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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...

#48 – Use Special Demonstrations (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 great way to spice things up in your Children’s Ministry is to invite in guest speakers and people to do live demonstrations.  In addition to giving the kids someone other than you to listen to, it gives the kids another focal point to remember your lesson by.  If it fits with your lesson, invite someone in to talk to the kids.  If you’re talking about Noah’s Ark, invite someone from the local zoo to bring in some animals.  If you are talking about the holiness of God, invite a judge to come in to talk about the law.  If you are telling the story of Gideon, invite someone from the armed forces in to talk about their impression of Gideon’s “strategy.”  Invite your pastor to come talk to the kids.  If you’re talking about Satan as the great deceiver of the brethren, have a magician come in and do some tricks as an example of how you can make things seem completely different than they are.  The possibilities are really endless when it comes to demonstrations.

Here’s one example of how I’ve personally used this technique.  When we were talking about spiritual disciplines, I had my eight-year-old come in and do a karate demonstration.  Then, I interviewed him about the amount of training and practice that goes into doing some of the things he demonstrated.  I concluded by having him teach the kids in the room a simple move they could practice on their own.  Following the demonstration we talked about spiritual disciplines and how you have to train yourself in those areas as well.  The kids had a blast, as did my son, and they still talk about that lesson and remember the point of it today.

If you don’t know where to find people to come show off their skills, just ask!  You’ll be amazed at what you can find in your own congregation.  Like visual aids in general, one key point to remember is that any demonstration you incorporate into your lesson should always have a point.  The demonstration should expand upon or reinforce your lesson.  No matter how much the kids might enjoy them, frivolous demonstrations are a bad stewardship of the time God gives us with the kids in our ministries.

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

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