Let me cover a few things here to begin with that were not recorded on the video, because they had turned it off, and I do want those who will watch this video again to hear some of these things. Again, when it comes to tools, there are many tools out there, and that gospel toolbox can be a great resource for you. Again, Lord willing, we'll have it available here at Duluth Bible Church. for you to purchase, per se, for your Sunday school. We're going to have about five or so of them right here in our Sunday school supply room. One for the 3 and 4, one for 5 and K, 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6. So it should really be covered and hopefully available for others as well. Let me also mention, by way of curriculums, what we use are two curriculums that, again, are both out of print. One is ACORN Publications. We like ACORN. It's really structured nicely, laid out very well for how we have our Sunday morning. Sessions is we again have a junior church at 930. Well, that's going on for grades 1 through 6. We also have our two youngest classes going on, age 3 and 4, and 5 and K. And then at the 1045 hour, we continue with those youngest classes, but the grades 1 through 6 then go to their Sunday school classes. And again, we have them divide in grade 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6. Also, historically, I think right from the beginning, the way we've done it at Duluth Bible Church by way of teachers or helpers, we have them a month on, month off, month on, month off. And as a result, that gives them a break, again, from teaching and keeps them hopefully fresh. You know, in some places, you go into Sunday school, you're going in, and you don't come out until you're dead, you know. And some people like that, but others really do like some break. And so that's how we've approached it. Now, the material we use, again, is done by ACORN in the youngest classes, and then starting... Do you use ACORN in 1 and 2 at all, Val? Yep, okay. OK, so in the grade one and two class, they use Acorn one year and Baraka the next. Now, Baraka is out of print as well, at least the old material is, though we got permission years ago to duplicate it. And so we use it. And again, the content basically is very good, but it's not real child friendly as far as giving the teacher a lot of things that they can do that we've been talking about today. And so hopefully, a lot of these tools can be very helpful for you. Now, if you're looking for a curriculum that you can use, especially in a mixed audience, as far as kids of various ages, again, Wanda Nazworth has recently come out with one, The Most Amazing Story, and it's 80 lessons in every lesson. There is the Bible lesson, there is a line drawing, and there's a craft to go with it. And so it can be helpful, especially in mixed groups, startups, various things. Fill a void, fill a need. It's going to be translated into Spanish. If you buy it on Amazon, it's going to cost you $33. If you buy it from Duluth Bible, I think it's going to cost you $20. And so we will have at least one of these probably available in our Sunday School Supply Room, and we'll sell other ones on our bookstore. Ann Lamme mentioned how she thought maybe this would be a great thing for family devotions, and it would be. It's laid out well. And we do also have some devotional books by Brian Copeland for little older kids up in our bookstore as well that can be very helpful for you. Another book that you should be aware of is Childhood Education in the Church by Robert Clark, Joanne Brubaker, and Roy Zuck. And by the way, Roy Zuck went home to be with the Lord last Saturday. I think he was 80-some years old. And I think the last book he ever edited was Freely by His Grace. And so Roy's with the Lord, and he's had a great desire to see good materials come out and so forth and so forth. Now, you have a manual, and in that manual, as you've been following along, the teachers have not been covering everything. There's stuff for you to read there. You know, as I was looking at Jill's tips for storytelling, she told the story, she basically illustrated what we're to do, and most of it you're to read. And Jill's on storytelling has plenty of positive principles to prepare for prayerfully and practice profusely. before you present it professionally with practical application. And I thought, where did she learn to alliterate like that there? And then I looked in the mirror and said, I'm guilty. So I really, you know, Jill didn't know I was watching via webcast in my study. So I really do want to see that scripture Macarena. Now, we are going to have a session here. The next session is on the challenge of teaching mixed ages and those with special needs. Now, some of you have that situation. Jolene has it with her Bible club. So Nantico deals with that. You may have that in your Sunday school setting, especially when it's a younger church and you don't have that many teachers or that many kids and so forth. And increasingly, we're having issues with autism. In fact, I read somewhere recently, one out of every 50 kids in school has autism. which is an amazing number when you think about it. And so at this time, Jill and Jolene are going to come on up and share about that. And when they're done, we'll then have the Sunday School helpers in the youngest classes at least, and the older classes can if you want, go on up to the Gibbs room and watch this video by Nancy. And then they can come back for the remaining time, probably the question and answer session. Lord willing, if everything goes well. So this time we'll have, is it Jill or Jolene first? Or both? Okay. Jill will come up in a moment to go over how to teach multiple ages, but looking at you, you all look like, oh, this is overwhelming, and there's so much. So before she begins, I'd like you just to take a minute or two and turn to page eight in your booklets back at the beginning where all those lesson elements were listed. And notice on the whiteboard there are four things that I would like you to do on that page just to give you some time to think and process before you get dumped on with more stuff. The four things I'd like you to do is first of all put a box around the most important element on that list. Secondly, write the three A's next to the gospel box. Thirdly, write one thing that you personally would like to improve on next to the element that it relates to. So for example, if you thought during when Barb was talking about the gospel and you thought, oh, I would really like to get better at using concrete examples and making it simple. Write that next to the gospel box. Number four, circle all the times you see lesson aim. I want you to see how important it is to have a very clear lesson aim and how prevalent it is throughout your entire morning. When you're finished with that, you can turn in your books to page 48, and that's where we'll be starting next. But I'll give you a couple minutes to do those four things and think and process. No. Jolene, were you going to talk about the different autistic afterwards? Okay. All right. Okay. A majority of the churches in America and across the world have less than 100 members. These are small churches with small children's ministries. Many of these churches will have all children in the same classroom for Sunday school. That means multiple age groups will be learning together in one Sunday school classroom. That's true for our church on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings for the first hour class. So we hope this information will be helpful for Bible clubs, release time classes, junior church, and perhaps some VBSs or other outreach ministries and mission trips. In fact, maybe some of you someday might want to even start your own Bible club. So hopefully you'll get ideas from this. What can a small children's ministry do when they have children from kindergarten through sixth grade in the same group? Serving in a small children's ministry can be very challenging. I speak from first-hand experiencing. But it also has great rewards because you get to know all the kids in your church from when they're little to when they get bigger. And you also get to, um, You're blessed in the fact that you can sometimes have opportunities to do things that you wouldn't normally do in a Sunday school setting. Like when I taught on Wednesday nights at our house for five years, we did a variety of different activities, and we could, I taught on the attributes of God, for example, and had a different story for each attribute, and then at the end we had a God party. And so each family made their own God snack and brought it, and it was a lot of fun. Or just being able to teach in the back of our fellowship hall on dispensations. So we wrapped that up with each family that had a kid in our class, they made their own kingdom age or church age. So each family made their own special part of the different seven dispensations. So there's, instead of looking at the negative, look at the positive, because sometimes you don't have to stick to a curriculum and you can do some exciting things. I know Melissa and Katie Rupert taught on the tabernacle, and they did just a long unit on just the right and the wrong responses to the gospel. It was excellent for our kids to learn that. So you can have, special opportunities when you are in a unique situation. But here's some ideas for how to bridge the gap in your multiple age classroom at church or Bible club. The number one thing is established buddies. So if you can put some older children with younger ones, especially during the craft time, and even seat them during the story time. So that now they're learning to serve the older children, and they're learning how to minister, and have an investment in how your class turns out. You can pair them up to work on scripture memory. Like if you have a shy kid, you can have them with one other one. Pair them up for craft projects. One of the things I included in my visual things was even like making a map. I know when we had church in our home, we could do some more looser things, like make donuts with the story of Domingue right in the basement, and we could do slime, make slime, and do things with different textures that you wouldn't normally do at church or something during Sunday school. That kind of holds the older kids' attention, too, when they get to do some special scientific-type things like that. Utilize the experienced readers. The older students like to have a job. Like, we're learning some different songs on Sunday morning, and so I gave one of the boys a speaking part for one of the songs, and he's really excited to work on his speaking part during that song. So it kind of gives them a feeling of importance. Create special privileges, that's number three. They can stand up and lead some of the songs. They can use to act up an upcoming Bible story, even part of your gospel skit for the younger ones. What I do at Bible school a lot of times, I'll put the on a 3x5 card the lines that I want them to say to help teach the story. For the ones that like to read and want to do that. And then for the other ones they can do more of the actions. So when you plan out what your lesson is, I always plan in the back of my mind, how can I involve the most kids? Because I know they're coming from an entertainment background, where they're always in front of the TV, or they're just, you know, got their cell phone going or playing games or something. So they like to be actively involved if they're not used to church. So I plan with that in mind, like, how can I involve the most kids? You might have an older student who can play the piano be part of your lesson. Because even at a young grade, 4th, 5th, 6th grade, they can play the piano better than I can anyway. I've tried to step in at a Bible school and play and it's a mess. So I'd rather have a young kid play that's taking lessons than me. If you're singing around, the older kids can sing one part of the wrong. while you sing with all the younger kids. And then they don't feel like they're part of the baby group. I know my kids explained to me something, because I don't like how some of our younger kids are sitting in the older class, but they said, well, they can't, the older kids don't want to go back to the youngest Sunday school class, because then it's a demotion. So I had to, you know, now I'm thinking, well, I'll just probably go back in the fellowship hall when I'm teaching mixed