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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...

#28 – See the World Through Their Eyes (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.

As a teacher in Children’s Ministry, you put a lot of time and thought into preparing your lesson (at least, you should).  You’ve thought about methods for reaching the kids.  You’ve tried to pick activities and stories that will keep the kids engaged in the story.  You’ve researched the Bible lesson you are present.  You’ve tried to keep things interesting.  But, there is one more step in making sure that your lesson will work for your audience.  After you’ve prepared your lesson and you think it is ready to go, there is one more critical step in your preparation.  You must step back out of the weeds and view your lessons through the eyes of your intended audience.  Picture yourself as a six-year old boy or girl (or whatever age you teach) and work through your lesson.  Answer these questions through their eyes:

  • What do like about the lesson?
  • What don’t you like?
  • Would you have trouble paying attention?
  • Are there parts of the lesson where you will find your mind wandering?
  • What would make the lesson more interesting to you?
  • Do you understand the lesson?
  • What questions would you have about the lesson?

Step away from your role as teacher and become the student.  Put aside all the knowledge you have gathered in preparing your lesson and pretend you have never heard the story before.  Now pretend that you’re a kid who has grown up in church and heard this particular Bible story twenty times before.  Will you tune the lesson out immediately as something you already know, or is the presentation and lesson innovative enough to keep your attention?  Try to look at your lesson through the eyes of all of the different kids in your classroom.

Another trick I am lucky enough to have at my disposal is a six-year-old daughter and an eight-year-old son.  Many weeks I run new characters, ideas, and even whole lessons by them to get their input.  If I’m planning on showing a video, I let them screen it for me and tell me whether or not they think it will work in the lesson.  I have never gone through that process where they weren’t able to give me some suggestion that ultimately made the lesson much better.  In fact, they have become such an integral part of my preparation that I often invite my eight-year-old son to help me when I am presenting the lesson on Sunday mornings.

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

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1 Comment

  1. Lin Pearson

    "I often invite my eight-year-old son to help me when I am presenting the lesson on Sunday mornings."

    Better watch out, Wayne. He'll be taking on your teaching job next! Seriously, many a kid who has participated like that catches the kidmin fire ! It happens a lot and I trust your son will follow in your footsteps and have a passion to reach children for Christ, whatever his major role in life will be. May the Lord make him a missionary right now!
    My recent post How to keep kids coming back