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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...

#52 – Seek Feedback (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 we’re doing Children’s Ministry the right way, we invest a lot of time preparing in preparing the actual lesson, a lot of time praying about the lesson and the kids in our ministry and a lot of time practicing what we are going to do for our lesson each week.  All of these are admirable uses of time, but how foolish would it be to spend all that time getting ready and never ask anyone how it turned out?  Take advantage of volunteers in your ministry and other people in your church.  Ask them what they thought of the lesson.  Ask them for input on things that you are doing well and things that you could do better.  Ask them for any ideas they have to improve the children’s ministry.  Involve them in planning and decision making.  If you don’t have a team of other people who you can seek input from, ask a trusted friend to come into your room and observe on a regular basis.  Then, meet with that person and give them permission to speak the truth and evaluate what you are doing.  Talk to other large group leaders and ask them to evaluate how you are doing.  No matter how hard you try or how much you plan, there is always room for improvement, and an unbiased opinion is invaluable in that process.

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

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