ages. Because they have that thing, like they got promoted to this other room, this is special now, so they don't want to be demoted and feel like a little kid again. And then as far as modifying supplemental activities, number four, most of the lessons you will teach when reading about a passage from the Bible and explain its meaning, it will look somewhat similar across, but it'll be more of a challenge for you to come up with different applications for each age group, like the older kids' peer issues and the younger kids' more obedience issues. But all of them, attitudinally, can learn thankfulness, prayerfulness. So there's a lot of things that can go right across the line. They all are dealing with complaining at times. The same craft can be completed by both. But what I found, like when I did Attributes of God, I did more of a fill-in worksheet with a word bank with all the answers for the younger kids right on their worksheet. Whereas the older kids could go right to the scriptures and answer their questions by themselves. And then the really youngest ones, they would just do a coloring craft or something. So the younger ones have a shorter attention span. So have them color. And you might even have one more independent activity. Like I would break out the Play-Doh then for the little kids. So they could do something while the older kids are working on their worksheets. Another advantage is some other ideas that I had. You can do finger paintings of your Bible story. If you're doing Noah, you can do different colors. Chalk, use clay. You can do a scavenger hunt with your kids. You can make gifts for the parents for special holidays. So think of what you can do, not what you're limited to do, because you have the challenge of multiple ages, but then just think of it in light of a positive thing, that you get to do these other special things. Always, obviously, centered around the word of God. And then ensure that it's interactive. Use visuals, movement, hands-on. Like Jolene said, the video idea. They like to role-play. They like to listen for cues in the Bible passages. And I even have kids that have wanted to make part of the story. Like if I have them at Bible school for a few days, they say, They're like, oh, can I bring in Naaman's treasure box and make a big treasure box for Naaman? I'm like, yeah, great. So they get ideas, and they want to contribute to the story. So let them do that. Maybe even encourage that there's children in our church that are artistic, and sometimes I summon them to make some visuals for things. So they like doing that. Set the tone. Model how to give encouragement, how to get along, how to work together, and then emphasize what you expect out of every activity. If it's a game, model what to do and what not to do. You can get silly at times, but then know when to be firm and when to rein them in. One of the things I mentioned that has worked in our church is, on our Wednesday night classes, things tend to loosen up over time, and so my husband will just go in and talk to all the kids and explain to them, this is a privilege, they get to have this class, and then kind of reign them in and just tell them, you know, they need to respect, and this is what is expected of them, so maybe have an authority figure go in to talk to this multiple age group. And that helps. Besides, everybody's afraid of my husband. Just kidding. He's not that bad. I married him. And then promote cooperation and teamwork. Group students differently depending on each activity. You're going to know which kids are going to be reluctant. That's not cool. So think through, okay. Maybe have them not participate, but be more of a leader of the activity if it's something more for the younger kids. And just try to understand where they're coming from. They don't like to be demoted. And then you can do fun games too. Another game is Bible Jeopardy that all kids from different ages can play together because you have 100 points, 200, 300, 400, 500. The younger kids can easily get the 100 point questions. Even if they can't answer, you can pick the question for them and then they can answer and that's something you can play with all the different ages. Hide and seek games. If you're teaching an outlying ministry or if you're ministering in a different area, like I started out in Minneapolis. Some of the times we had kids in hotel rooms on swivel chairs, no kidding. Like, okay, let's make this into a king's throne. You know, you just make what you got, and it was kind of fun. We could hide different things around the hotel room. You know, it was interesting to try to get them to all sit in a certain place, and they would wonder, why aren't we watching TV, too? You know, you have a variety of places where you have to teach. I've had kids crammed, like 10 kids in this tiny little family room. Anywhere from a cafeteria and a gym to 100 kids in a hot human orphanage with all different ages from grade one all the way to grade 12. Very challenging. Not to mention the language barrier. So, Jolene and I were going to, were you gonna talk about, or we'll do the demonstration first, okay. Okay, all right. Jolene's gonna talk a little bit, and then we're gonna try to do a demonstration of a mixed classroom with learning challenges. Flip the page in your workbook. I think I do. Flip the page to page 52. Yep, I'll try. Is that better? Okay. So page 52, you'll notice that the title is called Teaching Children with Disabilities, but dis is crossed off. It's really different abilities. Within any Sunday school classroom, you teach whether it's by age group and grade level, or whether it's mixed grade level, you will have mixed abilities. You will have children with special needs. Any class you teach, there is a child there who will think a little bit differently than the other children around them. And as a teacher, when we are preparing for this workshop and people ask questions, everyone asks classroom management kind of questions. What do I do if? What do I do when? And one of the keys to classroom management is understanding your kids. First, understanding their age characteristics and how to plan a lesson for all of them. And then understanding, if they have a special need, what are those characteristics of the special need they have? And how do I, as a teacher, take my lesson and make it accessible to them? You'll notice on your sheet that we're going to talk about four different kinds of special needs. There are a myriad of them. There are more than you and I could ever list. All of these special needs were chosen because one, they're common, and two, they're hard to see. When I see a child walk into my classroom who's deaf or blind or uses a wheelchair, I can see right away they have special needs. And right away I can imagine what kind of accommodations they would need. But there are children who walk in that you can't see right away. There's something different. Their parents may tell you, but they might not. This year at Bible school, we had 12 new kids. 10 of them had special needs. And we had one helper. It was chaos. But the Lord undertook. And it's very beneficial for you to understand what these needs may entail. So first of all, we'll talk about autism. I'll just read you the paragraph. It's a social and communication disorder. If you turn back one page in your handout, you'll see that both pages 50 and 51 Our article copied that talks about Asperger's Syndrome, which is a fraction of autism. Autism is a spectrum disorder, so there are children who are really severely affected and others who are less severely affected. Asperger's is the less severely affected. That's probably what you will have in your classroom. This is a resource for you to understand more about that. processing and how their brain works. Some basic characteristics are they benefit from visual, not auditory learning. The reason being that a person with autism can't process sensory information. Imagine yourself sitting right now. What do you hear? Well, if you don't have processing issues, you just hear me talking. But now think about all the other stuff you hear. You hear pages shuffling, you hear lights buzzing, you hear people shifting. A person with autism can't filter all that out, generally. In addition, what do you feel? Maybe you feel the pen in your hand, you might feel the paper, you might feel sitting on the chair, you might feel your clothes. A person with autism feels all that all the time. So they're constantly stimulated, and can't pick out, this is important to pay attention to, this isn't. So now imagine teaching that kid in class and you just gave the direction, now get up and move, we're going over here. Well, that kid's probably gonna stay in the same spot. Because what are you talking about? What, huh, what, who are you? All they heard was like the penis. So it looks like disobedience, but really they couldn't process what you said. In addition, any time that there's chaos, loud noises, that will elevate anxiety in a person with autism, because again, they didn't expect this to happen. Why is everybody moving around? Why are we singing the Good News song and people suddenly shout? And it's very scary to them. A person with autism, their brain, there's a portion of our brain that processes anxiety. That portion of their brain is many times larger than a person's without autism. That's their primary emotion. They are anxious and fearful almost all the time. So just understand that when you have a kid with autism in your class, this is what they're seeing, feeling, hearing, sensing, and now you need to teach them and incorporate them and include them and see their strengths and how to access those strengths. Secondly, you see a learning disability. It's classified as any person who has an IQ that's average or above average, but they're really behind in processing information, like reading, for example. There are children in your Sunday school class who may be in sixth grade or fifth grade who are very intelligent, who can memorize a verse like that, but can't read. So that would be an example of a learning disability. And a person with a learning disability, especially older kids, will naturally feel ashamed of it. And they may act out so peers don't notice. Like suddenly it's time to write in your journal and there's one kid who's super naughty every single time at journal time. There might be a reason. Maybe you can't write and it's super embarrassing. So be thoughtful of that in your classroom management Why is this child doing this? There may be a reason beyond rebellion. Thirdly, executive functioning impairment. An easy way to remember that is just no veto power. In the United States government, if there's a law that makes it through all these channels, gets to the president's desk, the president has veto power. He can say, no, bad idea, veto, not going to happen. Our brains have that. And there are some kids, young kids generally don't have veto power, that's just their characteristic. They're impulsive, they do whatever's right there. But there are some kids who, even as they get older, are very impulsive. don't have the ability to think through consequences 10 minutes from now, and what would be best. So those children, it may look like rebellion, and in some kids who display the same behavior, it is rebellion. But in some, it's not. So be thoughtful about that. Remember, we warn the unruly, we comfort the feeble-minded, and we uphold the weak. It's important to pray for wisdom in identifying who's unruly versus who's just weak and feeble-minded. Lastly, a cognitive delay. It shows itself in a child who cannot comprehend things which their peers comprehend. It's not because they're not trying, they're not able. And they behave and think like children who are years younger than themselves. So you may have an eight-year-old in your class once in a while who displays sudden outbursts of emotions like a three-year-old would, who can't sit still, who has the attention span of a three-year-old, and there may be a reason for that. I would recommend never labeling the child unless their parents tell you ahead of time. You know, I wouldn't say, like, when you greet the parent at the door, well, I think your child has a cognitive delay. It's really not welcome. But in your own mind, you can be thinking that there may be other reasons for misbehavior. And you can try some strategies that are on the next page for how to make accommodations for how their brain