Lesson ideas
Lesson Outcomes
• Explore The Salvation Army’s beliefs, work and motivation
• Reflect on the concepts of faith, hope and love for themselves
These lesson ideas are designed to help you plan a lesson or series of lessons to suit your class,
giving you a range of different activities to choose from.
Starter ideas
Three in a row
Use this starter to help pupils focus on some key words for the lesson. Give out a three-in-a-row ‘bingo’
card to each pupil (downloadable resource). Display the key words on the
screen (PP slide 3). Ask pupils to choose nine out of the twelve words and write one in each circle, in
any random order.
As you read out the explanation for each word pupils must identify the correct keyword if it appears on
their card and tick it off. When a pupil gets three in a row they shout ‘BINGO!’
Pupils could win a point or a prize each time they get three in a row.
Keywords
Church - a special place where Christians worship.
Charity - an organisation which gives help, care or support.
Christian - Someone who believes in and follows Jesus.
Faith - trust or belief.
Action - something a person does.
Hope - an expectation that something will happen.
Salvation - being saved from something.
Homeless - a state of having no permanent home.
Army - an organised body of people, fighting for a cause.
Poverty - a state of being poor or lacking life’s basic necessities.
Love - an affectionate feeling.
Mission - an aim, or a task to be performed
Faih Hope Love (PP Slide 4)
Working in pairs or small groups, challenge pupils to write or draw as much as they can about
the three words ‘faith’, ‘hope’ and ‘love’. Set a time limit to encourage some quick thinking and
see which group can come up with the most ideas.
Alternatively, play ‘Just a minute’ in groups of threes. Each person has to talk about one of the
words for one minute, or as long as possible, without hesitating or repeating themselves. The
person who talks for the longest wins.
Think about The Salvation Army - three words
All the words on the three-in-a-row ‘bingo’ cards say something about The Salvation Army. Ask the students for any more words they can think of which might have something to do with The Salvation Army
(PP slide 5). Have they ever seen or heard of The Salvation Army before this lesson?
Show PowerPoint slide 6 and ask pupils to look at the different words. All of these have something to do
with The Salvation Army.
• Are there any which the pupils find surprising or interesting?
• Which ones would they like to find out more about?
• Why do they think some words might be bigger than others? What could this represent?
Explain that this slide shows the results of some research conducted by a company called nfpSynergy
which carries out research for charities and not-for-profit organisations. This research was to find out
what members of the general public knew about The Salvation Army. They were asked to choose three
words which came to mind when they thought about The Salvation Army. The largest words were the
ones people said most often, whilst the smallest words were mentioned least often. Whilst it shows
what members of the public know about The Salvation Army, it doesn’t necessarily give a true picture of
what The Salvation Army is.
Explain that in the lesson you are going to find out what The Salvation Army is all about by exploring
these three words: faith, hope and love.
Pick and mix activities
Discussion - Faith hope Love posters
Use the posters (resources to order) with these discussion questions (also available to
download and print). Choose the questions you think will work best with your students, or allow
them to choose which questions to discuss.
Faith, Hope, Love poster
• Why do you think this organisation calls itself an ‘army’?
• ‘Salvation’ isn’t a word we use very much. What do you think it means?
• Is this a good picture to express the words faith, hope and love? Why or why not?
• Are there any places in your community that need transforming or restoring?
• What do you think it means to ‘plant seeds of hope in people’s lives’? Are seeds a good
metaphor for hope?
Faith poster
• Does everyone have faith in something?
• How does what we believe in affect who we are and how we live?
• What do you think the picture says about faith and The Salvation Army?
• Did you know that The Salvation Army was a Christian church before this lesson?
• Why do you think some people don’t know that The Salvation Army is a church?
Hope poster
• What do you think might have happened to the young man in the picture?
• Do you think the poster shows any sense of hope?
• What is the opposite of hope? What does it feel like?
• What things make people feel hopeless?
• What groups of people in our society or our world might feel a lack of hope? Why?
Love poster
• Can humans survive without love?
• Is love something we feel or something we do? An emotion or an action? Can you have one
• without the other?
• Should we only love our friends and family or should we try to love everyone?
• What kinds of people do you think The Salvation Army loves? Why do you think they love
them?
Faith Hope Love Postcards
The information on the front of these downloadable postcards can be a starting point for learning about
The Salvation Army - its beliefs, history, motivation and work. On the back of each postcard there are
questions and activities to help pupils reflect on the concepts of faith, hope and love. They can also create their own ID card and consider what motivates and inspires them, what issues they care about and
how they can make a positive difference through their own actions.
Videos
A five minute video that introduces the work of The Salvation Army can be found here www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR-2A6PI6lc The film shows how, from small beginnings in 1865, The Salvation Army has grown into a worldwide church and charity that makes a practical difference by putting its
Christian faith into life-changing action.
LINK for Schools includes a range of 10-20-minute films featuring specific Salvation Army centres and
projects. Visit www.salvationarmy.org.uk/schools to find out more about the topics covered and to order
this resource (some films are also available on www.youtube/salvationarmyvideo).
Faith Hope Love plenary sheet
Use the Faith Hope Love plenary sheet to help pupils show what they have learned about The Salvation
Army, and think about their own values, ideas and beliefs.
I’ll fight! (PP slides 10 and 11)
Using the postcard, read the story of how The Salvation Army began and look together at William Booth’s
‘I’ll fight’ speech. (Check out www.youtube.com/salvationarmyvideo to watch a 2-minute film based on
William Booth’s speech showing how The Salvation Army is still fighting today.) Encourage pupils to think
about issues they feel strongly about, and/or things they think William Booth would fight against if he
were alive today. Pupils can either write their own ‘I’ll fight’ speech,
or a modern-day version of William Booth’s speech.
What’s most important? (PP slide 12)
Ask pupils if they have ever heard the words faith, hope and love used together before. There’s a wellknown chapter in the Christian Bible which is sometimes called ‘the love chapter’. It’s the one people
often read at Christian weddings. At the end of the chapter the writer, Paul, says that in this life we’ll
never be able to fully understand everything about God and the world, but one day we will see God and
will understand everything. He says that for now, in this life, ‘the three most important things to have
are faith, hope and love, but the greatest of them is love’ (1 Corinthians 13:13 New International Reader’s Version).
Do pupils agree with this statement? If not, what do they think are the three most important things to
have in this life? Why? If you’re using the postcards, pupils can write or draw their answers on the back
of the first postcard which contains the quote from the Bible.
For more information on any of these resources or to organise a visit to a local Salvation Army corps
(church) please contact us - [email protected] / 020 7367 4706. All of our resources can
be found on our webpage - www.salvationarmy.org.uk/schools