RELEVANT CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

Have you ever been teaching and you lose the kids' attention? They start talking or playing while you are trying to teach the lesson. 

Don't feel bad. It happens to all of us at times.

On our behalf, we are trying to teach Gen Alpha kids and their attention span is down to probably like milliseconds. It only takes a pause or small distraction and they disengage. 

I get it. They have hundreds of messages coming their way each day. It all becomes a blur to them at times...your teaching included. 

So what should you do when you find yourself talking to no one but yourself because all of the kids have disengaged and checked out? 

Don't get discouraged. Here are 10 ways you can get kids' attention back. 

Clap if you can hear me.

Say this in a loud voice. 

"Clap once if you can hear me."

Say it again in a medium voice. 

"Clap once if you can hear me now."

Say it the third time in a whisper. 

"Clap once if you can hear me now."  

By the third clap and whisper the classroom will be quiet for the moment you need to move forward. 

Have a hand signal.

Make up a hand signal and let the kids know when they see you do the hand signal, they should respond with the same hand signal. After a few signals, they should quiet down. 

Play a video attention grabber. 

In my Connect12 curriculum, I have video attention grabbers built into the lesson.  The attention grabbers are used to not only grab the kids' attention, but to also have them repeat the key truth for the lesson. These attention grabbers are highly effective at grabbing the kids' attention back for you. 

Flicker the lights.

Turning the lights on and off will help you get kids' attention back.

Balloon Pop

I often use this and it is very effective. I have 4 balloons up front with me. Any time the kids are not engaged in the lesson with me, I pop a balloon. They know if they have at least one balloon left at the end of class time, everyone will get a small prize.  

Macaroni cheese...time to listen please.

Have kids repeat the "time to listen please" any time you say "macaroni cheese." 

A sound.

Have a sound that the kids respond to. It might be a whistle sound or a bell you ring or a tapping sound. 

Clap in patterns.

You clap once, they respond by clapping once. You clap twice, they respond by clapping twice.  You clap to a beat, they repeat the beat.  

Say "to infinity" and the kids respond by saying "and beyond."  This quote from Toy Story will grab their attention.

Say "crisscross" and the kids respond by saying "applesauce" and sit down with their arms crossed.  This works well with preschoolers.

Your turn. What are some other methods you use to get kids' attention back? Share them in the comment section below. 
 

Do you need more volunteers? 

Yes. Of course you do. I know I do. I have a solid volunteer team, but I always need more people. Especially if you want to grow. Adding new volunteers prepares you for growth.  

Volunteers are an essential part of children's ministry. Without them there is no children's ministry. 

So how can you increase your volunteer team? Here's the good news. I have a proven strategy that will help you grow your team.

It is a proven strategy that even Jesus used to grow His disciple's team. 

Ready for this ground breaking strategy?  Okay, here it is. 

Personally invite people to join your team...one at a time. 

Look at this example of how Jesus built His team one person at a time. It is found in Matthew 9.

"As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. 'Follow me,' he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him."

And another example found in John 1. 

"The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

The proven strategy is personal, one-on-one asks. How many volunteers do you need? The way to enlist people is to personally ask them to join your team.

Don't complain about not having enough volunteers if you are not personally asking people to serve. 

At one of the churches where I lead the children's ministry, we grew our volunteer team from 300 to over 2,000.  It took us nine years to do this. How did it happen? One new volunteer at at time. Every single week, we started asking people to join our team...one person at a time.  We did this week in and week out for over 9 years. After 9 years of doing this, we looked up and saw that we had over 2,000 volunteers. 

How many volunteers do you need? 5? 50? 500?  You will get them one person at a time.

That sounds like a lot of hard work. Yes...it is. But it's a price you have to pay if you want to grow your team. Don't complain about not having enough volunteers if you are not personally asking people to join your team.

One little (big) hint. Before you ask people, ask God to give you divine appointments. You see, there are people in your church that God has been speaking to about serving. Ask God to lead you to those people. 

I'll never forget when Dan joined our team. We had an opening on our volunteer security team. We begin to pray and ask God to bring us the right person for this important role. One day, we saw a man named Dan who was dropping off his kids at children's ministry. We felt God telling us that he was the person. We approached him about serving on the security team. His eyes immediately filled with tears and he said, "that is where I have been feeling God wanted me to serve, but I didn't know if you needed anyone.  Of course, I would love to serve in that role."

Divine appointments. Ask for them and watch in amazement as God leads you to the people He wants on your volunteer team. 

I'm not sure what proven strategy you were looking for...but you have found one. Try it and watch what God does. 

p.s. For more great tips about building and leading a volunteer team, get my book "The Formula for Building Great Volunteer Teams."

Knoxville has had acting roles in films Men in Black II (2002), Grand Theft Parsons (2003), A Dirty Shame and Walking Tall (both 2004), The Dukes of Hazzard, The Ringer, and a cameo role as a corporate president of a skateboard company in Lords of Dogtown (all 2005), The Last Stand (2013), Skiptrace (2016), and the television series Reboot (2022). He also voiced Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014). 

There is one other thing that you may not know about Johnny.  He grew up in church.  A conservative Southern Baptist church. Recently in an interview with Rolling Stones magazine, he talked about this. Here's what he had to say.

Let's break this down. 

"You know...you are 7 or 8...just having to go."

Having to go?  Why did he "have to go?"  Probably because it was boring. I have heard people say, "I am not going to church because I was made to go as a child.  News flash.  You don't have to "make" someone go where they enjoy being. I've never heard anyone say, "I'm not going to Disney World because I was made to go as a child."  

It is vital that we make church a good experience for children. An engaging environment that they look forward to being in. As someone said, "Church should be the best hour of a kid's week."

Our goal should be for kids to be dragging their parents to church rather than parents having to drag their child to church.

"...sit there and be quiet"

We tell kids to sit still and be quiet in church. Then they grow up and they sit still and are quiet or they even leave as Johnny did. 

Kids are wired to move...move...move. Should there be times when they are quiet and reverent." Of course. Each Wednesday night, I have a time of prayer with the kids in our church. We get on our knees and the kids pray for people who are sick in our church, missionaries, teachers, etc. It is a holy moment. But we also spend a lot of time teaching using active, hands on, relevant methods that gives kids the opportunity to learn the way they do best. This includes lots of games, activities and fun. 

This is not about "what" you teach but rather about "how" you teach.  One of the most controversial posts I have ever written is about why kids should have their own worship service. You can read it at this link.  

"listening about burning in hell"

Is hell in the Bible?  Yes. But I'm not sure if it is wise to teach kids who are 7 or 8 years old about hell. All Scripture is true and inspired, but our teaching needs to be age appropriate.  Scaring kids by teaching them about hell is not something I am a fan of.  Johnny experienced this as a child and as he says "it was a lot" for a kid at that age.

Here is an article I wrote about whether we should teach kids about hell or not. 

I pray that Johnny comes back to the faith.  

I also pray for the boys and girls in our ministries. I pray that we would help them know Jesus and follow Him for a lifetime. 

Do you have my book "Fertile Soil...how to see kids follow Jesus for a lifetime?" I go in depth about how we can see kids grow up to love and follow Jesus. It's available at this link. 

Your turn. What is your impression from Johnny's interview? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to speak at a children's ministry training event at First Baptist Church of Rogers, Arkansas. 

My friend, Shay Caldwell, is the children's pastor there. He is a great leader and I was impressed with all that God is doing through the ministry there. 

Here are some pictures I took. I trust they will inspire you and challenge you to go all out to reach kids and families.