works. And keeping with Jill's piece, for autism, the main accommodation you can write in there is pre-teach. You do this by using visual aids. The visual schedule is clear, measurable expectations. As you look up on the board, you see a social story is up here. It's a visual one, and it's really simple. A child with autism won't regulate their emotions as well as others. So let's say you play a game, and this kid always flips out when they lose really, really bad. Well, you can prevent that by pre-teaching. with a social story, with pictures. Why? Because they're visual, they're not auditory. You can tell them something, but that doesn't mean they heard it, or they got it. And it can be as simple as, I like to play games with my friends. Sometimes I'm the winner, and I feel happy. Sometimes I'm not the winner. And you can read the rest of it. Angie Peterson was nice enough to make a social story for us today. Electronic copy was sent to all of the sister churches. And I'll just read the beginning of it to you. The reason it's only an electronic copy is because you would have to modify it by inserting the child's name in it, as well as photographs of the child. They're very concrete, very literal thinkers. So the more actual photographs you can have of the child walking into the Sunday school room, the child sitting on the This is what it looks like. I'll just read you the introduction to a social story. It says, the idea here is to pre-teach a student for something that is difficult. Ideally, a parent would read to their child each time before Sunday school, and it could be reinforced in Sunday school. There should be pictures to go with the story, and it would be best if the pictures could include the student. It should be customized for the individual student and for the individual class based on student needs and the class routines and expectations. There should be two copies of the story, one at home and one in the classroom. It could be like a book or just a few pages depending on the age and the needs of the individual student. In the Sunday school classroom, it would also be good to have a visual or picture schedule. Remember we talked about that earlier, having a schedule up on the board? Here are some examples of a visual schedule. It can be as simple as this, taped to where the child usually sits. They can expect there's a welcome time and music time, Bible verses. Notice there's words as well as pictures. You could attach it to Velcro, like in this situation, so that it can be rearranged each week based on how you do your elements of the lesson. But this will help the child know what's coming next, and it'll alleviate anxiety, and it'll also help him or her make it through the transition to the next thing. Because when you say it, they didn't hear it. So this will allow them to make that accommodation, and it's really not a hard thing to do. Going on with the social story. In the Sunday school classroom, it would also be good to have a visual or picture schedule that corresponds to it. And the students should then look at the schedule and know what to expect without words. When we talk a lot to a child with autism, how do you think that affects their anxiety? When they can't understand what you're saying and they already have all this other stimulation and then it's just more and more and more. And they will have often different displays of anxiety. I've had kids in my class who curl up in a ball and rock back and forth. Other kids just start making really loud noises. Some kids have crawled around, like literally physically crawled around. So being aware of that and making those accommodations ahead of time. Remember autism, it's pre-teach. You pre-teach, this is what's gonna happen. You pre-teach any change in routine, and this falls on the helper. So if you're in a classroom and the teacher's communicated to you that, you know, a parent told me that we have a child with autism and this is what I need you to do, this is why they're asking you to do it, and it needs to be done every Sunday. So during that welcome time, you can in your head just think, oh, it's my job to find that one kid and go through the schedule with them and tape it to his spot and help him so that he'll be successful during the rest of Sunday school. Next, we'll talk about a learning disability. The P word for that is ponder, both for you and for them. For you, ponder what you say before you say it. We've already addressed the saying that you're old enough to read this for yourself can really be hurtful for a kid with a learning disability. Ponder before you force a kid to read in front of somebody else, they may not be able to. Ponder before you tell them to write their memory verse in a journal, maybe they can't. They might be able to say it to you. So if you tell kids, write your verse in the journal, and there's one kid who is hesitant, just go up to that kid and discreetly say, hey, would you like me to write for you? I'll write whatever words you say. And again, as a helper, that falls on you. Be thoughtful of that and notice patterns in people. If they always avoid writing or reading, there's probably a reason why. And instead of making that child feel really alienated and anxious, it's really simple just to write down what they tell you. It's not a hard accommodation to make. The second ponder is not only you, but them. A person with a learning disability often has processing speed issues. So if you ask a question and in your head you count to three and they don't have an answer and you move on to the next kid, that isn't always fair. Instead, I would recommend if you know a child who has a processing speed issue, first of all, to plan which questions you ask carefully. And plan a time where you're willing to wait those 10, 15 seconds it takes for them to get their answer out. And teach the rest of the class what respectful listening looks like as well. That whenever someone is called on, we all turn and we look at that person, and we know that they have ideas that we're waiting to hear. So that everyone shows respect. That also goes for a person with a physical disability as well. Maybe they can't speak as quickly. Be thoughtful of that and plan that into your lesson and include them. Don't think, oh, they can't answer right away, so I'm never gonna ask them a question or I'm not gonna whatever. Be sure to include them. Notice their abilities. They do know the information. An executive functioning impairment. The P word is prevent. Don't lead them to tempting situations. At my job at school, I work with kids who have this a lot. There are students who walk in a room, and as soon as they walk in the room, they're blurting stuff out. They're all over the place. It's just they increase the chaos level huge. So what can I do to prevent that? Meet them at the door. And in a whispering voice, say, hey, it's good to see you. and walk with them to their seat. And so then they're whispering to me. My voice was the first one heard. They'll match my voice. We walk to the seat. They're no longer blurting stuff out. They're not bumping people along the way. And we've made it to the seat successfully, because we had a prevention measure. When it's story time, how would you prevent this person from bugging other people? Yeah, give them a job. Give them something to do so that they're occupied. They're not just sitting there listening. Where would you place them? Would you put them in the middle of the room? Oh, no. They're on the end of the row. In the back of the room or closest to the door or whatever. As a helper, though, I've I would caution you not to think, oh, this kid can't sit. Come on, we'll come outside and go for a walk. Please keep the child as much as possible in a place where they can learn what's going on in the class. So make the accommodations within the class as much as possible. I know there are some times where it's not possible. They're not going to learn the lesson name while they're sitting in the hall. So be thoughtful of that. That isn't to say a rebellious child who's just doing it to test limits. You know, you do eventually send them to their parents, but this is different. This is the kind of kid who every single time does it and feels bad about it when you correct them, but then will do it again three minutes later. The P for cognitive delay is patience. This kid can't help it. We have a child at Bible Club who is as sweet as can be with a cognitive delay. And she's in second grade. And we were just like kind to her. And every time I walk in, she's like, I love you. And she runs up and gives me a hug. And she has a horrible, horrible home life. But she comes to Bible Club because she's loved and she gets food. And we spent an entire year trying to get her to know what sin was. A year. We took pictures of her acting out sins. We showed her the pictures. We talked about sin. And finally, she knows what sin is. But was it her fault she didn't get it at first? No way. So be patient with these students. They can't help that they're more wiggly and that they have outbursts of emotion and whatnot. That's part of the way their brain works. Lastly, number three, it says prayerfully identify and incorporate his ability, not his disability. Every child in your class has the ability to contribute something. Prayerfully find what it is. and include them in it. Jill talked about artwork, that's one way. Answering questions, leading group. Maybe it's a kid who's really, like some kids with autism, rules are really, really important, and you have to follow the rules. So they would be a great scorekeeper during a group game. They won't work well with a group. They'll get all irritated, everybody else in the group. But hey, would you stand at the board and, here's a marker, you can keep score. And remember that visual schedule, you'll talk about that ahead of time. That we're gonna play a game and there's going to be maybe a winner or a loser, but we're not gonna be upset. And we're gonna stand at the board and when team one gets a point, we're gonna put a one here. And we're gonna say, good job. And team two gets a point. Pre-teach, remember that P? And then you find what they can do. Every single child in your class should be and can be contributing something. We just need to find it. So, we have a skit for you where four people will display the characteristics of the disabilities we talked about. Autism, a learning disability, executive functioning, and cognitive delay. This time they'll come and sit on the stage. Four more people will display the characteristics of different age groups. So, I don't know if Jill selected those people yet. Do you? Will you guys sit on this stage? Oh, back there. Oh, someone, a helper from the three and four-year-old class, come up and be a three-year-old. Decide amongst yourselves. And third and And then, thank you, how old are you? She's three or four, how old are you? Can you bump it up to eight? How about being eight? Okay, so think about the attention span of an eight year old and what that looks like. Someone from the oldest class. Pushy, thanks. You're a sixth grader. So within this class, we have multiple age groups. Yes, we have 12, 8, and 3. And we also have some special needs. What you'll be watching for is as a teacher, what does Jill do to accommodate for the different age groups? And what does she do to accommodate for the special needs? Also, you'll be watching me as a helper. What do I particularly do to help with those P's? Pre-teach, ponder, prevent, and patience. And I'll tell you right now, but let's pretend I already pre-taught the child with autism. We went through our social story of what happens at Sunday school, and this is gospel time, and now we're sitting here, and you'll pretend that that all happened, and that she has her story. Hi, everybody. I'm glad you're here today. OK, everyone in the back row, the big kids, can you show the younger kids how I want you to sit today? How do we normally sit in class? Christina, you need to put your leg down, please. Okay, and everyone, where should we be looking, Miss Colleen? Thank you. Everybody's eyes. Andy? Oh, I'm so glad you're here today, Andy. Can you look at me, too? Oh, you're sitting so good. Wow, I'm so glad you're here. Well, we're going to learn about somebody in our story that he collected taxes. Does anyone know what a tax is? It's a state. Texas is a state. Do you know what a tax is? It's something you pay. What do you pay taxes for, do you think? I like how you raised your hand. Good job. OK, raise your hand, please. OK. What is a tax, Christina? You're right, sometimes we do. Well, taxes are things we pay for. How did you get to Bible Club today? Did you drive in a car? Yeah? Were you on a road? Who made the road? Did somebody have to make that road? Yeah. OK, that's what we pay our taxes for. And then we have soldiers that help protect our country. So we're going to act out. A man in the Bible was a tax collector. So your moms and dads, they send their taxes in. But this man in the Bible, good looking, you're looking so nice. This man in the Bible collected taxes and I need one person. Maybe, Jolene, could you pick out someone that would be a good tax collector for me? Raise your hand if you want to be the tax collector. Okay. So I want you to hold it. Maybe we could have another helper hold the box. Tax collector. Thank you. So you're going to take the money, and she's going to hold the box. Can you hold it nice and still? Nice and still, and don't wiggle at all. Maybe you want to sit down on your knees. Perfect. Good job. Good listening. OK, so would you like to pay some taxes? Would you pass these out for me? I think you're a responsible young man. I'm glad you're in our class today. So I need to explain this to you first. Everyone's going to get some tax snack money. Do you guys like to have snacks? Well, this is a snack that you'll get to eat after our story. But it's very important you do not eat the snack first, because this is what you're going to pay your taxes with. Do you like to go shopping with mom sometimes? I do. Yeah? OK. Well, you pay money for things. You have to pay your taxes, so you're going to use... OK. Let's not talk yet. OK? Thank you. So make sure you don't eat the snack in the box. OK. So would you like to pass out our snack, too, please? Thank you so much. How about about four in each one? Good job. OK. They're going to bring you the money. And then can you put it in the box for me? Good job. Maybe try to face the audience a little bit, too. Yeah. OK. While he's passing out the snack, class, I want everyone to look up here. Thank you. Eyes, everyone. Can we keep our mouths quiet? Thank you, Christina. You're doing good. I'm glad you're here, Christine. Now, who can tell me what a tax is? It's something you pay. Can you raise your hand? What is a tax? Very good. Does your parents, Christine, have to pay taxes? Good job. Yes. Okay. So, Christine, would you like to come forward first and pay your tax? Jolene can help you if you want. Well, it seems as though to enter the city of Jericho, you have to pay the tax collector some money. So Pam, one coin. Two. And now you're going to keep one for yourself and only put one in there. Good job. You did really well. Good job. You're doing so good. OK, Christina. I get to have four of yours. Remember, you'll have it back later. We're pretending right now. You get to have a snack later, okay? You get to hold the treasure box. Okay, put one in there. And you can keep the rest. Good job, you're doing such a good job. It's okay. Yes, remember how I said you'll get to have it later? Not yet, honey, you're doing so good. Why don't you just give her two of them, okay? Thank you, and then you can keep one, and you put one in there. Thank you, you did really good. Okay, your turn. Thank you. OK. OK. All right. Thank you. Now, can you go back to your seat, please? And you did so good. We'll have these at snack time. OK? Thank you, class. So, big text. Would you like to read today from Luke 19.10? And it's okay. Okay, Miss Christine, can you look this way? We're gonna learn our verse before we have our story today. Who can tell me what does it mean to save someone? Do you know what the word save means? Because we want to know what our verse means before I teach it to you. No, in this sense, it means that you're going to be rescued from something. And it basically means that you will get to go to heaven when you believe. Can you see that's a picture? What's that a picture of Tara? Yes. Yes. And who lives in heaven? Yes, very good. Okay, and here's another picture. And it's with the word lost, but it doesn't mean lost in the forest. It means you're not on the road to heaven. You're on the road that leads away from God, the road of destruction where we have to go if we don't believe in Jesus. Okay, so who wants to come up and point to the word that means lost? Who would like to raise their hand? Christina, you want to come up for me? We'll have our snack later. Ms. Doleen, you want to collect the candy for me, please? Which word means lost? That one. Very good. Good job. You can go sit down now. And who would like to point out which word means save? Do you know, Ms. Colleen? Very good. Thank you for helping. And then would you like to read for us, please? You can go back to your seat now. Thank you. Very good. Did you want to add anything then? Okay. Okay, so that was our, so can you see some things that were indicative of the different things Jolene talked about? And how you might try different things? Like I know Sandy had, we had an autistic boy in Bible school in here, do you remember that Sandy? And he really had a tough time with the transitions from going from the room to here. So I really like the picture idea, Jolene. I think that's a great idea, even for the youngest Sunday school class. And then just rubbing his back helped with that one boy. And Jill told their eyes on me. She didn't hear that. But if I have this visual and I go up to her and just point to it, she sees that and then she made the adjustment. But we had pre-taught her what this visual meant. Eyes on speaker, body facing the speaker, that means she's not wandering all around the room, and brain thinking about what this speaker is saying. Again, this is pre-teach. Remember that P for autism? But once you've pre-taught it, it's a visual that doesn't require a single word, it's just a point. Yeah. So let's review the parts, Mr. Worman, and wisely suggested. Christina, just say what you were. Obnoxious. Christine was a child with a learning disability. Notice how it took her a lot longer to answer. Angie had autism. That was pretty apparent. and Colleen had a cognitive delay. Notice how she was playing with stuff and fiddling, and she was the first person that I moved. Notice that as a helper, I didn't sit down and watch the teacher teach, although it's really fun. I actually have no idea what the teacher was talking about. I was just looking at the kids and keeping track of what they were doing and thinking through preventing. That's why Christina had to pay all of our candy, because she's impulsive. So what's going to happen if Christina has candy left over? She's going to eat it. And then all the other kids are going to be mad. So she has to pay all her candy. That's a pre-thinking through preventative. Then she'll get it back in the end when it's time to eat it. And Colleen started playing with her stuff. So right away, I had her, we're going to set it right here. And then everybody else, we're going to set it right here so it's fair. Does that make sense? Yes. Yeah. Christina. Oh, it depends on personality. Oh, sorry. Who would be the rebellious one and who would get sucked into it? Christina most likely would be cast as the rebellious one and she would most likely suck. Probably not a really little kid. They're pretty oblivious to the people around them, but maybe an older kid who was bored. Tara. Tara was three. Probably Julie. So think through, what did Jill do to accommodate different ages? Separate. Yes. Pastor brought up, is it helpful to ask the parent? Absolutely, but tactfully. You don't want to accuse them of having a child with a disability. They may or they may not. And even if they do, they may or may not think they do. So in doing so, you could say something like, We're working on this in our class, and I noticed that Joey tends to describe the behavior and say, I think he really wants to learn. And he just seems to have a really positive attitude. But I'm wondering what I can do as a teacher to help him. Do you have any ideas? And then they may tell you, oh, well, Joey has autism. Oh, OK. Or they may just say, well, you could do this or this or this. With a child who has a physical disability that's really apparent, by all means, ask the parent without reservation. What do I do? How can I help? Pastor also brought up that parents will drop their children off and not tell you they have a disability, which is absolutely true. So especially at Bible Club or Vacation Bible School, where it's viewed as a free babysitting tool. So they're not going to tell you that their kid whatever, there's a myriad of horrible things that children either go through or do to other children, or their cognitive functioning issues aren't communicated, in which case it's a guess and check. Try the pre-teach, try the ponder, try the prevent, and try the patience, and see what works and pray. Yes? The helper is beyond critical. The helper is the linchpin in this. But as a helper, you're the one who allows the teacher to teach. As a teacher, if I have to stop and correct a kid, it might be hard to regain my train of thought. And in addition, I just singled that kid out in front of all of their peers. might feel really icky for that kid and be unnecessary. But a helper, you can be really discreet and go up to them and say, oh, eyes on teacher, or point to something, or be milling about the room. And as kids get older, like with Poochie, I said, you're doing a really great job showing all these other kids how to behave. You don't say, oh. Eyes on teacher to a fifth grader. They're going to be insulted. But as a helper, your role is really to mingle and to anticipate what does the teacher need and anticipate what is this kid going to do wrong and how can I prevent it and keep it small. so that the lesson is never interrupted, and that lesson name can be communicated to all the kids, and think through if the teacher has to stop, all the kids now are distracted, and you have to try to regain all that attention, and it's a necessary effort. Angela. Yeah, how do you, the question is how do you keep kids on track during discussion time? It's hard, sometimes borderline impossible, but what I have found helpful is before I dismiss kids to a snack time or craft, I'll say that here's the craft you're gonna do, pre-teach it, and while you do this craft, I want you to be thinking about, tell them what to think about, and then I will hear you talking about, and tell them what to talk about. Then say, if I hear you talking about the birthday party you're going to after Bible school or whatever, I'm going to think, hmm, I don't think that person listened to directions. So can one of you remind me what is it you're thinking about? Have a kid tell you. What is it you're supposed to be talking about? Have a kid tell you. Oh, good. Now we're going to return to our seats. So pre-teaching, again, helps in that way. Then as a facilitator, as a helper during that discussion, think about those question starters. And remember, you're really familiar with the lesson aim. You've been praying about it and thinking about it. You've been thinking about your audience and that age group and the application, and you're coming with some ideas to discuss. And you're doing it in a way where you're really involved in keeping the kids like, oh, did you hear what he said? That was a really neat idea. Did you hear it? Oh, you didn't? Can he repeat it? Okay, now did you hear? What do you think about that? And get them interacting with one another, especially as they're older. Three and four year olds are oblivious to the rest of the world. But when they get into first and second grade, they can start thinking, hey, there's a person next to me who said something. Maybe I should know what they said. and learn to build off of that. And it will get much better by fifth and sixth grade. They have more of that ability. But yeah, pre-teach for discussion. Have a plan for discussion as a helper. And then point them to one another to keep the conversation going and on task. And also point back to the craft. They're doing an activity. They're not just talking. So there should be something to go back to, like, oh, I see you colored this, whatever. Yeah, and when you can't understand the kids, have them speak slowly, is what Jill wisely said. Especially the visual and the transition, she said. So, yeah. Thank you. Frankly, I thought that was a pretty good class myself. Some of you were thinking, man, if our class was that good, praise the Lord. It was a good Sunday. So now the youngest two classes, the helpers. Page 63 is your notes. You can make your way up to the Gibbs room. Jim Miller will direct you during that. So you're going to go watch a video right now. from just the most beautiful teacher you've ever seen. So at this time, you may make your way there. The rest of you will transition right here. We are on page 55, Using Visual Aids to Teach the Word of God. Scott or Jill, which one's first? Or both? Okay. If you do have questions, you can use that cell number that was given earlier, 590-2140. 