Masquerading As A Crafty Blog - Kinda

So Lizzy has been asking a lot of questions lately about why there are so many churches on the earth. She is beginning to recognize that most of the other children and teachers at school do not go to our same church. The other day we were driving down the street and my daughter started asking the names of the different churches we were passing along the way. After naming a few, she said, "Why do my friends go to those bad churches?"

I gasped!

"Honey, your friends don't go to bad churches. There are good people all over the world who go to good churches where they are taught to be good people and live good lives."

"But they don't believe the same as we do. Why are there so many churches that are all different?"

I thought of a 14-year-old boy who had the same question almost 200 years ago.

I decided it was time to do a Family Home Evening about the Apostasy. If this is a confusing topic for you, you can read more by clicking here. Even when teaching 4 and 6-year-olds, it is wise to arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible. You never know what questions may come your way. Also, with knowledge comes power and confidence in teaching.

In order to teach about the Apostasy, I really wanted to find an old missionary tool (above example) I used about 15 years ago! (Holy cow! Have I been home from the mission that long?!!!) It is very effective in teaching the Apostasy on a very simple level. I searched the house for this little teaching tool but to no avail. I searched the internet for a template, but to no avail. Really? No one else had made this? My trainer helped me make one on a p-day. Could I remember how it was done? I reluctantly sat down to try to figure it out from memory...

I'm going to include step-by-step photos as some of you may want to make this as well. Here is my disclaimer (and some of you have heard me say this before) I am not a crafty gal. I'm just not. I can copy. I can follow simple directions - most of the time. I can do kid's crafts okay. But those of you with those awesome crafty blogs - you just blow my mind!! I guess my writing is my craft but it's not cutesy and fun.

So here is the deal - my little thingy here is very simple, very simple. I know, without a single doubt, that there is someone out there with the crafty gene who can make this the cutest thing on the planet! Please do it and then send me a link to your blog post. But if you sell it to Deseret Book, I get half the profits! :) (I'm serious about the Deseret Book thing. Have you seen those testimony gloves? Someone gave one to me about 5 years ago and now someone is making some good money off of that little idea that is so easy to make on your own.)

Okay here goes...

cut 3 8x10 card stock papers in half.

fold each half into four sections.

With a ruler (or a good eye)  Draw a diagonal line on the 1st and 3rd sections of the paper going in opposite directions and then a strait line on the 4th section... like the picture below.

Cut along the lines.

Your paper should look like this when you are done cutting. Connect the 1st and 4th section together with tape. Your finished products should look like the picture below.

On the front panel of each card stock thingy, write an aspect of the true church - i.e. No paid ministry, Priesthood authority, Baptism by Immersion, Tithing, Temples, Baptism for the Dead. (those are just what came to mind immediately. There are so many more you could do.)

Next take another 8x10 piece of card stock. Measure and cut about 2 inches off the top then fold the paper in half.

Voila! The roof of your church.

Next for the foundation - take another 8x10 piece of paper and make a 1 inch fold on all sides of the paper.

Write "Jesus Christ" on two opposite sides and "Apostles" on the other two opposite sides.

Cut a diagonal slit in each of the four corners.

Fold in the little tabs and secure with tape. This should make the foundation even on all sides.

Next, take a 1/4 sheet of the card stock and fold it into 5  1 inch sections.

Create a triangle point with your ruler on the middle section. Draw a straight line leading form each side of the triangle in either direction (that was confusing, just look at the picture below.)

Your steeple should look like this

I ended up cutting two inches off the bottom to make it work right.

Your finished steeple should look like this in the front and back.

The finished product.

You can fold it all up for easy storage.

Here is how it works...we talked about how Jesus established His church while He was here on the earth. I used some pictures from the Gospel Art Kit of Jesus calling His apostles, teaching the people and instituting the Sacrament etc. If my kids were older I would have gone into more detail but we kept it pretty simple as Ben was jumping off the couch the entire time!!

I pointed to the six columns and talked about how they are parts of Christ's true church. I then showed the pictures of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection and then the picture of the Savior telling His apostles to go into all the world with His Gospel. 

 We talked about how eventually all of the apostles were killed by those who did not understand.  After Jesus was killed and then His apostles, the authority to run Christ's church was gone, thus the foundation was taken away. Then I had Ben come over and pull the foundation out from under the church.

When the foundation is pulled away, the rest of the church is broken up in pieces.

We talked about how some people remembered parts of the true doctrine but they were confused about other parts: Some people set up churches teaching baptism by immersion and tithing. Some churches taught about apostles but not baptism by immersion. Some churches taught about temples and the Priesthood but not about titihing. etc.

All of the churches had parts of the truth but not the whole truth. Jesus Christ wants His church to have the whole truth but because of disobedience, the true church was no longer on the earth.

Then we went in the bathroom (no windows - completely dark). I had already lit a candle in that room. I said that when Jesus Christ was killed, it was like the light was turned off. But there was still some light because of the apostles (the candle). But once the apostles were killed it was completely dark (blew the candle out). Those who were left had to figure out their way in the dark. Until...

We turned the light back on and I showed this picture. Wow! I felt so excited sharing this part! Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ established His true church once again on the earth. We went back and rebuilt the church. Even Ben and Lizzy caught my excitement and seemed to really grasp the whole thing and why it is so wonderful to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

That was about all they could handle though - we wrapped things up after that.

When I was a missionary, this was my favorite discussion to teach. It just clears things up so well and a light seems to turn on when you understand this doctrine. Our God is not a God of confusion. He is a God of order and so, naturally, His church would be a church of order as well. He would not say that every church is His because they all teach such different doctrines about who He is and how we can live with Him again. He loves us all and guides us all but He has ONE church. It is just so clear!

I hope this helps someone grasp this concept better as well. I really want to put this post on my "other blog" but I'm not sure how to do that without making the post a gazillion miles long as I go into scripture after scripture talking about the apostasy. Much of the world does not believe this happened and I was finding it very difficult to address this in a post of readable length. I do not know the population of my readers. Are they mostly LDS? Are they not? I have to figure this one out. Any suggestions?

P.S. I used this in a Relief Society lesson about 10 years ago. I had many requests for a template once the lesson was over. I hope this will suffice.