Lesson video

Hi everybody, and welcome to today's lesson on Christian Practises.

My name is Mrs. Day and I will be taking you through this online lesson.

So today we are continuing to look at the nature of worship, but today our focus is on the church building.

So we're going to look at what church looked like and the rule that they have in the local community.

Please could you make sure that you have the following equipment to be ready for this lesson.

So you need a pen or a pencil, you need some paper or a notebook to write on and a different coloured pen, that is simply so you can mark some of the great work that you are going to do.

So if you don't have any of these things, could you please pause the video here and go to get it, and then you can press resume.

So what are we doing in today's lesson? So this is our agenda for today, we are going to look at different forms of church building, so we're going to consider two different types of church, and then we are going to look at the use of the church building in the local community.

So these are the two different forms of church building, that we are going to look at in today's lesson.

So firstly, we will look at the Anglican Church that is Church of England.

And secondly, we will look at modern churches that are popping up around the country today.

So those are two main forms of church that we will consider.

This is an image of an Anglican Church.

You probably recognise this from living in the UK, you have probably seen lots of these buildings.

So this is a traditional, I work in church that you might see around and these churches tend to be older and they tend to be Church of England.

They normally have beautiful exterior, stained glass windows, nice grinds, so we will look at those in slightly more detail.

We will also look at the modern church and you might also have noticed that in recent years, these churches are up and coming around the UK.

And a lot of the time, these types of churches will be in converted buildings.

So sometimes you will see converted warehouses, sometimes it will be old schools, they take on lots of different buildings.

And they tend to be really big, they tend to have lots of space, they can fit lots of people in there and they are not structured in the traditional way that an Anglican Church is structured.

So we are going to consider both of these forms of church.

So firstly, let's have a look at what you might find inside an Anglican Church.

Firstly, there will be a lectern.

And as you can see in the image, this is a small platform where the Bible is read from.

This is usually at the front of the church.

And this is really important because Christians think the Bible is the key focus to their faith.

So it's really important that the Bible is read from the central part of the church.

So this is usually at the front and it's seen as a really important part of the church, because the Bible is what they base their whole faith on.

Secondly we have the altar, and this is the table from which Communion is taken.

If you've ever been in an Anglican Church, you will have seen that they have this table at the front of the church.

And this tends to be a core part of the church, people's focus tends to be on this altar.

And why is the altar so significant? So you will remember that we looked at the Last Supper, and we will look in more detail at what Communion is in future lessons.

But remember the Last Supper is when Jesus took Communion or the Eucharist with His disciples, He said, "this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me." And Christians still do this today, they take the Eucharist to remember Jesus's death.

So this is a key practise within the church, so this is why it has given so much importance within Anglican churches.

And then we have our third key feature and these are stained glass windows.

And you will notice these in lots of different churches.

They look incredible, they usually have bright colours that catch your attention, but why are these here? So in history, if we look back a few hundred years, these stained glass windows, weren't just decoration, but they actually told the story of Jesus.

So if you can imagine a few hundred years ago, not everyone could read and write.

It was only the wealthy in society that were sent to school and could read and write.

So churches came up with an idea that they could teach people about Jesus, through these images.

They could communicate the key events in Jesus's life, through these images on windows.

And that way people didn't have to be able to read the Bible to understand what Jesus has done for them.

Quite an impressive idea, I'm sure you will agree.

But also these images looks so striking and beautiful, you can see them all around churches in the UK, and I'd really encourage you to go and look at some and see if you can tell what any of the stories are from the windows.

And finally we have the font, and this is where children are baptised, and it's usually at the entrance to the church.

So in the Church of England, is an option for children to be baptised as babies.

So the font would be used to baptise someone as a baby.

And what would happen is the minister or the priest would sprinkle water over the baby's head.

Why do they place this at the entrance? Simply because Christians believe that after you become a Christian, you should be baptised.

