Ministry-to-Children.com » Sunday School Ideas

A Brief History of Sunday School

Jeri Tanner — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:29:15 +0000

For many of us, Sunday school is a deeply rooted tradition, although it is actually a rather modern institution. Have you ever wondered about the origins and history of Sunday school? If so, here are a few facts you may find interesting.

The idea of a “Sabbath school” for poor and uneducated children began in England in the late 18^th century. Visionary evangelicals like Robert Raikes devised a plan to gather poor, uneducated working children into education classes on Sundays, the children’s only day off. Clean clothes and learning materials were provided, and instruction given in reading, writing, hygiene and good citizenship. The churches hoped that this effort would serve the dual purpose of bettering the future of society and curbing the rampant delinquency. Though neither evangelism nor religious training were the expressed goals of the new schools, there was the hope that the morality taught, being based on the truths of Scripture, might bring about a transformation in the hearts of the children. And so the Sabbath or Sunday school was born.

By the early 1800’s, the goals of the Sunday schools were changing. Young, newly converted Presbyterians saw the Sunday School as an opportunity to teach the gospel and doctrine to children; in fact, many Sunday School leaders began to lobby for free public schools for the needy, so that they could concentrate on religious instruction. The regeneration and conversion of children now became the goal. As this focus grew, Sunday school students were often encouraged to memorize large portions of the Bible, earning prizes and incentives for doing so. This idea was dropped when it was realized that the students were more interested in the prizes than in God’s word!

In America, the first national Sunday School effort began in 1824; its stated purpose was to organize, evangelize and civilize. The focus was intentionally evangelical, and so within the next 100 years the Sunday School had become the primary outreach arm of the church. The Sunday School organization now expanded to include all ages. Sunday School became a way for unbelievers to be introduced to, and then assimilated into, the life of the church. By the late 1800’s, Sunday School was looked to as the main hope for church growth, a view that continued until the mid-twentieth century.

Sunday School attendance has seen a slow decline in the last 50 or so years. One factor generally agreed to be a reason for this is the shift away from evangelism and toward discipleship and fellowship over the last half century or so. Studies do indicate that where Sunday Schools are thriving and growing, church membership increases.

The idea of Sunday School as a primary opportunity for evangelism may be new to some of us. Is it possible that a return to that model could help revitalize our churches? Has Sunday School attendance declined in your church, or is it thriving? One thing is certain, much has changed since the idea of a Sunday school for the reform of unruly street children was first envisioned!

What About Promotion Sunday?

Charlie Wallace — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:23:22 +0000

At the church where I serve, Promotion Sunday, that day when kids move up to the next grade/class in Sunday School and other activities, for years occurred the first Sunday of September. However, by the time I arrived the date had been pushed back to the first Sunday in June. This was done primarily for one reason: by the time the summer had arrived our 5th graders were ready to promote into our middle school ministry (for those that don’t have a middle school ministry, you can probabcly relate to this with your 6th graders as they approach youth ministry).

One problem, however, that I encountered was that many in our preschool division were not quite ready to promote in June. For instance, our Kindergarten teachers had us order 3-4s curriculum because their kids were not quite ready for the K5 material. What to do?

I compromised. I went ahead and promoted my 5th graders into the middle school ministry at the end of May (which made both parties happy – including our 5th grade teachers who enjoyed taking the summer off from teaching) and we pushed promotion back to the first Sunday in August – not September. Because school starts in mid-August, we figured why not have the kids promote a little early before all of the back-to-school hype started off. September just seemed too late.

When does your Children’s Ministry or Sunday School do promotion Sunday?

What about you? When do you promote? What lessons have you learned about promotion?

Multimedia Projectors: How They Can Help Your Sunday School & Children’s Church

Jeri Tanner — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 04:46:12 +0000

Did you ever think of using a small multimedia projectors in your Sunday School or Children’s Church? I’m not a very good geek. I’d like to be one, but alas know too little about technology and am dependent on the kindness of strangers when it comes down to it. If you’re like me (or especially if you’re not!) you’ll appreciate this information on a neat little piece of gadgetry that even a technology-challenged person like me can make use of in children’s ministry!

