At this point I had been teaching a group of kids for going on 4 years - the past 3 of which I was completely in charge of the group. I had other volunteers working with me, but I was the lead teacher setting the tone for the group. Since I taught on Saturday nights, I was given a lot of leeway and flexibility. I tended to do things with more of a small group approach - each leader had a group of kids that they regularly did a craft, activity or discussion time with and then about 75% of the time I'd lead the whole group in a lesson time with the other teachers taking a turn at leading the other 25%.
We were still using curriculum developed by Lifeway - which is the Southern Baptist Convention - and it was very old school. While attempts were made to "make it cool", it was firmly rooted in a traditional Sunday School environment. In fact most of the classes for kids on the weekend were still very traditional. Saturdays were just different. And I liked it.
At this conference though, I was shown very different ways to do children's ministry. Ways that were right in line with what we were doing on Saturday night. A large group/small group model was emphasized and it was very important to place people in positions they enjoyed serving in. Find the people who are organized and detail oriented and put them in charge of administration. Find the people who are creative speakers and over the top characters and put them in charge of large group lessons. Find the people who care about the kids and just want to get to know the better and make them small group leaders.
It seemed revolutionary and so simple at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment