What We're Doing For Reformation Day This Year

 

For the past three years we have celebrated Reformation Day at the end of October.  There was one year where I was going to let it slide, but my kids didn't let me forget!  We enjoy learning some Reformation history leading up to October 31st, and I try to incorporate a few fun things to make it memorable.  

In the past I have made my kids Reformation Day shirts, we read our favorite church history picture books, and we eat gummy worm desserts as we learn about Luther's famous stand at the Diet Of Worms. We've eaten sausage noodles as we learned about Zwingli's friends eating sausages during Lent (their own form of "protest"), and we considered doing "pin the 95 theses on the church door" as a variation of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey (but I have yet to get my act together enough to make a door poster for the game).

This year I ran across this Reformation Day guide by Brighter Day Press, and I snagged it while it was on sale!  It has five lessons about different aspects of the Reformation, plus a bunch of ideas for things to include for a Reformation Day party.  I was delighted to see a bunch of craft, snack, and game ideas that I hadn't thought of! 

Since Reformation Day falls on Sunday this year, and since we'll be pretty busy on Sunday, I decided to scatter our Reformation Day activities throughout the week leading up to it instead.  So we've been doing some crafts together this week, and I have more planned for today and tomorrow, thanks to this guide.

Here's what we've done so far!

Marshmallow Hammers - The kids and I had fun making these on Monday, and then snacking on them as we read our lesson.  It's a little hazardous reading Martin Luther by Eric Metaxes on my own this year, because I had to inform my kids that it's actually more likely that Martin Luther mailed his theses to a friend who posted them to the church door with glue - the letter was dated October 31, 1517, which is why we mark the start of the Reformation on that day.  It's not as great of an image as good ol' Luther determinedly nailing up his points of discussion, is it?  But we still loved making these edible hammers!

A Mini Printing Press - There were actually many who came before Luther who had similar concerns about the Catholic church and their practice of indulgences, but one factor that finally made these problems more widely known was the development of the printing press.  Without the Gutenburg Press, the recovery of the truth of the Gospel  - that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone - wouldn't have been able to spread like it did!  I loved this craft because it was a good demonstration of how a printing press would have worked back then, and why the production of printed material, though a major technological development, was still fairly slow.  Can you imagine having to make an engraved plate for each page of the Bible?  No wonder it took three years to print 200 copies!

Next up we will be writing with feather quills, and maybe playing "coins in the coffer" (another game idea that was included in the guide).  If you want your kids to learn about the start of the Protestant Reformation, I do recommend checking out the Reformation Day Guide from Brighter Day Press (not sponsored, just sharing a good resource)! These are just a sampling of some of the activities that we found in the guide.  It's been really fun to work through it together this week, and it has also sparked some great discussions.

For instance, at the end of the first lesson, which was a summary of Luther's life, I asked the kids what was the most courageous thing they thought Luther did.  My big kids were very thoughtful about it, and both Wyatt and Gwen said independently that they thought it was brave when Luther stood up at the Diet Of Worms and said his famous words:

"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason (for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen."

My eight year old told me she thought that was brave because he stood up for the Bible when everyone was against it.  For all of Luther's faults, of which I am aware, this is why I think figures in church history are worth studying despite those failings.  You would be hard pressed to find a person in history who did everything perfectly, who didn't get anything wrong.  But there are so many historical figures, like Luther, who showed us what it looks like to stand firm upon the truth in the Bible, even when everyone is against it, even when it could (or often did) cost them their lives.  

I want my children to have those stories in their minds, to know that standing on God's Word and holding fast to Jesus in a world that makes it so difficult is something that possible and courageous and eternally significant.  Learning about church history gives them those examples to hopefully strengthen their own resolve, for right now and when they grow up.  I'm thankful to have the opportunity to learn these stories with them each October.