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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...

#49 – Two Are Better Than One (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.

One effective method for breaking up your lessons in Children’s Ministry is to use a “team teaching” technique.  When the kids are forced to physically shift their focus from one individual to another, this forces them to play closer attention.  Furthermore, if more than one person is capable of, and comfortable with, presenting a lesson to your large groups, it is lot easier when one person has to be gone.

Team teaching can be as simple as having one person teach the beginning of a lesson and another person teach the end.  Or, one person can serve as the host doing the introduction and conclusion while the other person can do the storytelling.  In you are lucky enough to have more than two people to help with your large group, you can try all kinds of different things.  Position people in different parts of the room so that as you shift teaching from one person to the next, the kids have to physically shift their attention.  Another technique I’ve read about but never had the opportunity to use combines a dark room and team teaching.  In this approach, the room is pitch black.  Various teachers are positioned around the room.  As that person’s turn to speak comes up, a spotlight is shone on them.  If you don’t have spotlights (like me) you can use a desk lamp or flashlight to illuminate the teachers.  The point is that visually the only person the kids can see is the one teaching.  This helps to further focus their attention.  Done right, this technique can be very dramatic and is a great way to tell a story with a narrator and various characters.

There is an old saying, which is supported by Biblical truth, that two are better than one.  This is true in life, and it’s true in teaching as well.

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

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