In the Bible, Jesus said, "go and make disciples of all nations and baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit." So in the Bible, we see that baptism comes after becoming a Christian.

So that's why they believe that when you come into the church, you should be baptised.

Baptism is essential for becoming a member of the church.

So those are the four key features of the church.

So now we are going to do some quick fire questions to see what you can remember.

A lectern is where someone is baptised, is this true or false? You can point at the screen or write down your answer.

Five, four, three, two, and one, that is of course false, the font is where someone is baptised.

The altar is where Communion is taken five, four, three, two, and one, that is true.

The altar is where Communion is taken in the Anglican Church today.

People will come up to the altar to receive Communion.

Stained glass windows simply add decoration to the church, is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, and one that is false.

Remember we said they had a really important rule in history, as they explained key stories from Jesus's life to people who couldn't read.

The font is usually placed beside the altar, is that true or false? Five, four, three, two, one that is of course false.

Remember we said the font is that the entrance to the church because of this idea that when you become a Christian, you should be baptised.

So now it's over to you to have a go at this task.

You can download the worksheet and print it and write on it or complete it on a device or computer.

And what I would like you to do is to fill in this table.

So for each of these items or each of these objects that make up the interior of the Anglican Church, I want you to write down what does it look like? Where is it and why is it important? So add as much detail as you can try and do it from memory, but if you need to look back in the video, then you can also do that.

We will go over the answers together after, so if you're not quite sure on one part of it, don't worry we will talk about it together, but try your best, you can pause the video and resume again when you have finished.

Now that you're finished, we will go through your answers together.

So let's start with the font, what does it look like? So is a baptismal stand that generally will be wooden and it will be maybe up to your waist height, slightly higher, and it is where people are baptised.

So where is it? Usually beside the entrance to the church.

And why is it important? So baptism is a sacrament, we will talk about what those are in later lessons, but the sacrament is simply an outward action that symbolises inward grace, and it welcomes people into the Christian family.

Secondly the lectern, what does it look like? So is a stand where people read the Bible from, where is it? Is at the front of the church.

Why is it important? The Bible should be what the church is based on.

The altar, what does it look like? It is a table, and sometimes it has cloth on it.

Where is it? It's at the front of the church, and why is it important? It is where Communion or the Eucharist is taken from, which remembers the death of Jesus.

And then finally stained glass windows, what do they look like? They're beautiful, they're decorated, they're colourful.

Where is it? Obviously on the walls, and then why is it important? So it tells the Christian story, it tells a story about Jesus, to people who may in the past not being able to read.

So really well done on that, you can pause the video here, and with your different coloured pen, just add some corrections to your work.

So that was the Anglican Church, but what about the modern church? Because the modern church doesn't have a lot of those features.

So the modern church as you can see in this image here, tends to have a lot of musical instruments, tends to be really large.

So what does it look like? So we've said before that it has lots of space, why? Simply because then it can contain lots of people.

If it is not restricted by the amount of space, then lots of people can come.

Tends to use chairs and not pews, why? So simply because chairs can be moved around, so this means that the space can be used for different events, it can be used to have lots of people in different groups they can move the chairs around when they want, whereas pews are stuck in the same place, so that space can't be used for many other things.

Finally, there's usually a stage, and this is where the band will play, people will speak from, it would normally contain an altar or a font, they will still take Communion and read the Bible, but that will be done a slightly different way.

Now I want to challenge you a little bit, why do you think the modern church might have these features? So you can pause the video here and write down what you think.

Why do you think the modern church might have these features rather than the features that the Anglican Church have? I'm sure you have lots of good ideas, the reason that I would like to suggest is simply practical, the modern church is designed around practical reasons.

So what works, what's the best use of this space, how do we get more people into the church? If we have chairs we can use it for different things, so actually a lot of modern churches are designed with simply practical reasons in mind.

Now we're going to think about how the church building is used in the local community.