Portable projectors (small digital multimedia projectors) have been around for a few years, but I only discovered them a couple of years ago as I was searching around for a way to display images to help illustrate and punctuate Bible lessons. It’s a pretty neat concept and of course like all digital technology, these multimedia projectors will keep improving over time. What I was looking for was something cost-friendly that I could use with my laptop to throw a picture onto a wall or screen in any room. Enter portable projectors: smaller, more lightweight, not quite as powerful but less expensive and just as effective for small applications as the fancier ones. They are marketed as portable business projectors, but they are very hand for education too.

Ways To Use Portable LCD Projectors In Children’s Ministry

So how do you use the things? Simply plug the projector into your laptop or other device, point its lamp toward a wall and voila! there are your song lyrics, slide shows, Scripture passages and Jelly Telly videos displayed for all to see…no more need to have the kids crowd around your laptop. There’s more to it, of course, than that; these can range in price from $210-$750, depending on the size and specs you want, and there is more information about lumens, lcd versus dlp projector capabilities and such you’ll want to understand before you buy. These gadgets are a great idea for small rooms and modest needs. A portable projector can be used in virtually any room where the lighting can be dimmed or is not overly bright to begin with; they are completely portable, can be used with laptops, iPods or other devices, depending on the model, and can be gotten relatively inexpensively. Visit one of the online geek magazines like pcmag.com or geek.com to find the best portable lcd projector for your needs and budget.

Do You Really Need A Digital Projector For Your Children’s Ministry?

Such a gadget can be a good investment for a church with room and media issues. Of course we can do quite well without electronic media when we teach; I am, if anything, on the wary side when it comes to making technology a must-have tool for teaching our children about God. That said, however, there are definitely ways to use it that stop short of making it necessary, but do allow it to be helpful. For a generation of children who have grown up with electronic images and are accustomed to them, this kind of technology can be a handy resource. If you are interested in a useful and instructive way to incorporate media into your teaching, a little gadget like this could be just the thing for your church or family to consider.

Of course, I also remain a big fan of flannelgraph boards…

Share Your Tips For Sunday School Growth

Tony Kummer — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:07:32 +0000

With kids back in school, the Fall Sunday School bump has started. But this is also a great time to get new families to start attending.

This post is an open forum for you to share your best tips and advice for getting more kids in Sunday School.

Fresh Ideas For Sunday School Bulletin Boards

Tony Kummer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:44:26 +0000

I have always struggled to find good ideas for my church’s Sunday school bulletin board. The default mode is to post the latest crafts, but a well-decorated bulletin board can be a good way to keep your children’s ministry area interesting. Here are a few web resources that offer free Sunday school bulletin board ideas.

Bulletin Board Ideas for Sunday School

Kid’s Sunday School Place offers 11 free bulletin board ideas (14 more in the members only area). Each one has an example picture and material lists. Bulletin Board Ideas for Sunday School Class that you can easily create. A great visual teaching aid for children’s church. Easy to follow instructions and picture sample.

Apostolic Faith Church has a large set of photos on their website of their bulletin board projects. There are no instruction, but you should be able to get the idea from the pictures. You can even email them a picture of your designs and they will add it to their list. This is a great place to start when you are creating a church bulletin board.

Danielle’s Place presents several Sunday school bulletin board designs on this free page. Some of these ideas are really fun, some even include frogs. My favorite is the “Fruit of the Spirit” bulletin board display. Danielle’s place has many more designs in their paid membership only area.

DLTK website lists church bulletin boards by month & season. This helps you find the right ideas all through the sunday school calender. Examples have pictures and instructions for using them in Sunday school which include relevant Bible verses. These bulletin boards could work in several different settings including homeschooling.

Teacher Help has a large collection of bulletin boards decorating ideas, many of these are in PDF format or link to other websites. Their website is a little difficult to navigate, but they have a large selection of ideas for your bulletin boards. You will need to scroll down to see the links.

DiscipleLand Sunday School Curriculum

Tony Kummer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:27:15 +0000

Last week, someone asked me about the DiscipleLand Bible Curriculum For Kids. So, I took a quick look at their website and samples. Overall, I was very impressed with what I saw and could imagine using this Sunday school curriculum at some point.

In this post, I’ll give the big picture and my opinion. Then I’ll refer you to this blog post and review of Discipleland from Karl Bastian, Mr. Kidology himself.

DiscipleLand Sunday School Curriculum

I’m calling it a Sunday school resource, but it is actually designed for use in almost any children’s ministry setting. It’s built around a six year program to teach through the whole Bible.

