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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

#33 – When You’re Not Teaching, Join Them (Tips For Large Group Teaching)

Welcome to a continuing series of tips on working with large groups of children. I hope that you will find these tips useful and be able to implement them in your dealings with large groups of kids. If you do, please leave a comment and let us know. For a complete list of posts in this series, please see the index page. So, without further introduction, here is today’s installment.

If you teach a large group and are not involved in small group time with your kids, you miss out on the opportunity to bond with the kids at a one-on-one level.  In my mind, this was the one major disadvantage to switching from small group leader to large group teacher.  Accordingly, it is critical that you take advantage of any opportunity you can find to spend some one-on-one time with them.  Join the kids for worship and sing and dance with them.  Even if you can’t lead a small group because of your large group responsibilities, make some time to sit down with the kids during their small group time every once in a while.  This gives you a chance to engage them in conversation and find out what’s going on in their lives.  Go to other kid-centered events at the church and engage the kids there.  Make sure you’re the one that greats them when they show up at your classroom and that you are the one that says goodbye as they’re leaving when it’s over.  Incorporate them into your large group lesson and speak directly to them during the teaching where you can.  Just because your main focus is on the large group teaching doesn’t mean that you can’t spend some one-on-one time with the kids.  If you can build some personal relationships with the kids, you will have a much more effective large group time as well.

Return to the Tips for Large Group Teaching in Children’s Ministry index page.

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