Each class should last approximately 2 ½ hours, whether it is taught directly or facilitated by the use of DVD’s. Students will be in one large group for the first hour and a half for review, worldview movie clips, interviews and the teaching lesson. The students will then break into small groups for another 30 to 45 minutes. The small groups are essential for the students to unpack what was learned in the large group. It is a wonderful time for asking questions, sharing and praying together. Each Anchorsaway site will take on a personality of its own. While commonalities will exist between each group, limitless variables will make each group unique. These differences may include size, environment, teachers, small group leaders, and of course, the profile of the students.

We recommend that Anchorsaway be taught in the second semester of the senior year. By that time, the newness of being a senior has worn off, and their minds are turned toward their future.

Meeting days and times can vary according to what works with your group. We recommend a 2 ½ hour time block per week, realizing that the students tend to stay around for some social interaction at the conclusion of class time.

Sample Schedule:

6:45pm

• Students arrival: students sign in, receive name tags and purchase their Anchorsaway Student Worldview Handbook

7:00pm

• Worship: time is spent singing one or two songs and opening in prayer
• Welcome: teacher does initial greeting and introduces guests
• Review of previous lesson: students are asked questions about last week’s topic.
• Presentation of a worldview and a Christian worldview response. The purpose of this is to help students begin to think critically about how to effectively engage others from a Christian perspective. (Note: these examples can be found in the Teaching/Facilitator notes.) Some examples of where to go for worldview examples are:
  • Books
  • Quotes or famous sayings
  • Newspaper articles
  • Magazine articles
  • Film Clips: suggested movies demonstrating different worldviews are shown almost every week. These should be rented yourself. On the Resource CD-Rom, you will find where you can cue up the movies to show the appropriate clips. Students try to identify the worldview represented in each movie shown and share how it differs from the Christian worldview.
  • Photographs/graphics
  • Music, lyrics, song writers and/or groups
  • Role Playing
• Personal Testimonies: a former/current student or small group leader shares about what God is doing in his/her life (limit to 5 minutes or less)
• Questions/answers: questions submitted by the small groups, or students themselves, from the previous week are answered.

7:30pm

• Teaching lesson: regular teacher presents lecture or introduces the guest speaker who will be teaching
• Facilitators’ lesson: play the DVD
• Questions following lecture: questions from students are answered by the teacher or guest speaker.

8:40pm

• Small groups: meet following the lecture to discuss the material, address questions and close in prayer.