DiscipleLand Preschool (ages 2-5) moves chronologically through the Old & New Testament encouraging children to discover God’s character and learn about Jesus
DiscipleLand Kindergarten (ages 5&6) introduces kids to Bible heroes and points to Jesus as the greatest of all.
DiscipleLand Core Bible (grades 1-6) takes learners through the Bible a second time.
DiscipleLand Adventure (grades 1-6) is arranged topically and could be uses in Wednesday or Sunday night children’s programs.

More About DiscipleLand

Bible Translation: This Sunday school curriculum is designed to work with any Bible translation. There is an emphasis on kids bringing and using their own Bibles in class. It should be compatible with the KJV or NIV.

Doctrinal Statement: Like many nondenominational publishers, their statement of faith is very brief. However, it clearly marks them as a conservative evangelical publisher. It includes this statement, “The Bible is God’s inspired, inerrant message to all people. In His holy Word, God has revealed eternal truths that shall ever remain humankind’s final authority for all matters pertaining to life and faith.”

Other Features: There are many other features like trading cards, parent information fliers, strong visual aids, and a website for families. If you want a more in depth review, read what Karl wrote about Discipleland.

What do you think about DiscipleLand?

When it’s time to review curriculum choices, I’ll definately be giving DiscipleLand another look. I would like to hear from you. If you use DiscipleLand, please let me know what you think – you can leave a comment on the form below.

KJV Curriculum that’s FUN and Baptist: What do you suggest?

Tony Kummer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:31:14 +0000

I just got this great question from a reader and thought someone else might be able to help:

I can’t tell you how many countless hours I’ve spent searching for new Sunday School, Children’s Church and midweek curriculum for our church and it’s like finding a needle in a haystack when trying to find a curriculum that’s FUN, KJV and has a similar statement of faith to the Baptist church.

I’ve posted some links to KJV Vacation Bible School Curriculum, but I don’t know where to start when it comes to midweek and Sunday school curriculum. Translation is not an issue in my church, but we do look into the publishers statement of faith.

Any KJV curriculum suggestions?

Just leave a comment below, and thanks in advance for your help.

Children’s Church Games for Kids

Tony Kummer — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:24:17 +0000

You’ve worked hard on your Kids Church lesson, but you still need to find one more fun activity to round out the hour. If you have served in children’s ministry for long, then you know that down time is the enemy. One great strategy is to always have additional learning activities or games.

Also check out our listing of free Sunday School games for kids.

This page points to hundreds of free church game ideas that can help. Please leave a comment below if you know of more resources like this

Children’s Church Games

Kid’s Sunday School Place lists 20+ game ideas for children’s church, plus many more in their membership areas. Some of these games will require you to plan ahead. I recommend having several games always on standby for when you need them. This website is a solid resource and very user friendly.
eBibleTeacher has several pages of learning activities that features several helpful review games for children’s church lessons. These are more on the educational side rather than the energy-burning sort of games.
Children’s Church Games is a whole website dedicated to games for children’s ministry. Unfortunately the selection is somewhat limited. But if you check it out you will find several good ideas.
Children’s Church Ministry lists several games for children’s church. The selection is small, but I’m linking it just in case you need more ideas.

More Games for Children’s Church?

I hope this list of web resources was helpful. If you find another site that offers free Sunday school games, please leave a comment below to let other readers know about it.

Mother’s Day Sunday School Ideas?

Tony Kummer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:08:11 +0000

Mother’s Day is one of the biggest dates on the church calender. Christians have a strong tradition of honoring women on Mother’s day. We expect increased attendance in both Sunday school and Children’s church. So, I’m working ahead, looking for Mother’s Day Sunday School Ideas.

Need More Help: Here are some other posts on this website about Mother’s day. Bible Verses About Mothers | Craft Projects fror Mother’s Day | Preschool Mother’s Day Songs| Mother’s Day events | Lesson Plan for Mother’s Day

What are you doing at church for Mother’s Day?

Our church has a tradition of doing baby dedication service on Mother’s Day. We have one scheduled for this year too. There will also be a time of recognition for mother’s. Many churches will give Mother’s Day gifts, read Mother’s day poems, or present gift cards to the Mother’s in attendance. What about your church? What are you doing on Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day Sunday School Crafts?

You can begin your search for Mother’s Day Sunday school crafts by looking through the resources I list for Sunday school crafts. Many of these websites have whole sections devoted to Mother’s Day.

