions to only focus on prayer, and a Slide has been provided to assist with this. The Lord’s prayer and Martin Luther’s morning prayer are also helpful for students to know and can be used for morning devotions when pressed for time.

Devotion Scaffolding

This link may be helpful to step through the process of writing a devotion, or getting students to write a devotion.

The School Context of Devotion and Worship

A school is a unique context. The worshipping community includes Christians, but may not be predominantly Christian. The participants in Worship are often young in their faith, or still working out their faith. As such, the messages should be reflective, rather than inviting active responses, which may cause division. Unless discussed with school leadership, it would be inappropriate to ask students to make a commitment to Christ, as this should be done in consultation with their family and would require pastoral follow-up. Students can be asked to respond to the application of a message, but this would be as part of a private reflection, rather than a public commitment.

Junior School Resources

Have a look at the new books in the library. Other resources coming this term.

Senior School Resources

Have a look at the new books in the library (some useful for middle school). Other resources coming this term.