Posts Tagged "communication"
Empowering Voices: Upper School Students Develop The Art of Preaching
February 24, 2025
Can you imagine graduating from high school with the confidence that you not only know what you believe, but also know how to effectively share it? At Christian Heritage School we train teenagers to know and love the Word of God, apply it to their lives, and preach it winsomely to a world that needs it. Our hope is that they will be able to start living out the Great Commission long before they become adults. Most of the best preachers we can think of started formal training as adults. Imagine what the church could look like if we were to equip teenagers to read the Bible and share it with others.
To this end, we teach our students how to preach starting in 6th grade. Each year, students are taught the basics of exegesis and how to understand the Bible in context. They are taught how to write a sermon that is Biblically accurate and applicable to the students in their classes. Each year we build on the fundamentals of preaching that they have been taught. By the time they are in high school, they can effectively exegete and apply scripture in a way that brings the Word of God to life.
Sadly, in our culture, both teens and adults alike are afraid of public speaking. By training our students how to read the Bible in context and then giving them both the tools and the opportunity to communicate what they have learned, they are becoming speakers who boldly proclaim the name of Jesus. Not only are students able to preach in class, but they are also given the opportunity to preach in chapels, for both the lower and upper schools. What an encouragement it is to have our 3rd graders see an 8th grader preach a first-person narrative of the Christmas story.
Our students are not only equipped but genuinely very good at preaching. Our Bible faculty is regularly amazed at the quality of preaching that is coming from students: 8th graders who can modernize a parable that will bring you to tears, a 9th grader who exegetes a passage in a way that brings to life what you’ve never noticed before, or an 11th grader who gets choked up sharing all that God has done in his life.
It is a privilege to teach students the Word of God, but my greatest joy at CHS has been helping students find their voice and preach!
Mrs. Jennie Higenyi is our Upper School Bible Department Head. She received a Bachelors of Psychology and Pastoral Ministry from Nyack College, and a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Preaching from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. Jennie has worked as both an Associate Pastor and a Preaching Pastor, and began her teaching career as a Professor of Pastoral Ministry. She has lived as a Missionary both in Italy and in Africa. This is her fourteenth year working at CHS, and she teaches 7th, 8th, and 11th grade Bible, and 12th grade Syracuse University Presentational Speaking.
Honors Art: Process Over Product
December 11, 2024
Art is personal. It showcases skills and communicates an idea. Students will never be asked to display a test, but an art project will always be on display for others to see. This can be daunting for some, even students in Honors Art. To eliminate the paralyzing fear of imperfection, students are encouraged to adopt the mindset of process over product.
On the first day of class, I showed the students a photo of an artwork and asked them what they thought of it. Most students' initial reactions were what I expected them to be– not impressed. After I shared the story behind the artwork the students' opinions changed. The lesson was: Not everything you create in your lifetime will be wall-worthy, but that doesn’t mean the time you spent creating those things was meaningless. Students were excited to handle the original artwork, a Pablo Picasso, during our time with the traveling collection of Christian Thomas Lee.
Students often assume that they need to be a talented artist to enroll in Honors Art. While Honors Art does require some foundational skills, students have quickly learned that engagement is the key to success, not innate talent.
The Honors Art curriculum encourages students to build on and combine foundational skills learned in their introductory courses. Students are given significant creative freedom and are asked to wrestle with thought-provoking prompts. This year’s students are being asked questions like “How can I visually communicate parts of my identity?” and “If Jesus were here today who might he be hanging out with and what might he be doing?”. These are difficult questions to answer on a canvas, but CHS students do one thing exceptionally well in my classes: encourage.
I like to believe “all together now” is a phrase that captures the spirit of the art room. Brainstorming, praising, suggesting, and questioning are ongoing during class. Students are challenged to critique (and receive critique) each other's projects in a kind and respectful manner– a skill every adult needs in the working world. During our first critique of the year (an altered self-portrait) I heard a few variations of my favorite phrase: “This turned out better than I thought it would” and “This was not as scary as I thought it would be”, enforcing my belief that by adopting the mindset of process over product, the product will ultimately be more successful because of the work it took to get there.
Honors Art students will display their work in a special exhibit at this year’s K-12 art show. It is my hope that the intentionality of each student’s work will be evident to the public. Everything done in the art room is for the glory of God and is a reflection of our innate desire to create, given by and inspired by God’s love for creation.
Mrs. Olivia Olson is the upper school art teacher at CHS. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from Asbury University. She has been teaching at CHS since 2020 and is a CHS alum. Her favorite part of her position is the privilege of getting to know and witnessing growth in her students throughout their entire middle and high school careers.