590-2140. Jill and I each submitted a short thing on visual illustrations. Mine starts on page 59, page 59. Visual aids are very, very valuable. I start out there by the benefit of visual aids. Let me just read that first paragraph. Illustrations become the spice of the lesson. Many teachers are boring because they do not utilize amplifiers in their lessons. Audience attention and retention increase with the effective use of visual aids. When used effectively, illustrations repeat amplify, and reinforce the meaning of doctrine, principles, purpose, or objective in the lesson. The effective teacher spices the lesson with a variety of illustrations, whether they're verbal or visual. used at selected times to hammer home the needed doctrine, principle, or objective, or aim, right in the lesson. Now, when going to Myanmar, we had no electricity in Myanmar, and so I was forced for several years to try and illustrate things to the men and the women in the Grace Training Center. And so what I tried to do was use a visual to illustrate, amplify, repeat, hammer home the content of the doctrine. Now, one of the first things I used, and Allison Laughlin helped me with it, was I asked her to do some illustrations for the three different roads or individuals in Romans 1-3. So we have the overt sinner, we have then the self-righteous individual, and then we had the religious man. So all of these were used repeatedly in Myanmar and we gave all of them a set of these copies and they've gone around the country and things. And so just a simple illustration to amplify and to repeat what was going on in those sections. It's been very, very valuable since. And in the middle there of your handout is teacher tip. You need to think like a teacher. You need to think, how can I get this message, this doctrine, this principle into the minds of the children? Now, we were talking just a minute ago about children with learning special abilities or different abilities. And so visually, a picture is worth a thousand words and you can pass that into them. Now, one thing you want to remember, the illustration you want The visual aid you want is something that is teaching you, or teaching the doctrine. It is a worthless illustration unless it's amplifying truth. Because the power is in the word of God. So I made this up for a county jail one time, or a nurk, I can't remember. And so we went over the bad news first, and then we went over the good news, and I just had two verses on the back. And that was my illustration along with a cross. But that's all I used in that opportunity when you couldn't have a PowerPoint or those types of things. Again, a visual illustration is anything. The gift box. And on the back of the gift box, I've got the gospel. And so God has, the salvation is the gift and it's received by faith through Christ and the gospel message. Any little thing, magnifying glass, so that you can see and look into, God is looking at things, or we have a tendency to, I've said, the law is like a mirror, it shows our sin, but it can't save you, things like that. This, we've taken a long ways of using it, this is just the authority of God, and when he says guilty, we're guilty, or when he says declared righteous, we're righteous. Just an illustration. I've used this as an illustration in regards to, we're in bondage before we're saved. We're in bondage to sin, the sin nature, to the Satan in this world system, and when we get saved, I'm free. And my tendency is to go back in Romans 7, back under the law, and now I'm back in bondage. Something just as simple as that, and you can illustrate the point of the message. Let me use something like this. If you do not explain your visual aid, you will have a plop. Oh, here's a great visual aid. And you try and use it and it just plops right there. What does this represent? You have to repeat it, review it, explain it, and then this illustrates a reward. So when we go to heaven and we stand before God, it is not going to be a reward that we take credit for. but instead it's going to be a free gift. And so a reward that you receive when you run a race and you get the first prize, or this happened to be at camp, a first prize medallion, this illustrates the thinking that we try and work our way to heaven as a reward. So you want to very clearly explain, repeat, and use again the illustration. Now I have other visual aids in here. But I have a question for you. Do you think the Bible uses visual aids? Absolutely. Jesus Christ used visual aids. I have a few references here. But I was thinking even the Passover was a visual aid. The door posts and on the lentil or on the header of that door, that was blood on there. And it symbolized something. that Jesus Christ, a sacrifice, an innocent sacrifice, paid for their sins and they passed over the angel of death. He took me on eagle's wings and brought him to myself, himself, Exodus 19. Under the shadow of the Almighty, under the wings like a chick, he would take you. The vine and the branches, the Lord is my shepherd. Now you see in the middle of that handout there, there's a point to remember. Visual aids are designed to reinforce, expand, or amplify the message and the truth of God's word. not simply to impress, entertain, or make the audience laugh. So I've got this great illustration, and everybody laughed. It was really a great success. Not necessarily. If it didn't amplify, express, reflect, reinforce the truth of the word of God, it was a plop. It didn't accomplish the means of which you sought. Now I'll just quickly look over here with you. You've got types of illustrations. They're verbal, visual, audible. A teacher tip, test out all technical equipment in advance so the entire lesson is not sidetracked by a malfunction in the equipment. You could add in there, practice your visuals. I was at NERC one time and one of the guys from Gibbs came up there and he had all these great illustrations and he was fumbling. He was trying to make it all work and it just didn't go smoothly at all. Don't try and overfill your lesson time with visuals. Use them as spices, again, not as the meat and potatoes. Okay, then there's some other things there that you can look at as far as techniques. There's passing use, there's explained visual aids, there's elaborate object lessons. Would you read the caution there under letter C? Caution, make sure you adequately explain the meaning behind the elements of the visual aid. I've said that, but I cannot emphasize that enough. Many times the teacher rushes through the explanation of the elements to get to the punchline of the visual. Slow down, explain the components adequately so the audience does not so that the audience does not track with the meaning, so that the audience tracks with the meaning, right? Yeah, okay, I got it. Things that I've used and hopefully spur some ideas with you for both gospel illustrations as well as just things that you can try doing. Most of you are familiar with the flannels, but you can also make your own. Like these are beautiful barns that I did not make, but somebody in our church made to enhance your story. You know, you can have other arrows pointing to the bad news when they're trusting the wrong object of their faith. So another thing that I think needs to be pointed out, like when we went to Myanmar, Melissa made us Burmese little children. So when you're giving the gospel, make sure you have figures that look like the kids you're teaching. You know, like if you have all black kids in your Bible club, well then you should have visuals that look like them, because that's what they identify, especially when they're really little kids. They like it to look like them. And just things that you should collect. Like this is things, I've used these over and over again. Just for money. You know, they love these little can things from juice cans. When I teach on the story of Aiken, we all go out and we bury what Aiken stole under the tent outside. It's usually during Bible school. And then whoever can find this one gets a prize. And it's much more visual for the kids when they can actually go try to find the garment that he stole and the wedge of gold and the silver. You know, they go look for it, actually. And it really works out good when you have a playground there and everything. You can set up your tent right over it. So it's fun when they can get into the story. And Scott mentioned, like, the Passover. This is something we did in Burma. We put, with black crepe paper, we just made doors, three doors. And then we had three illustrations of two people not trusting in the instructions, and then one trusting in the blood of the lamb. And so then we used red for the blood on the door post and the lentil. So you have three different doorways, something very cheap, inexpensive, and a visual that they can see. Now if you're teaching an older class, you could get really creative and come to your class with dire hair green when you're teaching on Jonah and put seaweed all over your head and just shock your kids. You know? You have to try something novel when they've heard these Bible stories over and over and over again. So, like, when I was teaching the story of Zacchaeus, I didn't say his name. Because right away, you say, Zacchaeus, yeah, I know that story. And they kind of check out. But then, if you just make it a tax collector story, maybe they're actually listening and thinking, oh, I don't know this yet. You can use songs, illustrated songs. I don't know, this illustration just always has stood out to me. And people actually do torture themselves like this to please their gods. What a great illustration when you're teaching a missionary story. And this is something you probably have right at your church as a resource. The balloon illustration, when someone's inflated with pride, like Haman. You know, you could just... And his pride grew and grew and grew. And then just had it blow up until all of a sudden, then have a kid come up and pop it to show what pride is like. I think Kathy Kane had a lot of really good illustrations. In fact, the last Sunday School workshop we had was in 2002. So Kathy Kane used this illustration, and lo and behold, I was teaching this lesson the next day. So I went home and stayed up all night and made these. But when you're teaching little kids, what is a heavenly treasure? Well, you can show them illustrations. You know, you're storing up treasure in heaven when you go to church, when you sing, when you're helping at home. These are pictures that relate to what is a heavenly treasure. And then you can show them pictures for earthly treasure. Just like the wise men gifts, So what does this mean? I always ask myself when I'm teaching the kids, especially young kids, okay, I said the story, it was interesting, they paid attention, but so what? So what? They're gonna go home. What does this mean to them? Have that question in your head. So what? Can they take anything away from what you taught them today? And so this is a great illustration. You can just, like I have the three wise men gifts here. We know there was probably a hundred wise men, but... So however many kids, you could have that many wise men gifts, and then you could put a picture of some way that they can serve the Lord, or bring their gift of praise. Pictures of kids singing. Pictures of kids showing thanks to their parents, and what they're thankful for, and put them in there, and then they can bring their gifts to Jesus, like on a flannel. Just makes it more practical. This can be used for Saul's armor. This is Goliath's sword, thanks to Melissa Pelkey making this. It's seen a lot of battles. They like to use it for other battles, too. You can see it's pretty beat up. But what a simple thing, this with foam. You always want