By Jeff Brumley
Michael Sciretti, it turns out, has this thing for the tabernacle described in Exodus and how it parallels the creation account in Genesis.
And he’s convinced the symbolism of it all contains an abundance of spiritual experiences and growth for anyone who seeks it — Christian, Jew or otherwise.
“Every part of the tabernacle has this meaning that you can relate to creation, to service and to worship,” said Sciretti, minister of spiritual formation at Freemason Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Va. “It’s the pattern for entering God’s presence, the pattern for prayer.”
He wondered what it would look like if those patterns were lived.
So Sciretti turned to a group of children — some as young as 3.
Last week, they attended a five-day experience of creation and tabernacle theology expressed through arts and crafts in the construction of a temple mockup.
Freemason members, including artists, assisted the children during the Aug. 24-28 experience. They were led through a scripture-based, step-by-step blueprint creation of the ancient temple.
They also learned prayers and meditations connecting each construction step to corresponding stages of spiritual development, he said.
‘They will never forget this’
The material and content may seem heavy even for adults, let alone kids. But they took to it and learned a lot, said Randy Ashcraft, interim minister at Freemason Baptist.
“The children loved it, the interactivity,” he said. “It was a way to participate and to build things — a very hands-on learning experience.”
Ashcraft said some in the congregation struggled with the concept behind the Tabernacle Sacred Arts Camp.
“It’s not what we have always done,” he said. “It’s not an approach that was taught in Sunday school, nor is it one most people are thinking about.”
But Ashcraft said he and many others found it to be compelling and scripturally and theologically sound.
“How many people can talk about the Old Testament coming to life in terms of who Jesus is?”
And the camp was an effort to engage children on multiple levels, Ashcraft said.
“I was with them one day when they were staking out the dimensions of the tabernacle in a big, open park in downtown Norfolk,” he said. “What struck me is they will never forget this.”
Moving into God’s presence
Sciretti said the idea for the camp began to solidify with a plan to host a vacation Bible school themed around the Genesis account of creation.
It gave children opportunities to be creative while considering “what does it mean to be created in God’s image, and to be creators as well?” he said.
Meanwhile, Sciretti said he was drawn to the story of Adam’s creation in Genesis and the temple’s construction and high priest’s consecration in Exodus.
“The teaching is that humans are invited to be priests serving one another” and to be protectors of creation, Sciretti said.
“And I wondered: if we took that seriously, what would it look like and how could we invite kids into it?”
The resulting five-day program featured different stages of tabernacle construction coupled with scriptural themes participants can live every day, he said.
As materials were assembled on the first day, students reflected on the passage in Romans 12 directing believers to view their bodies as living sacrifices to God. On the third day they considered the call in Micah 6:8 to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.
Each passage of scripture, just as each step in temple construction, took participants tangibly closer to an encounter with God, Sciretti said.
“I was just trying to give them some practical, visual ways of how to move into God’s presence and to listen to God,” he said.
‘A beautiful teaching tool’
The concepts taught during the camp really are nothing new in the field of spiritual formation, Sciretti added. Many may recognize teachings about becoming servants and the practice of reconciliation.
“For me what spiritual formation is about is being formed into that vision that Christ fully embodied,” he said.
And it may not be long before adults at Freemason Baptist and other churches are exposed to the concepts those children were. Sciretti said he may create a curriculum that can be used by entire churches to build tabernacles and pray along the way.
“The tabernacle is so tangible — you can build it together,” he said. “It’s a beautiful teaching tool.”