Preparing a Bible Talk Or Children’s Sermon

Teaching the Bible to children is why we’re here,

Paul says to Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16.

So, you’ve got the challenge of handling this bit of God’s word and helping the children in your group to engage with it.

God’s word is powerful and He uses it to change lives…so this is a massive privilege. But it’s also a big responsibility. We need to be careful to teach what God intends the children to learn.

So, in this article, we’ll look at some of the most important principles.

Here are those important principles:

1. Teach the Bible. And don’t just tell Bible stories.
2. Always use visual aids and interaction to bring it all alive.
3. Be clear.

So, where do we start?

Well, that’s easy. Read the Bible passage.

It’ll probably be a passage from one of the historical books of the Old Testament or from a gospel or Acts; it might be a Psalm, or from a New Testament letter. And you might be quite familiar with it.

But read the Bible passage – because if you don’t then there’s a big risk that you’ll assume you know it and miss something important.

So, let’s work through an example:

Mark 4:35-41 

“And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Now, you’re probably already thinking about those visual aids and ideas to make it interactive. You might be imagining pictures of boats, models of boats, inflatable boats or even taking the children out for a ride on a boat to make it real. You’re planning how you can use stormy sound effects, water pistols or buckets of water to make the whole thing come alive.

And all of that is fantastic! Ideas like that are brilliant for engaging children with God’s word. Write down those ideas as they come to you. But that’s not all of it.

Because principle Number 1 is that we TEACH the Bible, not just tell Bible stories.

And the difference between telling great Bible stories and TEACHING the Bible is in explaining what it MEANS and how that APPLIES to our lives today.

To teach the Bible you need to include not just knowledge of what happened, but also the meaning of what it means and the application to us today.

Here’s the simplest way to get to the meaning: ask yourself what does this teach about God or Jesus or the work of the Holy Spirit; or us? Or the non-Christian world? Or the church?

Sometimes that’ll be fairly obvious. Sometimes more difficult to work out. So, what’s the meaning of our example passage?

Well there’s a big clue in verse 41 when the terrified disciples ask each other ‘Who is this? Even the wind and waves obey him.’

But who is this Jesus? I mean, who is he… REALLY.

” Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.” Job 9:8

They were gradually making sense in their minds who Jesus really is. King over everything. So, the meaning of this passage is about Jesus’ being King over the storm – yes…but much much more than that.

And what’s the application? Well, the application is really about my response. And God works to bring about the response that He wants in our lives.

But we should certainly point the children to right applications not wrong ones. The easiest way to get to this is to see what the challenge or encouragement is.

• Maybe there’s an example to follow?
• Or a command to obey?
• Maybe a warning we need to pay attention to or a sin to stay well clear of.
• Is there a promise for us?
• Does the passage lead us to praise or prayer?

So, for our passage here, knowing that Jesus is King over Everything means our response should be to worship, serve and trust Him as our King.

That’s faith.

Did you see the challenge in Jesus’ question to the disciples in verse 40? Why are you so afraid?

Instead of panic and worry trust Jesus, who is King over Everything. He doesn’t promise to take the storm away…but He wants us to learn to worship and serve and trust Him.

So, in order to teach this passage let’s see what we’ve got: we need to plan to communicate what happened, what it means and how it applies to us today. And that is the outline of your talk.

If you divide your sheet of paper into 3 columns and jot down what you’re going to cover under those three headings, probably in that order then you’ve got the basic structure of a great Bible talk.

What about principle number 2? Making it visual and interactive?

Well, that’s where all those wonderful ideas come in. Your only limit is your own imagination – plus the mess that’s left to clear up afterward.

Those ideas will make it visual and interactive – and the children will be much more engaged and will understand it much better when you do that.

For some ideas read the article entitled Presentation Ideas and my article on Creating Great Visual Aids

Now, the third principle was clarity.

That’s really important for any talk to children. It’s better to focus on one meaning and application than try to make five of each and leave them looking bewildered.

If you’ve been given a long passage to teach then you’ll have to focus on the key events.

For example, if you’re teaching the flood from Genesis 6-9 to pre-school children there’s no need at all to go into the stuff about two of every animal or seven of every animal.

This may cause you to lose the key point – God judging sin and choosing to rescue Noah and his family.

To keep things clear you also need to think about some of the words you might be tempted to use.

A 6-year-old only understands a quarter of the vocabulary of an adult, and a 3-year-old only about 1-2% …so think about the words you’ll be using.

What about timings? Well, aim for roughly a minute for every year of their age.

So, for under 5s keep it under 5 minutes, under 8s keep it under 8 minutes and for under 12s keep it under 12 minutes; for the youngest ones you’ll want to spend almost all of that time on what happened and then a simple sentence or two on meaning and application.

But for children at the top end of primary school age, we can explore the meaning and application with them in much more depth. So, there ya go.

Think through the meaning and application as well as what happens, make it visual and interactive and keep it really clear. And teach them God’s word – it’s why we’re there.

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