to think of kids' safety in mind, too. Like I did the prodigal, son was returning, so for a snack, I set up a feast. And my daughter, Christine Wisely, said, Mom, maybe you don't want to light the candles. I'm like, oh, it'll be OK. I have a small class today. Well, sure enough, after we had our snack, and they started making their craft, one of the kids flew one of their pieces, and it landed right on the candle. But thankfully, I got it off in time. Angie, would you mind coming up here for me? I'm going to use you in a second. There's a couple of different stories. You're going to be Naaman, if you want to put on Naaman's arm things over there. That illustrate how the blood of Christ can cleanse us from all sin, like 1 John 1, 7. So I put on the card different sins that we do. And then you can show how God doesn't see our sin anymore, He sees the blood. Okay, so our sins have been paid for. In the Old Testament, they were covered, but now they've been removed because of Christ's blood. So that's a nice illustration. So when I'm teaching on Rahab, here's some different walls. They're just three different sizes, so they simply can just fall down when the kids march around the city of Jericho. But the place of safety is by following the instructions She was in a place of safety because she listened to the spies. She put out a red cord. And this has kind of seen a better day, these props. But I have on here, it also illustrates faith in Christ. Okay, so when we have faith in Christ, we don't have to worry about God's judgment, because He took our judgment and our place. And then what I do is I use these other ropes, and I have different words on these other ropes of illustrations of praying and asking Jesus in our hearts. Obeying the Ten Commandments. These would not be a worthy object of your trust. These would result in destruction and death. Or praying. So you get the idea. So whatever your story, I mean, you pray and God gives wisdom and gives you ideas to match the age that you are teaching. And one thing I really like to do is just try to involve every kid, because when you have kids like we saw up here with different abilities, they're thrilled when they can hold a prop. It's like great excitement that they get to be a part of your class. And so you could have two Learning challenge kids, like Pastor Roxer. You can stand and hold the other end of this. This could be the water. And you can use two tablecloths just to illustrate like Moses walking through the Red Sea. It can be on the ground and then all of a sudden four kids can be involved and they can open up the Red Sea. Simple 99-cent tablecloth. But here, Andy last year was my name-in, so she dipped down four times, and she washed five times, six times, and on the seventh time, She was cared. So just a simple thing. And then another thing I did with this is that I explained to the kids how Naaman at first did not want to obey the directions of Elisha. He was very offended because he wanted him to come out and meet him. come out and sprinkle something on him, or he wanted to wash in his own rivers, he had his own way of salvation, own way of being cured. And so then I just make that application of what we trust in aside from Christ. Then I put the whole class under the blood of Christ to show that we are cured from our sin. So I actually hold it like this, and then everybody, the whole class can go under and see how God sees Christ's blood shed for us. He sees His blood, not us and our sin. So that's another illustration. Thank you very much. When you're teaching on the pillar of cloud by fire, You can have kids walk in front. Megan made this for a costume for a Revelation character, Megan Denver, but I thought, oh great, you can have a kid walking. This will be the pillar cloud of fire. So my big question to all of you is how do I store all my stuff? I haven't figured it out. When I taught on, Christ being the good shepherd. In our fellowship hall, I just set up a sheep fold with tables leaned over on their sides. And then I had these sheep on the inside. And then we went on a kind of a walk through our fellowship hall. So there was some different flannels on the wall of bears. And if you had older kids, you could actually act them out, have them be the wolf. One time we taught this story in Marcel. And it was unbelievable how the Lord provides your props. There was an archery range and there was a boar, a bear, a fox, all these animals. So the kids walked around these animals when they did their I am the Good Shepherd walk or the lost sheep. So you can put that in there and then just bring the kids in and check them out like you're their shepherd. And then they go in and lay down and they're safe. And then you look for the one lost sheep that's missing. So it's a fun way to act it out, and that's a way you can do role play. For the plagues, you don't always have every plague, and so I didn't have any grasshoppers at home, so I just made this. Something simple, you know? But it's more fun when the kids can each be a plague, or do all the plagues, and do something for each one. They will remember the story. You remember 50% of what you see, you remember 80% of what you see and do. So this is a great way to build into them And if you're mad at the kids, start throwing blocks at them. These are great for stoning somebody, like we stoned Nabith. My poor Nabith is going to move away now. But they're a nice, simple illustration you can use for the story of Aiken, too. These are props that you can use for someone with a learning challenge. I was teaching on Esther, and so We used them over and over when there was a kid up on the stage. And this is how you involve the shy kids. They just stand there, and they fan the king, and they think they have the greatest part in the world. And it makes their day. It's awesome. It might not be directly related to the story, but I think it's a great way, when you pray and you see, okay, they're not being involved, what can I do to get them involved? And the Lord will give you ideas. And one thing I think that's helpful for my own understanding of biblical stories is I like maps to know the flow of it. And on the visual aids handout at the end, I have some ideas, especially for older kids. A multi-mixed age group, you could even make actual maps with topography, too, that I think would be cool if you're doing a study of the life of Paul. This is just on the life of Elijah, and it helps the kids understand where Ollie went and how he ran way far away into the wilderness. So they get the conception of, you know, he's way out of God's place of service for him. We have little kids in the youngest class. I saw this the other week and I said, oh, I got to take that and show them. But they could each carry the sick man on the bed. You know, you have four people then that can carry him to Jesus. This is a way where you could review, like Jolene said, you could just point to different things and where they happen. You have symbols or pictures. So using a map, you can point out what happened in different events. And if you have older kids, Mrs. Erb did this a lot. You can write out your principles that you want the kids to learn from the story. And that way, if they have them on the wall, they can be thinking about them. And instead of fighting with each other, maybe they'll actually be looking at something on the wall that has value. So this is another thing that you can do, especially in the older classes. I think bulletin boards can really enhance what your class is learning. This is Gideon's fleece. And when you're teaching second graders, they really think that you made this wet first, and then that you made this wet. They don't know the difference. You're flipping it over. You have your helper behind you flipping it and doing it. They think it really happened. No kidding. So it's just a simple little thing to make with like a, I think this was like a placemat from one of the kids' ABCs placemats, and then just put felt over it. So that's an idea of some of the visual aids that I brought with. And they don't have to be expensive. And when the kids have heard the same story before, sometimes they're familiar with it, but when you act it out in different ways, it just brings out the details and the emotion of it. And so, like, when you're going to cross the Jordan River, this is Elijah's mantle, and you strike the river. Wow. And they really think the water moved, you know? So it's just all part of adding to the story. So I like to use a lot of costumes, but I also like to make a big mess, so I will clean up later. You know, if you're watching here on the webcast or you're a newer teacher, by this time, in fact, a while ago, you've been saturated and overwhelmed. I mean, this is a lot. But keep in mind, you know, Jill's been teaching for years. She's been collecting these things for years. The important thing at first is that, again, you know your lesson aim, you know your audience, your Bible story is the key, and then you're building as time goes on, incorporating these things. And hopefully they've stimulated you today to think about things, because visual aids are very important. By all means, we really enjoy the ABECA cards. I just want to show you, by the way, on page 58, if you turn there, page 58 on the bottom is a listing of places where you can get visual aids. Jim, you'll be up in just a moment, okay? Visual aids, ABECA cards, very helpful. Again, when you're teaching a story, to have a picture to show along with them. And there are many of them in Abeka. Good Seed has some, or I should say, New Tribes has some that you can utilize. Good Seed has a number of things as well to coordinate with their materials on The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus and so forth. Betty Luke and Feltz, these Feltz figures that you're seeing, Betty Luke and these have been around for years. They're not real cheap, though. And Jim's going to talk about organization, putting things back, and so forth. But again, these things can all be very, very helpful. Don't again approach it like Scott said. I've got a great joke if I only can find a message for it now. It's the other way around, right? You're emphasizing the lesson aim over and over and over again. Building, building, building, evaluating. Did that go well? Did that not go well? Like even in my message this morning, I evaluated something, next time I do it, I just crossed it out. Don't need to cover that. You know, and so forth. And that's what you want to do, per se. So questions you might have about visual aids? Everyone see the value of them? You see the place of it, though? It's to enhance the message. It's not the message, per se. Okay. Jim, are you ready? Okay. You sound like it. No, when they're done, they can come on down. We're ready for the nuts and bolts here. Okay. Does that include them? The helpers? I see. So, well, I think you're just going to have to take it from here. Did we get any questions in, by the way? Okay. So we really, we can... Oh, let's see. I would guess the helpers probably have another 10 minutes or something on that video. So can you cover everything you can cover without the helpers? Yeah, I can. OK, very good. That's what I do a lot of times, too. I had to smile as I've been listening today because slowly but surely a lot of my points have been covered. So I am not just a wrap-up, but a review, I guess. But as I thought of this, as most of you know, especially first through sixth grade, Scott and I observed your classes this past year, and I found it really enjoyable and insightful. And I just thought of my time back in Sunday school, I spent five, six years in the fifth and sixth grade class, and so I considered how I could relate my experience as well as the observation that we did of you, which will apply to not only the grades one through six, but I trust all of you. And so I'm going to begin asking you, have you ever looked back at your last week or month of Sunday school and thought, oh, something was just missing. I'm just glad that's over. And it's unfortunate that you probably thought that. I know I have. And yet, we've all been there. at one time or another. And that's why I want to just cover a few nuts and bolts in here in the last session we have. These nuts and bolts are sometimes seemingly insignificant or just easily reconcilable, plain points that we can look at, and yet we miss them. And without the nuts and bolts, as you know, the machine can fall apart. And also, without them, we won't have effective and joyful and Christ-honoring ministry to children. And so, like I said, these are largely products of my experience as well as the observation. And as you can see there on your handout, really it resolves around a mindset and the necessary mindset of a Sunday school teacher and helper. And just the fact that we list that implies that we have a mindset. And as I've observed, not only in my time in Sunday school, but as more of an oversight role, that it's easy to just lose mindset, to lose a mind towards our kids and what we're really doing here. And Pastor largely covered this in the first hour, but we're going to review, we're going to take a look at this now. And I'm going to get my PowerPoint up here. How do I get it off? Oh. Okay. And so, first of all, we want to look at the fact that in Sunday school ministry, we need to truly care about your kids. And you say, well, duh. I need to care about my kids. Of course I care about my kids. And yet, in the Christian life and in ministry, we break down in the basics. In fact, take stock of your last couple months spent in Sunday school. Have those months been characterized with a genuine concern and love for the children to whom you minister? Or do you get often annoyed with them? I've talked to different Sunday school teachers at times, and sometimes they're on Mount Everest high, it went really well, the kids got it, the parents are appreciative, and then some are just on the... in the grumbling valley where the kids are misbehaved, I don't know what's going wrong, I had a parent just yell at me because I got too strict with their kid, etc. You know the story if you've been in Sunday school any length of time. And so in Sunday school, we need to truly care about our kids, and it needs to be a Christ-driven, a Spirit-motivated and enabled love for these children. In fact, we see that example first and foremost with the Lord Jesus. In Mark 10, it says, they brought the little children to him, to Jesus, that he might touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And then what did he do? He took them up in his arms and he laid hands on them and blessed them. Now in the time of Christ, children were often viewed as a nuisance, as they should not be seen nor heard necessarily. And yet what is Christ's attitude towards them? He takes them up in his arms, he blessed them. He bid that they come to him and was displeased that they were refused from him. And so Christ loved little children, and we ought to too, especially as we minister to them. As John 15, verse 12 says, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. And often, I know myself, when I think of this verse, it includes the people that I interact with more so. And sometimes we forget the children of our church, and yet they're part of the one another's. They need to be taught love, they need to be shown love. both in and out of Sunday school. And without a spirit motivated and enabled love for these kids, you'll not be effective. And if you don't have a love for these kids, what's it all about? Is it about putting in duty? Is it about just getting your Sunday school pen as a teacher, in essence? Or do you see these kids as precious souls for whom Christ died? You know, I think often of the Bible Club kids These kids have nothing else. And the kids from our church often come from nice families. They got a lot going for them. And yet, there's kids with real needs out there. And if someone doesn't love them, who will? And we need to, in order to share the gospel with them, to value them, to have a spirit-motivated concern, and not just a... humanitarian viewpoint of goodwill towards them, but seeing that these are precious souls for whom Christ died, that they need to hear the Gospel, that my time in Sunday school isn't just to pass the time so that adults in here can have quiet time, so that we can do a little craft and feel good about it, and we can just add our little blessing to these kids' lives. No, we can lay a foundation, starting with the Gospel, and truths of the Christian life as these kids grow older, and that in the Word of God. But what does this require? Well, certainly it requires a dependence upon the Lord. We want to walk in dependence upon the Lord to develop this, because if you know kids as well as I do, and the same was probably true of us when we were children, kids aren't always lovable. In fact, some of the stories Jolene could tell you from Bible Club, again, these are extreme examples, They're anything but lovable because largely they've never been loved. And it's true of the kids of our church as well, as much as we may not like to admit it, that kids are kids. They have little fleshes. And we need to see beyond who these kids are to us and what we're getting out of them to their spiritual needs and the value of laying this spiritual and biblical foundation. And thereby we need to have a supernatural viewpoint versus a natural one. What would a natural viewpoint be of your kids in Sunday school? It'd be like a babysitter. Except you're not getting paid. I'm putting my time in, and I've just got to get through this. So what's the easiest way I can get through this? And look good often as well. Whereas the supernatural viewpoint says, I want to be as effective as I can every minute in and out of this Sunday school class, so that these kids are built up spiritually, so that it adds to the homes of our church. It's one of love versus one of duty between the supernatural and natural. And you know, it also is the sense that you may not get a lot in return. Even though you may have a position as a Sunday school teacher or helper here at DBC or in one of our sister churches, we still have fleshes ourselves. And we often are motivated, if we're not careful, to do things for getting, do something to get something. we may not get a lot in return. In fact, I remember asking Pastor Scott, when I was in Sunday school, I'm saying, these kids aren't getting it, and they're acting out. I had a lot to learn as a Sunday school teacher, and I trust I still do as a teacher. How am I supposed to think about this? I had some real class clowns, and I had some difficult personalities, and I didn't know a lot that even has been taught here today, and I wasn't getting a lot in return or a lot of success in my visible estimation. And he just said, Jim, you're building the foundation. You're laying the building blocks one by one so that these kids can later in time get these truths, understand them. That was really helpful for me. And also, We need to have an agape perspective, because I've heard many of the Sunday school teachers and helpers say, oh, I just love these kids. I just love them. And yet, often that's because they're cute, or because of the things they say, the kids say the darndest things, or whatnot, rather than seeing a true agape perspective that we need to be doing what's best in light of eternity for these kids. And that should hit home with us. I know it does, as I consider this, to have a plan. When we go into Sunday school, we want to have an objective. As we've heard here throughout all these lessons, a lesson ain't worth pounding. And even, I might add to some of you, when you get done early, have a plan. It's not that it's wrong to have a little flyby to the seat of your pants if pastor perhaps goes till 1220. But if you have a plan, you can use that time as well. It's an agape perspective throughout it that I want to do what's best in light of eternity for each one of these children. And that causes us to take our time in there seriously, our materials seriously, how we use each section and how we do these transitions, and not get the yawns and say, yeah, it'll be okay, and I'll just throw this in here and we'll make it up Saturday night. And I might also add, it takes a desire to improve as unto the Lord for the spiritual benefit. It's also easy in getting the ans to just say, I'm a Sunday school teacher. I've done it for five years. And because I've done it for five years, I have my two-year rotation in. And therefore, I can just fly on my laurels in the work I've done in the past, rather than see it as, I want to continually improve in this, as unto the Lord for His glory and for the benefit of the children. Now, what are some misconceptions? And also, Spirit-enabled actions of love. I added that today, actually, because I thought, you know what? It's one thing to allow the Lord to develop a general love, but on Sunday morning, when you were up, perhaps late with the kids the night before, or the car broke down that morning, or someone in church was a little rude to you on the way in, or you're perhaps fighting or any of these things, you go into that classroom, you're going to need the Spirit of God to show love, genuine agape love to these children. Now what are some misconceptions in this mindset? And I thought about this as I referenced a little bit earlier here. Oh, I love the kids. They're so cute. One time, and you go on with the story. I've heard that so many times. And it's not that it's wrong in and of itself, but does it go beyond the fact that these kids are cute and they said something just adorable or funny? Or how about, I love the kids. We have a blast every Sunday playing games in Sunday school or doing crafts. And I've heard this as well, that the crafts they did and the way they do it and the way they color, I just love them, which is good. We should love on a human level, but it needs to go deeper as we're motivated by the Spirit of God in seeking the spiritual benefit of these kids. Or one that's easy to do, and I think we all can easily be guilty of. I love Billy because he really adores me. And perhaps you have a kid in Sunday school that has just really drawn to you. Or perhaps some of you who help in Bible Club, and there's just one kid that will latch onto your leg and looks up to you. And so it's easy to show him favoritism, or it's easy to like him. But do you like the kid that comes in who perhaps has a learning disability, perhaps hasn't come from a nice home, isn't bathed, isn't trained, or is going through a rebellious phase here in one of the families of our church? Do you love that kid? You see, these misconceptions aren't wrong in and of themselves, but again, it needs to go deeper. And how does this love manifest itself? Though it's been certainly addressed here today, do you pray for your kids? If you love your kids, you're going to have a genuine concern that, I need to take them to the throne of grace. I know that this can be such, I know I was certainly guilty of this as a Sunday school teacher. I'm busy with my work during the week. I go home and Friday or Saturday night my Sunday school lesson gets ready and Sunday morning on the way to church as I'm driving here, let's get as many kids as I can remember in. I would encourage all of you to have a prayer list of all the kids that have ever come to your Sunday school. so that you can bring them before our Father, knowing that He answers our prayers and He cares about these kids more than you do. I would say it also manifests itself in you studying your kids to know how to communicate with them. And this ties in again with the disabilities. This ties in with where they're at at a learning level. It ties in with what they like what they're interested in. And it's not that you're interested in video games and figurines or whatever they're into, but you're showing a genuine interest in their life in order to develop a relationship with them, which is huge. If you really love your kids, you're going to seek to form a relationship with them. It's not punch your time card into Sunday school and then go about your life in church here and never address these kids. I love catching my kids, even now, whether it's... I love catching kids in the hallway and just showing them some attention, and especially ones that I might have an opportunity with to talk about deeper things, about spiritual matters. Kids love that, and they're looking for that, and they need that, and many in our church need it far more than we consider. And also, it manifests itself, this true agape love for kids that you direct your conversations to the spiritual. I remember when I first started 5 and K Sunday School, I had to be corrected in probably not talking about the Vikings for a good chunk of the time. Well, I was 16 or 17, and I had never really interacted with kids on a deeper