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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...

#4 – Stay the Course (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.

When you’re working with a large group of kids, there will inevitability be distractions which will try to still your attention and your focus.  Little Billy will absolutely need to tell you about his soccer game yesterday, and he’ll need to tell you right now!  Little Suzy will have to go to the bathroom immediately or risk a pending disaster.  Little Johnny will get distracted and start picking the paint off the wall (and maybe even begin to eat it).  The DVD player will break right as you’re about to cut to the critical video to support your teaching for the day.  The batteries in the microphone will go dead right as you’re in the middle of the gospel presentation.  All of these (with just a little bit of embellishment) have happened to me in the last six months alone.

These, along with countless other types of distractions that you haven’t even thought of yet will work against you staying on track on any given weekend.  It is easy to get distracted.  It is easy to go off point.  As the large group leader and teacher, it is your job to make sure that things stay on track and not get distracted by unforeseen events.  Let your other leaders deal with disruptions and other issues that come up so you can remain focused on what’s really important – speaking the Word of God into the hearts of children.

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

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