I’ve always liked it when the kids made a special card or project for Mother’s Day over several weeks. It can be something as simple as a series of coloring sheets bound as a “MY Favorite Mother” book. By producing something more substantial, Mother’s are more likely to save it in a scrapbook or memory box. Too many really simple Mother’s Day crafts find to the waste basket. Leave me a comment if you want to share your Mother’s Day craft ideas.

I’ve prepared a list of Bible Verses For Mother’s Day. You can use these to turn generic Sunday school crafts into focus with Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day Sunday School Lessons?

Many Sunday school curriculum publishers provide a special lesson for Sunday school on Mother’s day. If not you might want to browse my resource page that links free Sunday school lessons online. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, why not build your own Mother’s Day Sunday school lesson around one of these Bible Verses For Mother’s Day.

Please leave a comment if you’ve found a great source for Mother’s Day Sunday school lessons.

What Should I Teach On Easter?

Tony Kummer — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:14:40 +0000

If your church is like mine, then Easter Sunday will be a high attendance day in your Sunday school and Children’s ministry. We don’t do the traditional Easter Egg hunt during ministry time, because we want to make Easter about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But what should you teach if your Sunday school curriculum does not have a dated lesson for Easter?

Easter Sunday School Lessons

HE Is Alive! An Easter Bible Lesson (Sojour Kids): This is a complete kids Bible lesson about Easter to use in your Sunday School or Children’s Church for Easter.

Share Your Easter Ideas For Kids – this post features some new resources and a forum for readers to share their ideas. Don’t miss the video demonstration for making Easter Resurrection Rolls.

There are many places on the internet to find Bible lessons about Easter to teach in your children’s Sunday school class. You can find a large listing of these type sites on my Sunday school lesson page.

Kidology Easter Zone has several free activities and lessons for your Easter Sunday School.

Another popular option is to use a special Easter lesson like the Resurrection Eggs. Most churches have a set somewhere in their Sunday school department. It is basically an extended object lesson with twelve eggs each having a clue about the meaning of Easter. I like the Gospel focus of this approach, but would be a little hesitant to do such a complicated object lesson. Learn how to make Resurrection Eggs (Easter Craft Project For Kids)

Children’s Easter Videos

Sometimes a dramatic video about Easter can be very effective in telling the Easter story in a fresh way. As a rule I don’t like to use video teaching in Sunday school, but an occasional video is an excellent way to use technology. Be sure to select a video that you have personally watched. When using a video it is good to pause it every ten minutes for discussion. Kids have a lot more questions than they can hold to the end of the Sunday school period.

I recommend the Passion Trilogy and An Easter Carol. You can also get these from Family Christian Stores.

Special Easter Craft Project

I’ve written another article about finding Easter Crafts for children’s Sunday school. Crafts are always a great way to promote hands on learning. There are so many powerful symbols of Easter in the Christian tradition. These can easily be used to retell and teach the story of Jesus being raised from the dead.

What do you plan to teach on Easter? Leave a comment and start the conversation.

Effective Teaching Depends On Prayer

Tony Kummer — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:00:50 +0000

This week’s Bible lesson is finished. The learning objectives are clear and measurable. I’ve found all the right teaching activities. The lesson plan is laser-focused to change lives. But am I ready to teach?

Once again I’ve forgotten a basic key to effective teaching – I’ve failed to pray!

Something very bad happens when I focus on my skills as a teacher instead of seeking God’s help. Teaching the Bible is different than teaching Math. There is a spiritual dimension to the learning environment in Sunday school. Everything depends on prayer.

Work hard and pray even harder

I don’t write this to encourage lazy preparation. We must never presume that God will bless our lack of effort. At the same time we should not assume that we can accomplish anything lasting without his help.

Augustine put it this way, “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.”

But what should you pray about? Here are some ideas to get you started. Feel free to add to this list in the comments section below.

Thanks God for the privilege of teaching his truth to his children.
Pray for freedom and power to connect with the learners.
Ask God to prepare the mind of every child to understand.
Ask God to prepare the heart of every child to receive God’s Word.
Ask God to prepare the hands of every child to obey God’s Word.
Pray that the truths you teach will be passed on to through these children to the coming generations.

I’ve found that I have to be intentional about prayer. It rarely happens on accident. At the risk of becoming legalistic, I’ve even added prayer to my lesson planning checklist.

What about you?
How do you make prayer central to your Bible teaching?

