Technology in Bible Class with Preteens

I've been to several workshops and breakout sessions over the last few years telling me how important it is to engage kids in our Bible classes with technology. I've heard how schools are harnessing these tools to teach and how we should be doing it as well. I've heard lots and lots, but the one thing I haven't heard is how to actually do it. So I finally just broke down and started experimenting.

Our church does small groups on Sunday nights, and I have a preteen group and an elementary group at the building. This time with our preteens is an extended time (90 minutes) and is much more informal than our Sunday mornings. We also have most of the building available to us.

For my first trial, I used three, old iphones who's owners had upgraded and were able to keep their old phones. After getting into groups, I challenged my students to go out into the church building and take photos of places were people could serve and sent them off with their phone. The exercise made them think of all the ways they could serve around the building. You also get some funny pictures along the way.

  

For my second attempt, I wanted to do a scavenger hunt like activity using QR codes that phones and tablets could scan and be redirected to web pages. This activity turned out to be a bit more involved than I thought and I almost didn't get it finished before our evening class. To do this the way I did, I need to create a simple website, generate qr codes for each page, print the codes and then hide them around the church building. Yes, it was a lot of work.

I knew I wanted two groups, so I created five simple web pages for each team. I use Adobe Muse to create websites, so it was pretty easy. I had three pages of content and a start page and end page. Each content page contained a section of scripture that went with our lesson series and each also had a question from the listed scripture. The text of the question was a link. Students typed in the answer and if correct, they were given a hint to where the next code was hidden. I created the QR codes using a free online QR Code generator found on google search.


I created a card with a QR code for each team with a hint to where the first challenge code was hidden. This card they got in the classroom to get started. Then they were off. I placed one code in the wrong order for one team, but was able to get them back on track. The kids had a blast, and back in the room afterwards they were able to talk about the scripture and answers from the activity. One issue we found was there are lots of dead spots in our building with no wifi, so they had to come back to a central area to get the websites to load once they scanned the codes.

So my take aways: Kids love using technology; they do retain some of what they do, but boy is it a lot of work. You'll definitely want to start well in advance. I'm thinking my next trial will be again with QR Codes, but linked to a map or possible a Bible video on a lesson hand out. Another possibility would be prayer stations where they access content as they move around each station.

Merry Christmas

From the Kidminister website, I want to wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I pray the Lord blesses you and your ministry to His kids in 2011 in a mighty way.

God Bless,
Greg

Updates Have Begun

Well, despite my best intentions, the summer didn't hold many updates for the Kidminister website but beginning tonight, that has changed. I have already begun the slow process of evaluating each area and checking for bad links. Out dated information is also slowly being removed as each section is updated, expanded or just rewritten.

The Kidminister website is past do for some updating, and I'm excited to see who things work out this time around. It's amazing how much technology has changed in just a few short years. Some pages were quite funny when talking about new and upcoming technology that is so basic now. Check back for updates regularly. Who know, you might just find a whole new Kidminister website when you visit the next time.

Kidminister Website Updates

It has been one busy year and summer brings with it, it's share of busy. My website (kidminister.org) is in major need of updating. I'm setting a goal to make some time each week to work the site over. Some of these pages were put together years ago and as you know, things change. There are new resources, different ways to do things and hopefully I've continued to learn and have some things to offer. Please check out the kidminsiter.org website through out the summer and if you have some ideas for additions to the website, drop me a note and I'll do my best.

May God bless your ministry to HIS kids,
Greg

Children's Church: Using Volunteers

Children’s church is a great way to introduce people to your children’s ministry. Over the years our use of volunteers in children’s ministry has moved from a few long term volunteers to our current format of volunteer teams. Our children’s church is for kids in Kindergarten through the Fourth grade, and so our volunteers can be kids in the Fifth grade and older. Our teams are a mixture of preteens, youth group members and adults of all ages.

We have four teams that server for one complete school year. We take the summer off and recruit new team members during the off months. Each team serves one week of the month. To make things easier to remember, team one always serves on the first week of the month; team two always serves on the second week of the month and so on. If we ever skip a week, for say a holiday, then that team does not serve that week. This schedule let’s everyone plan ahead for their time of service. Some of our volunteers serve in other ministries during the worship hour and our consistent schedule allows them to easily arrange the schedule in their other areas of service.

Depending on how we are formatting our children’s service, we have recruited volunteers in a couple of ways. The years that we were doing consistent themes throughout the year, we recruited volunteers for specific characters. For example, in our space theme, a volunteer was able to sign up to be a live actor in the role of the ship’s captain. This year, our themes are changing about every six weeks, so volunteers signed up for their choice of jobs. This year they could sign up to be puppeteers, actors, backstage directors (this was the only role reserved for adults only), audio/video techs, tappers (the sit with the kids and help keep them focused by “tapping” them on the shoulder), videographer, and song leaders.

