Table of Contents
THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATIVITY IN MINISTRY
Creativity is the way in which education is practically nurtured and developed in children that helps them to become independent, confident and creative human beings. In ministry, this same creativity helps these children to grow in their faith in God.
When a Bible story or Christian topic is presented to students, it is how interesting it is made to them that keeps them engaged and wanting to find out more about it. Encouraging them to research this subject themselves by giving them assignments and projects is one good way to encourage creativity and thinking in young minds. The more they learn and research and the more questions they ask, the more inquisitive their minds become.
Solving problems that arise out of given projects cultivates creativity as in the process there is more new material being discovered.
Worksheets, crafts and challenges put the learning right in the hands of the children. My daughters, now 9 years old, love crafts. Hands-on creativity will hold their attention, and by incorporating a Bible verse or Bible account into the craft makes it a great learning tool. They remember the lesson because they were engaged in it.
My daughters love to read their Bible. They will read a parable or story in the Bible and then want to tell me about what they read. We will find them sitting in our living room, in the chair together, reading the Bible.
We thank God for giving them this desire, but we have also built it into them. We often talk about the Bible in our everyday life and share verses that are relevant to situations that come up. But we also read to them from the Bible or refer them to something to look up in the Bible. Everyday tasks and activities often become object lessons.
If you can get your students, young and old, to see the Bible as relevant and challenging, you can create life long learners and disciples of Christ.
Problem solving and researching material helps children to develop new ideas and new ways of thinking and individuality and originality develops. Sticking to one standard way of learning without seeking answers themselves will make a subject boring and tedious and before long the student loses interest in it. It is the teaching style used by a teacher that can bring interest and enthusiasm into any subject.
Teaching a topic from a lesson book can be vastly different from actually bringing in pictures and objects related to the topic or presenting a skit to get a practical feel of what actually happened there and in what surroundings.
Some children show creativity in art, music and design where it is easy to express yourself on paper or through playing an instrument. Creativity is as individual as every student is and while some students have a natural talent for being creative, others need to be encouraged to develop their creative talents. It is therefore not necessary that all students become creative geniuses as it is dependent upon a child’s character and how easy it is for them to be expressive and creative.
Creative skills are easy to instill in young children when they are at pre-school age where everything that is being taught is done in a practical way. The children make things, use drawing and painting skills, they sing and they dance and all the time they are learning things about the world and everything in it. These skills need to be maintained in later school years so that children can solve problems and develop their thinking skills even better.
Making handicrafts, taking part in discussions, having debates, cooking different recipes, doing projects, painting and drawing are all different aspects of creativity. Music and drama are other fields that can help channel a child’s talent towards towards an interest in scripture and service but also promote confidence and a feeling of well being and happiness in the child’s educational and personal life.
CRAYOLA THINKING
When we enter kindergarten, we are given a box of crayons. The colors of the rainbow are at our fingertips to express our- selves. By the time we finish high school, we are using a single black pen.
Children are naturally imaginative and creative. A stick becomes a sword and they are transported to a faraway castle in their minds to fight dragons. Bicycles become race cars. Boxes become forts. My Dad had several junk cars behind our house which became spaceships for me and my friends to travel the universe.
Kindergarten children believe they are great artists, singers, dancers and actors. By the time they finish school, most systems have destroyed that optimism and enthusiasm in exchange for conformity and “realistic expectations.” During their lives, they here expressions like, “Why would you think that?” or “Stop being silly.”
Their imaginations are stifled, then killed and buried.
Unfortunately, many of these now unimaginative conformists become Sunday school teachers. They teach the lessons, but they never create the learning experience that motivates young minds to success. Perhaps you are one of those teachers. Perhaps your creativity lies dormant because you were lead to believe it no longer exists.
It’s time to break out the Crayolas. Get excited again. What did you enjoy as a kid? Did you enjoy playing dress-up, puppets, painting, Play-Doh, or trying weird science tricks you learned at the library? Do it again.
Reignite your passion for fun and incorporate it into your teach- ing. I love magic. I have used this love and the skills I developed to create routines for science shows. I have used magic tricks in preaching to young people and old. I have twisted balloon animals and used them to illustrate a Bible lesson I gave to residents at a nursing home.
The very first school show I did several years ago got this evaluation from the principal, “the presenter looked like he was having fun .”
I now hear things like, “I have been teaching science for 28 years. This is the best science assembly and workshop I have ever seen,” Mrs. Blessinger, Science Teacher Renwood Elementary School, Parma, Ohio.
I just hope they still see that I am having fun. And I encourage you to have fun teaching children.
A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR CREATIVITY
Imagination is intelligence having fun.
I wanted to come up with a simple way of encouraging you to be creative. The result was:
- S– Stimuli
- I– Ideas
- M– Make a purchase
- P– Play
- L– Learn
- E– Execute
Stimuli – I like to be surrounded by things and people that stimulate my imagination. I am always looking for new ideas. I love to visit the dollar stores and craft stores. As I cruise the aisles, different things catch my eye and I ask myself, how could I use that to teach a Bible lesson or illustrate a Christian virtue?
