How to make your visual aids as effective as possible.
So jumping straight in here’s the key question you need to ask: What is it you need to reinforce?
Remember this above everything else. Since visual aids are visual aids. What they do is reinforce, make more memorable, help to make things clear.
We need to be sure what it is we need to reinforce, make memorable or make clear.
- Sometimes it’s someone in the bible passage’s actions.
- Sometimes it’s somebody’s words.
- Sometimes the words or actions are really clear already and it’s the meaning or application that need visual aids to help to explain.
Let me explain with some examples. You might want to grab a Bible to look up the verses.
So imagine you were planning to teach Genesis 12:1-9. That’s where God tells Abram and Sarai to leave their home country and go to a land He’d reveal to them. And he makes them a promise.
And they did what God asked of them. Now, it’s a journey and there are about 7 place names mentioned in those verses. And we know that Abram took Sarai and Lot and probably, although we’re not told, other family members as well, plus a load of animals.
We could spend hours preparing a map of their journey, or writing place names out to go round the room. We could dress the children up as Abram, Sarai, Lot and everyone else, maybe even sheep and cow masks for their animals. That would be creative and a lot of fun.
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But what are we trying to reinforce with our visual aids?
Well what we really need to reinforce are God’s words, what God says. It’s God’s 3 massive promises in verses 2-4.
It’s about God promising that
- He will give Abram countless descendants.
- He’ll give them a land to be their home.
- That through one of those descendants He’ll do something amazing for the whole of humanity. In other words, send Jesus.
So, where should we invest our time making visual aids? Ideally in something to reinforce God’s words.
Maybe 3 speech bubbles which show the 3 key things that God promised to Abram. And if you’ve got time, grab a dressing gown from somewhere so you can dress up a child to pretend to be Abram.
But the focus is on God’s words.
Now, of course, if you’re working with pre-schoolers who haven’t yet learned to read that would be more difficult.
But why not find a simplified version of God’s promise and learn it as a series of 3 memory verses? And add in pictures of a family, a home and the word ‘Jesus’ as visuals to support the three main parts of the promise.
Here’s the second example.
Luke 7: 1-10. There, Jesus is asked by a Roman Centurion to heal his servant. So, Jesus heads off towards his house, on the way he gets a message from the Centurion: “You don’t need to come to my house, just say the word and he’ll recover.” And that’s exactly what happens.
So, question is, is it worth trying to get hold of some kind of Roman soldier costume? Well, the answer is, “yes.” And here’s why. The thing we should be trying to reinforce, that is the point of that passage, is Jesus’ authority to command.
The Centurion recognizes that while he can give orders to his soldiers, Jesus has the authority to command diseases and they’ll obey him. That principle is central to understanding this incident.
So a visual aid to help the children understand this point could well be someone dressed in a centurion costume barking out orders to some soldiers. Or if you can’t get a costume then have pictures of Centurions and soldiers.
The Third Example is Mark 9:2-13.
The transfiguration- that’s where Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and they see Jesus shine in awesome glory and are joined by Elijah and Moses.
Peter offers to build some tents and God speaks telling them to listen to Jesus. I know it’s pretty obvious but spending your time on putting some tents up kind of misses the point.
That’s because the point to reinforce is Jesus is God’s true son and King.
So a really memorable visual aid could be using a floodlight to give some idea of what it was like for those disciples to witness Jesus’ glory and even better add a recording of a voice reciting God saying ‘This is my Son whom I love.’
These both reinforce the main point- Jesus is God’s true Son and King.
The Fourth Example. Luke 15- The Parable of the Lost Son.
Now in Jesus’ parables with people in them we need to reinforce not just what happens in the story but who the characters represent in real life. So for this, the obvious visual aid would be to dress up the children or your fellow leaders to re-enact the story.
But how to reinforce who the characters represent in real life? Well, how about making some badges or labels to hang around their necks to help explain who Jesus is referring to.
So in this example, the badges would be ‘Father God’ ‘People who realize they need forgiveness’ and ‘People who think they’re good enough’ or something like that.
Our Fifth Example is John 21: The Miraculous Catch of Fish.
Read John chapter 21. Think first about what you most want to reinforce, and then the visual aids where you’d spend your time and effort on.
There is a lot in this passsage. There’s a miracle, there’s another of Jesus’ resurrection appearances, there are 153 fish and there’s a discussion between Peter and Jesus.
But what do you want to reinforce- where would you invest your time?
Hopefully it wouldn’t be in making exactly 153 replica cardboard haddock. Hopefully you’re thinking, “This is all about Jesus’ forgiveness of Peter. It’s about how Peter denied Jesus 3 times and was asked by Jesus 3 times to feed his sheep. It’s about how Peter can serve Jesus despite his pride, weakness and his failure.”
So, maybe you could use your visual aids to link back to his failure in that courtyard by showing the children what Peter said then and what Jesus says to him now. And maybe you could focus on Jesus’ question to Peter and all of us: “Do you really love me?”
So, there are some examples where asking the question ‘What do I need to reinforce’ helps us to decide where to invest our time and effort when making visual aids.
But just before I finish here are a couple of other things to consider in making your visual aids more effective.
First, don’t forget that pictures can be very powerful. There are some great websites which provide free images to help communicate Bible passages to children, plus one or two that charge a fee.
Think carefully, however, before using books or children’s Bibles to provide your visuals- they tend to be trickier to use.
Generally speaking, though not always, the pictures are too small to use with groups of children and the other problem is it’s tempting just to resort to using the author’s words. And if you just read the words you’re not thinking it through yourself and the book will almost certainly not teach what it means and how it applies.
Second, there are loads of more ambitious ideas you can do you can do to bring the Bible alive using visual aids if you have the time and the energy.
I love to use illusions and magic tricks to demonstrate Bible truths. In fact I have written several books on how you can do this.
But don’t forget that the simplest things are usually the most useful in Children’s Ministry – a flat bed sheet, a crown and a rough wooden cross are the three most useful items. Never be without them.
In summary:
- Make your visual aids more effective by asking ‘what it is you need to reinforce?’
- Remember that pictures can be very effective
- Don’t be afraid of more ambitious ideas
- Remember that the simplest visual aids are often the most useful.
For more ideas and how-to information, I have written a book on creative ministry. Thank you.
