In my formative children’s ministry years, Ethel Barrett was the queen of Bible storytelling.
On one occasion she spoke at a very large children’s ministry conference with well over 2,000 pastors and leaders in the room. She came out, sat down in a chair, and proceeded to tell a Bible story that mesmerized the entire group.
She “storied” for about fifteen minutes and had the entire group in the palm of her hand. It was absolutely amazing and clearly a God-given gift. After hearing her, I and many others wanted to communicate with children as she could.
Teaching the Bible and Bible storytelling are bedrock children’s ministry skills, made all the more important by the emphasis on cognitive-communication in traditional educational models. It has made teaching Bible Truth a focal point in children’s ministry.
As a result, there is a prodigious amount of material on this topic. Rather than trying to summarize, offer highlights, or add to the mountain of work about ways to teach, I will touch on the topic of creativity and then offer my own practical method.
Creativity
Children’s workers all consider creativity essential to teaching the Bible to children.
As noted, I believe sincerity is just as important—but I will grant that a sincere and creative teacher is best! Back to creativity…
Over the years I’ve known many children’s workers who don’t feel very creative. I always remind them that every single one of us is created in the image of God, and we see in Genesis 1:26-27 that one of God’s qualities is His creativity.
Therefore, since God is creative, we can rest assured that we—created in His image—have the creativity of God in us. Some of us may need to dig deeper to find it.
If you’re still not convinced that you’re at all creative, this list of some practical creative principles may be helpful:
- Child response – As you tell/read the story, provide opportunities for children to respond by saying a phrase, doing hand motions, etc.
- Visual aids/props – Use props or pictures that will help engage the students.
- Gestures/movement – Get up and move or use hand gestures during the story. Doing so will help draw the children in.
- Storytelling variations – Tell the story from different perspectives, such as a bystander’s view, a first-person perspective, etc.
- Use music – Is there a song you can sing with the children as you tell the story?
- Newspaper – Report from the scene like a news reporter.
- Drama sketch – Share a modern-day setting of an old story.
- Television, Internet, radio interview – Set up a live link for radio or TV.
- Dramatic reading – Use a narrator and assign people to play specific parts.
- A jigsaw puzzle – Put together a puzzle as you tell the story.
- Special delivery – Receive a letter from Paul written on a scroll.
- Collage – Create artwork that will decorate the room for the remainder of the series.
- Sound drama – Have children retell the story using sounds. No words allowed!
- Simple drawings – Let stick figures and other simple illustrations represent the things you are talking about.
- Puppets – Have a simple puppet to help you tell parts of the story.
Creativity is key to capturing and keeping a child’s interest. Our creativity—plus God’s gracious touch—can make the Word of God come alive for the children. I hope the list above helps you get creative this week and stay creative every week after.
Technology and Creativity
The goal of creativity, for most of the children’s workers I’ve met around the world, is to see God’s Word come alive for children; to see children engaged and interested in the Bible.
Creativity that captures children’s imaginations or interests is not the focus of the church. It often boils down to creatively communicating a particular Bible story, passage, or verse in a way that draws the children.
Over the last few decades, amazing advances have been made using technology to just that end. There have been several multimedia film projects that have reenacted the life of Jesus, Acts of the Apostles, and some of the great narratives of the Old Testament. They vary in quality and interpretive principles with some staying close to the actual Bible text and others taking creative license.
However, many of them are simply fantastic ways to make the Word of God come alive, literally. I am currently teaching through an “I Am” series of lessons from the Gospel of John. Many of those I am statements made by Jesus are part of dramatic stories.
Although I fancy myself to be a good storyteller, the video footage reenactments are simply overwhelming in terms of making the stories come alive.
There are also several curriculum companies that have built their Bible-teaching materials around media. There are pluses and minuses to this approach but the communication of God’s Word using media is an essential creativity tool.
The Story
Many of the Bible Truths we teach children revolve around a story. So of course, teaching the truth of God’s Word seems easier for those individuals who excel at storytelling.
Fortunately, storytelling is a skill that can be developed. Try, for instance, this format for storytelling that I have always liked:
- Setting – Describe where the story occurs and what the place was like (cold, rainy, dark, crowded, scary, smelly, etc.). Know the time of the event. Remember that preschool children may have problems understanding time and how many years ago, for instance, Adam and Eve lived. Older children will be helped by reference points like Jonah and David lived long before Jesus did; Paul and Acts come after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
- Main Character – Describe the main character in a way that helps the children connect with him or her. Point out qualities that the children would find interesting and be able to relate to. Consider details about what that person is wearing, what kind of shoes they have, what language they speak, and what kind of personality they have.
- Opening Event – What happened to the main character of your story at the beginning? Choose an event that is interesting, exciting, or compelling, an event that will grab the children’s interest and draw them into the story.
- Action – What was the main character’s reaction to the opening event? to the subsequent activities, actions, or events in the story? Present a simple and orderly account of what happened.
- Result – What happened because of something the character did? What was the final result of the story? Your answer will be the main point of the story and closely tied to the Lesson Aim.
I have used this simple story format to tell Bible stories to children in two different languages for forty years. It is not the “silver bullet” of storytelling but it’s served me well over the years.
Based on our work with children, we are confident that God will use the truth of His Word in their life. So, we rely on God to help us teach His Word in a way that reflects His work in our own life and helps the children understand and integrate His truth into their own.
Calming the Storm
Jony is a children’s worker in a barrio in Ensenada, Mexico. She has been through EGM’s Model Children’s Worker program, and she loves to teach children the Word of God.
One day when she was serving at Eden Church in a VBS-type summer outreach, she was teaching a lesson developed in our EGM-Mexico training.
The focus was Jesus Christ calming the storm after the terrified disciples, who were fearing for their lives, woke Him up. Jony taught the children that Jesus can calm any storm, any kind of storm, no matter how big or how strong it is. The only thing you must do is pray and ask Him for help.
So, Jony taught the children to pray for help, and she talked with them about the problems that they face, problems that are their real-life storms. They talked about some difficult circumstances, such as when a father comes home intoxicated and hits his wife in front of the children.
Near the end of class, each child got a piece of paper that had on it a specific problem as well as an image of a boy or a girl praying. Every day of VBS the children would write down a name and ask God to calm that person’s problems just as He had calmed the storm for Jesus’ disciples.
The following day one of the little boys went up to Jony. Six-year-old Bernardino told her that when he got home, his mom asked, “What did you learn at church?” He told her that he’d learned to pray and ask God to calm the storms in their home.
Confused, Bernardino’s mother asked, “What storms do we have at home?”
Bernardino just said, “I’m going to pray for your storm.”
“But I don’t have any storms.”
“Yes, you do. You have a storm when you cry and shout because Dad comes home drunk and starts hitting you. So, we’re going to pray that God won’t let this happen anymore.”
When his dad got home, Bernardino bravely talked to his father and told him that God was not going to allow him to hit his wife anymore. The father was shocked by his six-year-old son’s boldness and even more impressed by his courage. Bernardino told Jony that his father apologized, asked for forgiveness, and didn’t want to be like that anymore.
Then, on the Sunday after VBS ended, Bernardino and his dad and mom were at church. Since that first week, the parents have reconciled, been baptized, and committed themselves to Christ and to Eden Church.
Not only did God’s truth impact Bernardino’s life, but it also brought spiritual freedom, and calm to his entire family. Praise the Lord!
For more information about teaching the Truth of God’s Word to boys and girls, check out our website.