Sunday School Safety and Security

Tony Kummer — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:29:05 +0000

Safety and security is one of the biggest topics in children’s ministry today. This is true for both small and large churches. Keeping kids safe should be a priority in every church. In this article, I will discuss the leading concerns about Sunday school security and offer some ways to improve safety at your church.

Security and Safety Concerns For Sunday School

Many of the articles I’ve read about children’s ministry safety do not clearly state what dangers we need to address. I believe that is a mistake. We need to be responsible when accessing threats so we can avoid extremes. Here are the dangers that churches must work to prevent:

Accidents: Kids can always find some way to get hurt. Accidents are the most common safety danger for children in Sunday school. Often they are minor, but we should be concerned that every ministry setting is a safe place to learn and play.
Food Allergies: This is an increasing concern, and rightly so. Many food allergies are life threatening if not treated properly. Kids love snacks, but we should always be aware of the dangers of food allergies.
Kidnapping: This is every parent’s worst nightmare. While it may be a rare, Sunday school programs should establish safeguards to make it impossible to steal a child from any church program.
Sexual Abuse: Few things are more devastating to a child, especially when the predator uses religious authority to accomplish their crime. Churches have not done enough to prevent the sexual abuse of children.
Other Children: It doesn’t make the news, but the most common threat for sexual abuse is one child abusing another child. This is devastating for everyone involved. Never allow children unattended in the church facility. Even Pastor’s kids should not be set free after the church program. We have a designated game room where volunteer’s children can play until their parents are free to go.

Sunday School Safety and Security Checklist

One way to think carefully about church safety is to audit your Sunday school program according to the following categories. You can also take my safety and security poll.

Are Your Sunday School Facilities Safe and Secure?

Classrooms should be in high traffic areas and have windows. We recently installed windows in every classroom door. Since we have a volunteer church handyman, the project cost was very reasonable.
If your Sunday school classrooms do not have windows, keep them open unless two adults are with the class.
Children’s ministry areas should be up to building and fire code. This would include emergency exits, smoke alarms, and fire extinguishers.
Is the furniture safe and appropriate for children? Make sure that bookcases are secured to the wall, desks do not have splinters, and chairs are in good repair.
Use safety plugs in all electrical outlets. This needs to be checked often, since these tend to get lost. Use safety plugs in the hallways and adult areas too.
If there is overhead storage, on a shelf or a cabinet, make sure it is secure and items will not fall on children if they bump up against the cabinet.
Control the access to your building. In larger churches this becomes a big concern. There should be a limited number of entrance points to your children’s ministry area.

Do You Insist On Safety For All Sunday School Activities, Snacks and Crafts?

Scissors, glues and craft materials should be safe for children.
Avoid object lessons that could be unsafe. We learned from experience not to burn anything inside the Sunday school classrooms!
Some games are not safe for small rooms. If you don’t have enough floor space for a suggested Sunday school game, go outside or substitute another activity.
Never serve a snack with nuts unless you have personally cleared it with every parent. With peanut allergies on the rise, it is better to be safe than sorry.
Do not serve hot liquids; it’s okay if the hot chocolate is a just warm.
Supervise children closely during snack time, even older children can choke on their food.

Have You Selected Volunteers And Teachers That Are Safe?

Every volunteer should be screened and interviewed by the church leadership. Many churches are even purchasing criminal background checks for all church volunteers, especially those that work with children. That is a good step, but don’t forget to use common sense and judgment. Many sexual predators abuse many children before they are caught, so the criminal background check is only a limited safeguard.
No one is every allowed to be alone with a child. Make this a rule with no exceptions.
Even in counseling situations have another adult volunteer present.
The best safeguard against abuse is preventing opportunity for abuse. As much as you can, make it impossible for children to be harmed at your church.

Do Your Policies And Guidelines Promote Security and Safety?

