To teach the Bible we need to communicate not just knowledge of what happened in the passage, but also help the children understand its meaning and then how that applies today, to them.
To get to the meaning- you’ll have read the passage and thought about where it fits into the Bible’s story as a whole, as well as its context in the chapters where it is, and become clear in your mind what God is teaching us.
And for application- you’ll have probably scribbled down some ideas –what should my response be?
Table of Contents
Great. But how to put it together? You stare at your blank sheet of paper or laptop screen and what do you write?
Well, here is a simple structure which I find works every time. It’s not rocket science but it does work. Access, Teach, Apply- that’s the structure. So get a clean sheet of paper, divide it into 3 columns and write or type those headings on it:
- Access
- Teach
- Apply.
Now all we’ve got to do is fill in the paragraphs under them! So, what’s that first one –
Access
Well, tell you what, let’s come back to that one later. Let’s instead do the second one Teach. This is where you’ll spend the most time and is also the easiest one.
Teach
It’s got two parts – what happened and what it means. So- first what happened?
Write down how you’re going to describe to the children what happened. Write down how you’re going to say it – being careful to use language that they’ll understand and avoiding idiomatic phrases like ‘counting your chickens’ and ‘kick the bucket’.
Write down what visual ideas you’re going to use to make it creative and interactive. You also need to plan what you’re going to keep in and what to leave out.
Sometimes you’re given a Bible passage that includes far too much material for one session and even if you did somehow manage to do it all the children would switch off or leave.
That doesn’t mean that you can ignore bits that are difficult. What it does mean is that if you can still communicate the key points in a passage in a way which doesn’t conflict with the bits you’re not commenting on, or the rest of the Bible, then it’s reasonable to leave them out.
For example, if you’re teaching young children about David’s adultery with Bathsheba it’s reasonable to not comment on her having a bath on the roof and the sordid details that follow. You can still say that David saw Bathsheba and stole her from her husband without extra description.
Having said that, when we’re teaching tough passages- for example God’s judgment in the OT, or the crucifixion it is right to include some of the details- e.g. the crown of thorns, the nails and the spear even for pre-schoolers.
What we need to do is choose visual aids that are appropriate for that age-group.
TEACH the passage you’ve written down what happened
Now think about what it means. There’s a whole previous articlr on ‘Understanding the meaning of a bible passage’ so do look at that to get more info.
The big idea is to ask what the passage teaches us about God, Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, us, the church, the world around us. That might just be a sentence or two that you say yourself. Or if you’re able to, you might want to break out into small groups to explore the meaning.
APPLY
Well, again, that might be part of your talk or you might want to guide the other leaders to look at that in small groups. For that you’d need to provide them with an outline or activity.
If it’s part of your talk then remember that application is about what our response should be to what we’ve just heard. You might be saying something as simple as, ”And we need to listen to Jesus’ warning here…” or “And for us when we are finding it difficult to follow Jesus we should remember His promise that…” or “Isn’t Daniel a good example to us of what we should do when we have to choose between doing what pleases God or what pleases other people…”
Again look at the previous article called ‘Applying bible teaching’ for more help with this. So…that’s TEACH and APPLY.
ACCESS
Well, this is the one I want to spend most time on. And I recommend that it’s the first thing you do in your talk.
Now, it’s not compulsory but I’ve found over the years that it’s very very effective; it does take extra effort to plan. But the benefit in terms of the clarity of your teaching makes the effort well worthwhile.
So, what is ‘access’?
Access is the way into a talk. It links from what the children understand already to what you’re going to teach them from the Bible passage.
It’s a question, or a challenge or a game or a scenario which illustrates the meaning of your Bible passage, before you start teaching your Bible passage.
In our Vacation Bible School programs, we have two parts, before and after snack.
In the first part, we do songs, games, object lessons and skits. These are leading into the main mesage given after snack. The information here leads into the children’s sermon.
Let me explain with an example. The Sermon the Mount in Matthew 5-7 finishes with Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish house builders in chapter 7 verses 24-29.
Great passage to teach children. Very visual. The meaning is in verses 24 and 26: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like…”
The meaning is about listening to Jesus and obeying him, especially so that we put our faith in him.
So, what could we do in the access section?
You could start your talk by showing them some instructions for building some flat-packed furniture, or a recipe for a cake or something. Talk about how we can follow the instructions and do what they say, or we can choose to ignore them and end up making a mess of it.
You could even show them a picture of a disastrous wardrobe or cake if you have the time. That illustrates the meaning of the passage before you start to teach the passage.
You can then start to teach: “Now, Jesus told us a little story to teach us to listen to what he says and obey him…otherwise what will happen will not be a horrible cake but our whole lives will be a disaster.”
Then you’re into ‘teach’ where you do the parable.
Access can be done in loads of different ways. What about Jesus’ healing the blind man in John 9– the meaning is about needing to see things- particularly Jesus- clearly.
So to access this how about starting with a powerpoint showing some photos of things disguised by blocking out most of the picture. And then take the blocks away to reveal the whole image.
Or for Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4 (the meaning being Jesus’ authority over all creation) you could show them some pictures of people with authority, such as police officers, teachers, etc, as a way in to help them understand Jesus’ authority over everything because He is King over everything.
Access takes lots of forms- it could be a quiz, a game or even as simple as asking a question about a situation the children might find themselves in.
or Daniel in the Lion’s Den (Daniel 6) here’s a question you can use. The meaning of the passage is about choosing to follow God no matter what, so your access question goes something like this: “If I asked you what would you do if you had to choose between doing the right thing and the wrong thing then I’m sure most of you would say you’d choose to do the right thing. But what if when you chose to do the right thing you got into trouble? And what if there were people pushing you to do the wrong thing. Well, in the Bible we read about a man called Daniel who had a choice like that to make. …”
Access. Teach. Apply. Having done things out of order we’ve now looked at those 3 sections in the structure of your talk:
- Access, where you link from what the children do understand to what you’re going to teach them.
- Teach, where you look at what happened and what it means
- Apply, where you ask what our response should be. It’s simple but it works. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check out our other articles on children’s ministry if you’ve not already seen them.
Need help in creating great lessons for your VBS, children’s church or Sunday School Class? Check out my book, “Secrets Of Creative Ministry: Teaching Truth With Engaging And Creative Lessons.” Available on Amazon.