So we've looked at two types of church buildings and both of these church buildings are used lots by local communities.

So let's have a think about some different ways that the church building is used.

So what I would like you to do is to pause the video here, to complete this task.

I would like you to create a mind map, so you can write church in the local community in the middle and you can use these images to help you come up with some ideas.

So how is the church used in the local community? So as I said use these images and see what you can come up with.

And when you finished, you can press resume.

Great, let's go through some of your ideas together.

So I'm sure you came up with lots of great ideas, but we're going to go through some that I have came up with, and you can add these to what you have said in your different coloured pen.

Firstly, sometimes foodbanks are set up to help those in need.

You might have heard what foodbanks are, they are simply charities or organisations that collect lots of food and give it out to people who need it.

So sometimes these are set up in churches or the space in churches is used to store the food.

Secondly, churches offer programmes such as youth clubs to help local young people.

A lot of churches especially in cities and towns will have many different activities on for local young people to come to.

Thirdly, some churches offer financial advice to local people.

There's a charity called Christians Against Poverty, which works out for lots of churches in the UK.

And it simply gives people advice on how to manage their Monday, money sorry, how to get out of debt and different practical things like that.

Then churches also host major life events, such as wedding and funerals.

Lots of people still have weddings and funerals in a church, even if they don't regularly attend.

And that could be because traditionally the church would be the centre of society.

That's where all of these events would happen.

So we know that today this still happens, people still want to get married and have funerals in churches.

They also have some support groups for elderly people, so churches will put on different events for elderly people.

And finally they put on events or evangelism events for the local community.

Evangelism means to tell people about Jesus, and this is one of the key aims of churches.

So they will put on events for the local community to come to, to get to know other people and to hear the message about Jesus.

So hopefully you got lots of those ideas, feel free to pause the video now and you can write down some of the ones you didn't get.

But what we can see here is that the church plays a really important role in local community.

For a lot of people, the church is still a really important part of that community, and provides really important resources and practical help to the people that live nearby.

But let's think about this statement, the church building is needed in local communities, evaluate this statement.

What does evaluate mean? So it means simply to look at both sides of an argument and come to an overall conclusion.

So this statement says the church building is needed in local communities.

So we're going to think why would we agree with that? And then why would we disagree with that? And then what is your overall conclusion? So you can start to think actually is the church needed, why is the church needed in local communities? You can use lots of the reasons we've just discussed.

But then on the other side, you need to consider why is it not needed? Surely there are other things that could do these rules, and then I want you to come to an overall conclusion.

So your task is to complete this table, so you can pause the video here and draw out this table and write down the reasons you agree with the statement and the reasons you disagree.

And when you're ready, you can press resume, and then we will go through the answers together.

Great, well done, I'm sure you came up with lots of great ideas.

So let's go through some of these together.

So the church building is needed in the local community, why would someone agree with this? So it gives people necessary care, we saw that through foodbanks, youth groups, elderly groups, it usually is in a good location and has space to care for people.

So by their nature, churches can fit a large amount of people in them.

So what that means is that they're really good at hosting big events.

And finally provides space for events, so again, not every place has a large enough area to host big events, but a church does.

But then why could you disagree with the statement? So why is the church building not needed in the local community? So you could say that community centres could be used instead, that these places or spaces we are talking about don't need to be religious, community centres could be built in local areas.

You could also say that religious beliefs shouldn't play a part in caring for others.

Some people in society would have that view today that you shouldn't mix religion with other parts of society.

So I wonder what you thought and I'd be really interested to see your overall conclusions where you have made a judgement based on these arguments.

Really well done in today's lesson, if you would like to share any of the work that you've done today, please do ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Thank you so much for joining us today, and I hope you have learned about church buildings and what they can be used for and the differences between the Anglican Church and modern churches.

Please do have a go at the summary quiz to see what you have learned and to test your knowledge.

I will see you again soon, have a lovely day.