All the best policies won’t help unless you train your teachers. So, make training Sundays school teachers about safety and security a priority in your church.
Make 2-by-2 the rule. No child (or group of children) should even be alone with an adult volunteer.
Ask your volunteers to get trained on CPR and first aide. We have several retired nurses in our church who are great resources for minor accidents.
Establish a check-in and check-out procedure that gets every child back to the right parents after your program. This will help to prevent children from being unsupervised in the facility.
Do not allow children to be unattended before or after Sunday school programs. As one reader stated, “Children stay with parents and remain the parents’ responsibility.”
Have a definite drop-off and pick-up time. These should be clearly posted and enforced. The children of volunteers should remain with their parents or be supervised in one location. We do not allow early drop-offs.
Ask for hall monitors or greeters to patrol the facility during and after your ministry programs.
Do you have clear bathroom policies? This more of a concern for younger children, but

Resources For Improving Security and Safety In Your Sunday School

Read these articles about Children’s Ministry safety from ChildrensMinistry.com
Browse these resources for Children and Youth safety from one insurance company.
Read my post 5 Ways Christians Can Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect
Read the Southern Baptist Convention 2007 Resolution ON PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM ABUSE
Read the Statement on Abuse From the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
If you know of a good resource, leave me a comment below.

What tips do you have to improve safety for children’s ministry and Sunday school?

Free Christmas Sunday School Lessons For Children

Tony Kummer — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:02:22 +0000

Are you looking for a Christmas or Advent lesson for your Sunday School class? This page lists some of the lessons from our New Testament children’s church curriculum that might be helpful for your Christmas preparation. I taught these lessons in my kids worship service, but they could be easily adapted for Sunday school. If you need more help, check out the listing of all ideas for Christmas.

Free Lesson Plans About Christmas

Free Lessons from Kids Sunday School Place

13 Bible Stories You Must Teach Every Child

Tony Kummer — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:12:35 +0000

The average children’s Bible has about 100 stories. The real Bible has many more. Every story matters. But what are the basic stories kids need to understand to have a full grasp on the Bible? What stories are so basic to the Gospel that omitting them would leave a big whole in their worldview? Here’s what I came up with.

13 Bible Stories You Must Teach Every Child

God created the world and everything in contains (including people) for his glory. (Genesis 1-2)
Our first parents, Adam and Eve, rejected God’s rule and fell into a state of sin and misery. (Genesis 3-4)
God calls Abraham and establishes a covenant with him. (Genesis 12-23, Galatians 3:6-9)
God delivers his people from slavery in Egypt and keeps his promises to Abraham. (Exodus, Deuteronomy 26:8-9)
God makes David the King of his people and promises a forever kingdom. (1 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 7)
God’s people suffer exile for their sin, but God promises a forever kingdom (2 Kings 17:18-20; 35-41, Romans 11:1-6, Jeremiah 29:10-14)
Jesus is born the Son of God, heir of Abraham and David (Matthew 1, Luke 2:11)
Jesus dies on the cross to remove the sins of God’s people. (Matthew 27, Romans 5:6-8)
God raises Jesus from death. (Matthew 28, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 1 Peter 1:21)
Jesus takes his throne in heaven (Acts 1:1-11)
The Holy Spirit gives power to the disciples (Acts 2, Galatians 5:22-25)
The Return of Jesus (John 14:3, 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10)
The Kingdom of God on Earth – New Creation (Revelation 21, 1 Corinthians 15:22-23)

I would love to hear your feedback. Originally, I wanted to make this a top ten list – but there was just too much to cover. What would you add or take away?

What Is Effective Sunday School Teaching?

Tony Kummer — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:25:42 +0000

I’m a children’s pastor. My job is making things plain for kids. Children’s ministry is the easiest AND the hardest job in the church. It’s easy because most kids want to learn. They want to know. Ideas become adventures. It’s hard because children are limited. They don’t know grown-up words. They’ve only lived a little while. They get lost in abstraction.

With this post I’m beginning a series on effective teaching. Please understand – I am still learning how to be effective. Everything I know has come by accident or from others. In fact, that’s one reason I want to write this series. I want to learn together with you. Will you join me? Can we talk? Comments are open. Your ideas will help, not just me, but all the readers.

So, let’s begin with a definition: Effective teaching changes people.

I could write more, but this is the main thing. When I face my kids this Sunday, I want to help them change. I want them to grow.

1. Effective teaching changes the way people think. Learning that God made me for his glory changes the way I think about life. I want our kids to understand life from God’s angle. Learning is more than knowing, but never less.

2. Effective teaching changes the way people feel. Learning about the cross changes my feelings toward Jesus. I want my children to love Him too. Attitude fuels change.

3. Effective teaching changes what people do. Learning the golden rule changes the way I treat people. I want our kids to act different. Learning is more than behavior, but you CAN tell a tree by its fruit.

So, what do you think? How would you define effective teaching?