The bulk of our children’s church teams our teenage boys. They are always excited to be helping in children’s church. In years past I was always trying to find fill-in’s for team members who were out. Now, I regularly have teens waiting in the hallway to see if someone doesn’t show up so they can help. Another great thing I see is families signing up to help together. One of this year’s team consists of a dad and Fifth grade boy who are doing puppets, mom is our backstage director and the youngest son is in the audience. Their teenage son is also involved, but he chose to serve on another team.  I also have a husband and wife whose daughters are grown serving together on a team as a tapper and audio/video tech.

As much as I would like to have teams practice before performing together, realistically it’s just not possible to get all of team members together in advance. Instead, I have scripts for team members at our Wednesday night service or I mail/email the scripts to them on Thursday. I strongly encourage everyone to read through their scripts prior to Sunday. When team members arrive to the children’s church room following Bible classes, they meet together in a nearby classroom and read through the scripts together. Then they find their puppets and change into any needed costumes. By this time we have finished our praise and worship time and are ready for the first skit.

Each week, I list the team number and the members of the children’s church theme in our church bulletin. This is a great reminder if they’ve forgotten and also a good form of recognition of their service in the children’s ministry for the rest of the church. This year, for the first time, I plan to have some social and appreciation events for all of our teams. Over the years, I have found that youth and adults who serve on children’s church teams also become involved in other areas of the children’s ministry.

A couple of key things I stress with team members each year is taking serious their commitment to serving in the children’s church. I work to remind all team members of their upcoming week to serve, but also stress that it’s a member’s responsibility to let me know if they are not going to be there. Over the years I’ve noticed that’s it’s mostly adults that don’t show up or kids whose parents take them out of town unannounced. I have had a teenage girl drive three hours one Sunday morning to be back in town to fulfill her commitment. Another young teen regularly has his parents who often help serve at another church in town drop him off so he can serve in children’s church. I work to keep our skits fun, current and tied to Biblical concepts that benefit the kids and the team members.

Our current format has built a strong, dependable volunteer team that enjoys serving together. Our children are also benefitting from seeing youth and adults serving together and worshipping with them. In next week’s post I will be discussing the material we use for curriculum in our children’s church.

Children’s Church: Our Format

One of the initial requests upon my hire as a children’s minister some thirteen years ago was to begin the process of starting a children’s church during our Sunday morning worship time. There is always discussion on the pros and cons of a segregated time of worship for children, however this is not the aim of these posts. I will say, we have regular times of combined worship for kids and their families including three months off during the summer which I believe is important.

In this week’s post I want to talk about the format I have adopted at my church. Our children’s church is for kids in Kindergarten through the Fourth grade. Over the last several years we have tried a variety of things bringing us to our current format. We begin right after Bible class, choosing not to dismiss kids from the “adult” worship time. A quick overview of our service includes a time of worship through song, communion, a lesson time, a time of review and sometimes a game.

We are an acapella church, and typically I lead the songs myself. I regularly bring a child to two up to help me lead the song, getting several kids up throughout the service to lead. We sing a variety of songs including large motion, actions songs to slower paced, praise songs, including some “adult” songs that the kids love. During our song time, we serve communion. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper each week, and so we have different kids serve the Christians in the room.

We have tried a variety of methods to present the lesson each week, and have settled on a combination of things these days. We utilize live drama and puppets for a large segment of our lesson presentation. Typically we have three skits that mix puppets and live actors on stage in a thematic presentation. In between the skits, I will help kids connect the skits to the Bible lesson with scripture, gospel illusions, object lesson, student involved skits and object lesson-puppets from Amaze Healing Wings. Repetition is critical in teaching children, so I strive to present the lesson in several simple, to the point methods.

Following the lesson time, typically we have a short time of review. Sometimes we divide the kids and play a game show-style review using a projected, digital scoreboard with team names, lives scores and sound effects. Other times, I may simple ask kids questions about the skits, the Bible stories and draw kids into conversations that will help them apply the lesson to their lives.

On the few times that our service runs shorter than the adult service, we may sing a few more songs, watch a video on the lesson topic or play a game. Now games are not my strong suit, but we’ve played a few games over the years that are fairly simple and the kids enjoy. Our most used game is called “Elimination.” I call out things that someone might do and anyone who has done it must sit down. The last person standing is the winner and we start over.

Over the years we have tried a variety of themes. Some years ago, we had four themes and each week of the month was a different theme. We had four teams, one for each week of the month and they did the same theme each month. We did that for two years. Last year we moved to one theme, with a story line that ran all year long. However, at the end of the year, we were all pretty tired of the theme, even as fun as it was. This year, we are changing themes about every six weeks. We did a superhero theme first and are currently doing a theme called “It’s a King Thing” using some great royal family puppets from Melissa and Doug as we focus on Godly leaders from the Kings of Israel, how to lead by example and ending with Jesus, the King of Kings.

That’s our children’s worship service in a nutshell. Next week’s topic will be on using volunteers in your children’s worship.

So That's Where All The Dirt Has Gone

I have been teaching creation from Genesis to my young boys class on Wednesday nights for the last six weeks. Tonight we finished talking about how God rested. As we were going back over the days of creation, I mentioned that God had formed Adam/man out of dust or dirt. One of the boys in my class chimned in, "Yes, God made man and woman and kids from dirt. No wonder we've been loosing dirt in our backyard. My mom has four kids."