1. Develop real relationships.
It’s important for teachers to know each child — what he or she likes and his or her interests and favorite color — so they can share in relationship with him or her.
“If we just evangelize without relationship, it can be off-putting sometimes,” said Rod Marshall, vice president of counseling for Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries. “For some kids, if an adult who’s not their parent really invests themselves in relationship with that child, it may be the first time that’s happened so that child will be interested in what they have to say.”
2. Be a role model.
When it is the end of the day, things didn’t go as planned and teachers are tired, it is still important for the fruit of the Spirit to be manifested in their behavior.
“Kids learn by observing so for every teacher of VBS, their prayer should be for the fruit to shine through in everything they say and do — to be peaceful, loving, merciful, kind, gentle, patient, especially when [they’re] tired.”
3. Create bite-size activities.
“Take education objectives and break them down to bite-size pieces so no activity is planned to last more than 5–10 minutes but there are more activities and they build on each other,” Marshall said. A general rule of thumb is to consider the age of a child, and that is approximately the number of minutes his or her attention span will last.
4. Have fun.
Children learn best when they are having fun, so it is vital for teachers to leave their inhibitions at the door and have fun with the children. “The potential to significantly impact them with, what we believe is, the most important thing they’ll ever learn is much greater if we’re … having fun with age-appropriate, developmentally appropriate methods; keeping it short; and being nontraditional.”
5. Don’t get too self-important.
A teacher must remember not to be discouraged if he or she is not the one to reap the harvest of a child coming to Christ. “You might be the sower and someone else the cultivator and someone else the reaper, so don’t think because you taught VBS and no one made a profession of faith that you wasted your time. … You’ve been faithful and obedient and God knows that so don’t get too focused on the results the way we tend to define them by the showing of hand and counting of decisions.” (TAB)
Share with others: