Ministry, whether preaching, teaching or even playing a Bible game is communication. Everything we do in ministry depends on our ability to communicate the message to the audience. Of course, I love to do this with puppets, but I also do it with “magic tricks” and story-telling.
Puppets are not just stuffed toys bouncing around behind a stage. They are characters. As their personalities are developed, they become very real to your audience. They can communicate great messages in memorable fashion to your listeners. This is one of the secrets of Sesame Street and the same applies to ministry, teaching the Bible and Christian living.
Table of Contents
I believe effective communicators are creative communicators. We are always looking for new ways to bring interesting and unusual illustrations and objects into our messages to engage the listener.
Here’s another list for you:
- C – Competition
- R – Recognition
- E – Expectations
- A – Affirmations
- T – Toys & Visual Aids
- I – Involvement of the audience
- V – Voice and tone
- E – Energy
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. As educators, our job is not to get the horse to drink, it is to make him thirsty. Create a thirst for knowledge in your students, and they will learn.
Competition
Not all students respond the same way to competition. Some will thrive on competing with others, some will shirk away. If we push a noncompetitive student into competitive situations, they will fail.
On the other hand, we need to develop in our students the ability and desire to compete with themselves. A student needs to be able to walk away from any task, confident and happy be- cause they know they did their best.
We need to learn how to challenge our students.
If you have highly competitive students that will work hard, it can help students that lack confidence to work in teams. Let the unsure work with the confident. Develop lessons and activities that allow every student to use their skills to their best ability.
Recognition
Students respond better to rewards than punishments. Find ways to reward not only achievement but also effort.
One school I do assemblies for has a program to encourage students to be involved in the arts outside of the classroom. During the school year, anytime a student attends a show, goes to a museum or the zoo or attends a sporting event, they are to bring the ticket stub to school. Every student who attends at least one cultural event during the school year gets a certificate. A student that attends ten or more events gets a gold seal on the certificate. A simple way to recognize and encourage students.
Perhaps you could do something similar with learning Bible verses or for kids that come to kids club, getting them to attend Sunday School. During VBS programs, any child that brings a first time visitor, even an adult or parent, gets to spin our prize wheel. Mom stays for one VBS program, the child gets to win a prize and I get to share the gospel. Over the years, we have seen a lot of parents get saved and many families join the church.
Find ways to recognize what your students do. Have a chart for extra curricular reading. You might have them present their hobby to the class. Hobbies like stamp collecting, model rail- roading and scrap booking involve skills and knowledge that help a child to grow as a person. When you recognize these as areas that the students are being successful in, the desire and confidence to succeed in other areas grows.
Expectations
Evidence suggests that teachers can improve student learning by encouraging high standards.
The expectations teachers have for their students and the assumptions they make about their potential have a tangible effect on student achievement. Research “clearly establishes that teacher expectations do play a significant role in determining how well and how much students learn” (Jerry Bamburg 1994).
Students tend to internalize the beliefs teachers have about their ability. Generally, they “rise or fall to the level of expectation of their teachers. When teachers believe in students, students believe in themselves. When those you respect think you can, YOU think you can” (James Raffini 1993).
Teachers’ expectations for students-whether high or low-can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, students tend to give to teachers as much or as little as teachers expect of them.
A characteristic shared by most highly effective teachers is their adherence to uniformly high expectations. They “refuse to alter their attitudes or expectations for their students regardless of the students’ race or ethnicity, life experiences and interests, and family wealth or stability” (Barbara J. Omotani and Les Omotani 1996).
Affirmations
A powerful way to help students build confidence and achieve more of their potential is to show them how to revise their limiting beliefs (e.g., “I can’t memorize,” “God can’t use me,” “I never finish what I start.”). Affirmations are powerful tools for helping them replace this negative inner chatter with a more supportive thought.
As a teacher, you need to send positive messages to your students whenever possible. Acknowledge that you can see the efforts they have made. Acknowledge when they do good. When I am doing a program, I let volunteers know when they have followed directions well. Even if they mess up badly, I try to paint it good. I may tell them they are too smart for me, and I take the blame for a failed trick. If they get embarrassed, I remind them what a good sport they are and how happy I am they helped.
Toys & Visual Aids
My shows and my children ministry programs are full of visual aids. Magic tricks, scientific demonstrations, signs and posters all act to reinforce the message I am sending.
Of course, my favorite toys are my puppets. Puppets are animated, cartoonish and engage young and old alike. Puppets can be used to show a character making a bad decision and then how that is resolved. Puppet characters can teach all sorts of lessons through conflict, story-telling, humor, and other theatrical tools.
A good teacher uses visual aids to help their students learn. We remember more of what we see than what we hear. We remember more of what we do than of what we see. Anytime you can introduce a poster, a hands-on activity or a visual demonstration, you are helping your students better understand and remember the material.
In seventh grade, our science teacher used a coffee can, a hose, a candle and some flour to demonstrate a powder explosion. I don’t remember much from seventh grade science class, but I remember that experiment and how it works.
I remember Carl Hollenbeck inhaling on the hose instead of blowing and getting a mouth full of flour. I remember the explosion when he blew into the hose, causing the flour in the can to ignite.
Involvement of the audience
One of the things pastors, teachers and school administrators always notice about my shows is how attentive and involved the students are.
I always use lots of volunteers. This gets students very excited as they see their friends and teachers helping on stage. More important, I use a lot of audience involvement. This means I create opportunities for them to answer questions, clap and even times when yelling out is appropriate.
I often teach Bible classes at the local juvenile detention center. I have discovered that when the teens are allowed to interrupt and ask questions that they are much more attentive than if I just lecture. They become involved. Although I am leading and directing the studies, they feel a part of it.
A great teacher finds ways to get their students involved as participants of the learning process, not just spectators. There are times when students need to be quiet and listen, but they also need an outlet for their energy and this builds enthusiasm.
Voice and tone
A good teacher must know how to use their voice. They must create energy and interest as they speak. They must use body movements and gestures to create interest.
In eleventh grade, I had a history teacher who lectured in a constant monotone. It was painfully difficult to listen to him. In contrast, I had a professor in college that was a State Supreme Court justice. He was a pipe smoker, and while he lectured, he moved about, often gesturing with the pipe or simply cleaning it in the science lab sink. This little tool and his energy made for a class I seldom missed. I did quite well in this class because the teacher made me be interested.
Energy
If a speaker is tired, and low key, it becomes very hard to pay attention. As I mentioned above, it was my college professors’ energy level that complimented his gestures and speaking.
Energy implies enthusiasm. When you attack a subject with enthusiasm, your students will likewise respond with enthusiasm.
To have energy and enthusiasm, you must get your rest, then prepare for the class. No matter how many times you have taught a subject, review your notes, read more on the subject. Get yourself ready to soar and your students will follow.
I have presented my “Magic of Science” program thousands of times in schools across the country. I have presented it more than all my other shows combined. Yet it is still my favorite to present. I know it inside out and backwards. Yet every time I present it, I see new faces, laughing and learning.
No matter how many difficulties I may have had on the way to the school, when I step in front of those students, my energy soars. I know they are going to have fun and that energizes me.
As a teacher, your energy level should grow as you gain confidence in the material you are teaching. When you have studied the subject, when you have done it so many times you know what the students will ask before they ask, you should be excited. You learn where the rough spots are, then you find creative ways to get beyond them. You become an expert. You get excited and your students will, too.
These are the tools effective communicators have. As a children’s minister as in all ministry, you must be able to engage your audience in your message.