Post your own 95 Theses

This is a quick Protestant Reformation Activity you can do with your kids

When Martin Luther went to nail his 95 theses on the Wittenburg door he did not do so because he was bored, or he wanted to upset the apple cart. He truly wanted to explain what he saw wrong with the practices of the Catholic Church of the day.  So, I sat the kids down and had them think through what they would protest in this day and age for our church, their very own Protestant Reformation Activity. It made for an interesting history lesson and for a fun writing lesson at the same time.

Guidelines for our 95 Theses Protest

We wrote ours for our church, but if you don’t want to encourage that kind of grumbling (and I know it could turn into that) or if you’re not in a church, find another organization you’re in for this activity.

My kids had to provide an opening paragraph, and then write out 10 reasons they were protesting the decisions of our church. If the kids were in high school, or if this wasn’t a one-day activity, I would have them research verses to back up their information just as Martin Luther had solid evidence for what he said. At the end, they closed with a closing paragraph asking for clarification and changes on the issues.

For younger kids, I would either modify down the number of complaints or remove the opening and closing paragraphs.

So, I had these big plans of getting pictures of my kids handwriting it all, but they were moving a lot faster than I was the morning we did this, and suddenly I had two printed copies, and Princess remembered to write hers after we spent the afternoon at the ER because Batman managed to cut his head open and now will be gaining an impressive scar right below his eyebrow.

I’ve included an entire rubric for this activity in my Reformation Notebooking pages, as well as a craft idea to go with this.

Our Theses written, they all took turns posting it to the wall.

I wasn’t about to let them nail into our front door, but I did let them nail into the fence. My plan was the fence, but they thought it would be more amusing to nail it to the playscape. I had no problem with that because then I didn’t have to explain the random nails through the fence to my neighbor (who probably wouldn’t notice anyways). Which was, of course, a huge hit.

I learned a few things from my kids’ protests

I had my kids write about the problems they saw with our church, which I had a few hesitations on because it could lead to complaining and foster a feeling of discontentment. I discovered it led to their thinking about what they would like fixed. Now one of the boys gave such brief answers that we had to have him explain what he meant. However, the other two brought up valid concerns which we had as well. It got me thinking about some things I might need to talk about with our youth leaders, I’m still praying and thinking over that one.

Have you ever let your kids write a protest?