At the craft stores they sell inexpensive foam animal masks. I haven’t figured out yet how I can use them, but someday, I will do something that involves animals and my volunteers will be wearing them.
Reading a variety of books and even children’s books can trig- ger ideas. I love learning about Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. Next year I am thinking about doing a pioneer theme for VBS. Coonskin caps will be the rage. A missionary story about David Brainard, an early American missionary to the Indians will be part of the nightly activities.
One of my dearest friends, evangelist and camp director, George Griffis loves history. I have heard him preach incredibly engaging sermons using the Spartan Wars and the sinking of the Titanic as similitudes to the Christian life.
Teens and adults may not be as interested in puppets as children, (actually, they are!), but an interesting piece of history or science can create a level of curiosity and interest that draws them into the lesson and opens their ears and minds to hear the Bible message it illustrates.
Ideas – Next time you are at the store, look at various things and ask yourself how you could use that to teach a lesson. So when you see something that gives you an idea, buy it. Put it on the shelf where you can see it and let the idea form.
Ideas are also free. Read books. Read Grimm’s fairy tales. Read the little newsletters some restaurants have with little anecdotes. Read the Reader’s Digest. There is an old tale about words being like feathers. Once they hit the wind, you cannot take them back. I used this idea when I wrote my Character Education show to illustrate respect and using kind words.
A good story goes a long way when teaching lessons to your students.
Make the purchase – I buy things. Last year, I saw small dry erase boards for a dollar. I bought three. I haven’t used them yet, but I have an idea to use them in a game show type setting.
In my physics show, I use large rat traps to explain elastic energy and potential and kinetic energy. I use them to break plastic eggs from the dollar store. A great lesson, a powerful visual and things get destroyed. A perfect lesson. From there, it is easy to talk about our potential energy in Christ and the kinetic energy (energy in action) of sharing the Gospel.
Play – I take the new toys home and experiment. Sometimes, I don’t know what I will do with the stuff I buy, but I experiment with it. I have fun. I look for ways to make them interesting to other people. I have a hand held egg beater I bought several years ago. One of these days, I am going to incorporate it into a trick. It cost a dollar, but it looks funny if you hold it to your forehead and turn the handle, making the beaters spin. This will be some part of an imaginary device.
Buy things and play with them. You will have fun and you never know what great idea will come.
Learn – I read books on many subjects. More importantly, I study hard when I produce new shows for churches or schools. Amazingly, some of the best books to learn from are the ones written for children. The ideas are related in a way that children understand. The same way you want to relate them to your students.
I also read advanced books and look up trivia. Trivia is great for students. Trivia can be gross or silly or thought-provoking. It also helps me to keep the teachers interested. When I do a program, I always have material and jokes tucked in that will surprise and interest the teachers.
Execute – Take your ideas and try them out. Show your family or your Sunday school class.
I like to try things out on my wife. She gives me great feedback and helps me to know when I am off base or scoring a home run. When I first wrote my math show, I had a routine with a box where the ends seem to change places without reason. I built the box. It worked great and it was the coolest little gadget ever. My wife said it didn’t play well. She said the audience wouldn’t really grasp “the magic.” I left it in the show, and sure enough, the only time I performed it, it fell flat.
As a magician, I have also learned that there are two types of tricks. Those devised to fool audiences and those devised to fool magicians. New magicians tend to buy the tricks that fool them. They are learning methods and simple tricks don’t fool them anymore. They forget that they still fool the uninformed. The more complicated tricks are often too convoluted for the average person to follow and make for poor show material.
I no longer buy tricks that fool me. I look for tricks that are easy to do and can be presented in an entertaining manner. People are still fooled and even if they know how it is done, they are entertained.
It is the same with teaching the Bible. Often the stories we learned as children, like the account of David & Goliath, or Jonah, seem simple and common to us, but to both young and old, these stories still fascinate and engage.
I must test every effect and illustration before it goes into a Bible lesson or a school show. Stories, objects, and demonstrations are chosen for their ability to grab and hold the interest of the student and to present knowledge in an easy to understand and remember manner.
As a teacher, you do not need elaborate demonstrations and costumes to be interesting. A homemade paper sack headdress can be used just as effectively as a $500 native American costume to teach about the pilgrims bringing the Gospel to America.
Make it entertaining. That’s my “formula.” Sorry it couldn’t be more SIMPLE.
Finally, I have found the most important rule when using inexpensive items to inspire your creativity, is to buy them NOW and think later. This goes against the logic of being thrifty; however, creative people are seldom financial wizards. The problem with places like Dollar Tree and Big Lots is that if you don’t buy it when you see it, you won’t find it when you want it later. If you buy it now and you don’t use it later, it was a buck, get over it.