level. But I learned that, for one, the purpose of genuine love for these kids is they need to be saved. That's why we're here. So in Sunday school ministry, we need to truly care about our kids, and we need to truly pray about this. And I separated this because it's such an important issue, I think, in our Sunday schools. If you're a Sunday school teacher here, especially with grades one through six, I guarantee I've heard most of you ask me, if not all of you, that, how do we get these kids to memorize their verses? How do we get them to memorize their verses? And I kind of look at you and sometimes say, well, we can try some activities, but you need to pray for the parents. You need to go pray for not only the kids, but the parents. Do you pray for them to value the Word of God? Because as much as we get frustrated with the fact that our kids perhaps aren't diligent in memory verses, are we diligent to bring them before the throne of God? We need to pray for our kids, and as you pray for them, you'll love them. You'll love them with a genuine, God-motivated love. And what's the key attitude involved in all this? It's having a genuine concern for these kids and believing that God answers prayer. And it sounds simple, and I thought through this point, and I just thought, I miss this day in day out. I work with the college age as well currently, and I fail to pray for the college age sometimes. I fail to genuinely be motivated because it's easy for me to relate to them on a lesser level. And we need to be then spiritually sharp, praying for them and having this genuine concern for their lives, for their spiritual well-being. And both loving them and praying for them is really a product of being led by the Spirit of God as we walk with Him, which we can't underemphasize. Praying for them, knowing that the effective prayer of a righteous man avails much. And we need to believe that and apply that in our ministry here. We're all challenged with the fact in ministry, what does it really mean to you? Are you allowing the Lord to make this a passion in your life? That's a challenge to all of us, because it's easy to get involved with our life, the daily events of our life, and yet what's going on in this pulpit, what's going on in the young people's class, what's going on in Sunday school ministry is where it's really at, and it's what's going to last for eternity. Sunday school can easily become a duty, and yet it ought to be a passion. It ought to be what drives us as a ministry is unto the Lord. Now, as part of a necessary mindset as a Sunday school teacher, we also not only need to truly care about our kids and pray for our kids, but we need to aim to be effective. And that's why we're here today. Again, this isn't any rocket science. We're here to be effective, right? But it's easy to lose that aim when we're rushing in on Sunday morning or when we're... just lazy in preparation. And as far as being effective, for the teacher, I believe that a lot of these have been covered, and so I won't spend much time on them, but having observed the Sunday school classes here, to be organized is absolutely critical. And it was truly a privilege, I would say, and an enjoyment to watch you Sunday school teachers teach. and how each one goes about it, and how different personalities, and how the Lord can use all of us. But I saw one thing for sure that the classes were much more effective, the kids were much more attentive when there was an organization. I've been again impressed with that through even my wife and how she has talked about the needs with her kids in not only Sunday school, but even in her daily job at a school here in town, that kids need this organization and they need structure throughout their day, and so do you. When I began teaching in fifth and sixth grade, I was resistant to it. My wife would lay out, you should do this and this and this, and I was proud, and sometimes I'd, well, I don't need to do that, I got an idea here. And I probably would have been so much more effective. And I didn't necessarily have to do it her way, because the Lord uses each one of us, but to have a plan be organized, both by way of time, here's how I'm going to spend my time, in 10-15 minute chunks are the parts of your lesson, To stay to that plan and to be structured and even let the kids know your structure is critical. Again, for the teacher to form relationships with the children is critical to be effective and to give clear instructions. And I don't want to dwell on those. Those have been covered here. But I can't underemphasize the importance of these points. And what I'd really like to focus on here, as I see this as a need in our Sunday school, is to use your helpers wisely. Because as I look at our Sunday school, I believe our helpers are severely underutilized. could do so much more than they do. And not to put down on the helpers, but we want to help you guys be effective, not only the teachers using the helpers, but the helpers themselves. And so one thing I've seen as I've observed you, as I've talked with you, I believe in the wise use of helpers, there needs to be some communication. And what I mean by that is on the teacher's end, don't be afraid to communicate with your helpers. You know what? I saw that this was happening and you handled this this way. Could we just do it this way? Could you make sure that Billy and Susie over there don't sit together? Could you make sure that when I'm telling the story, you're not so involved in it so that you're missing things here or kids are under tables or hanging from the ceilings? Hanging from the ceilings is an exaggeration, but it happens. And if you've been a helper, as I've been, you've sat there and probably got into the story more than you should have, and you're missing things. So don't be afraid to communicate with your helpers. And we need to remember that as a teacher-helper, you guys are a team here. You're working together. That means there's a give and take. There's feedback both ways. But as teachers thinking of helpers, you need to communicate not only what changes might need to be made, but things that they might need to do. And what I... I'll skip that. Think, as teachers, your main job is to teach the lesson. And I know that, as I've had helpers, both in the Sunday school realm as well as the secular world, it's easy to sometimes go easy on them. We don't want to fight. Put your helpers to work. And that means they need to have a servant's mindset, but put your helpers to work. Your main job is to teach. Give them the details. That's why I said, put up here, delegate. Delegate responsibilities. You shouldn't be handing out handouts. You shouldn't be sharpening pencils. You shouldn't be dealing with bathroom issues or disciplinary issues or distraction issues or all those little functional minutia that change from classroom to classroom and personality of the teacher to the next person. Use your helpers. I'd also say don't be afraid to have them teach a small part of the lesson. Maybe your helper takes the gospel portion or an application or story. And this just happens often in the 5th and K and 3rd and 4th. I've seen it in 1st and 2nd grade and even 3rd and 4th at times. But at times, or I think that sometimes there's a hesitancy to utilize them in this way. And some people just like to have the lesson, they have a plan, they're naturally organized, and that's okay. You don't have to have them teach, but don't be afraid to. Not only does it help break up the lesson so that the attention spans shift to another person while they're shifting to another topic, but it gives them an opportunity to relate to another adult, I believe, and to develop another relationship in another form. believe you guys need to direct your helpers to directly deal with problems or distractions. That's one thing I saw through many of the classes that the helpers weren't really sharp and on things when it came to dealing with distractions. They need to be walking around They need to be sitting in different positions. They need to be on these kids right away in terms of not just coming down on them, but someone's fidgeting, someone's distracting the neighbor. Susie, you need to pay attention up front. All too often, helpers sit around, as I've seen, and well, they're not really killing anyone yet, so we'll let them go for a little longer. That's not the attitude we want to have, and you as teachers are directing in this classroom, and you need to direct your classroom and thereby your helpers to do so. You want to direct your helpers to deal with all these problems as much as possible. It's really unfortunate. Come on in, helpers, if you guys are done. Everyone, come on in. You need to direct your helpers so that they're dealing with all these, so you don't have to interrupt your teaching time, the lesson time, so that they're dealing So you can deal with some problem, kid. You guys got to come in. This is all for you right now. It's perfect timing. And as well as teachers, you want to ask your helpers for feedback, because they may see things that you're doing, they may hear things that you're saying, and you don't mean to be insensitive, you don't mean to miss things, and they're seeing it, and they don't want to step on your toes, so why don't you ask them for feedback? That's going to help you be effective. Now, perfect timing. In Sunday school ministry, we're aiming to be effective and for the helper, we want to be open to feedback. In other words, if your teacher directs you to do some particular task or deal with a problem, child or discipline issue or distraction issue differently, go with the flow. It's their classroom. Excuse me. Just go with the flow. Be open to feedback. And perhaps you'll even become more effective as a helper and perhaps a teacher one day. Be on time. And I see this as a major issue. There's nothing more discouraging, in some ways, as a Sunday school teacher, than when you're preparing, you're trying to get things ready, you have details to delegate, and your helper shows up after the kids come off to the playground. That's just not acceptable. You're there, you're on time, you're serious about this. You are there to help and serve your teacher and these children as unto the Lord. As an objective, you want to keep your teacher teaching. So the less you can have them scurrying for supplies, dealing with problems or distractions, the better. So your teacher can teach, they can stay on schedule, and those issues are dealt with. You're keeping the functional side of this thing rolling. Be on task, in other words, you're there, you're mentally into it, not into the story, you're into the function of the classroom, and into the spiritual benefit of these kids, and doing what you can to enhance that. You're learning to meaningfully talk with the children, so that it's not just, you come to Sunday school, your teacher's prepared a lot, you've kind of looked over the lesson, and what do you have to talk about with the kids? No, you're thinking about ahead of time and praying about what you can talk with these children about, so that they are questioned about the lesson name, to reinforce what that lesson name was. I'm trying to end here shortly. You want to be sharp and prepared. So you're thinking beforehand. You're spiritually sharp, seeing that this kid may not be getting their particular point, not just biding time. You're involved with the children, whether it's craft time, whether it's helping them find the part in their Bibles. You're walking around the classroom. You totally have a servant's mentality there. And you're checking in with the teacher. I encourage you helpers to say, do you need me to do something differently? Do you need me to handle something a different way? And then just go along with it. cruising along here. Now at Sunday School Ministry, just to review for the helpers here, we want to truly care about our kids. We need to pray for our kids. We need to aim to be effective. And we need to depend on the Lord for wisdom and sensitivity. And I just left some room for you there to write some notes if you choose, because in a lot of ways these have been covered. Towards the children, special needs, and we've dealt with that, but be sensitive to that and help your teacher and help your helper identify that if that's the case. And towards the children, be sensitive to the fact, trust for wisdom, that you're not, while you're developing a relationship with them, you're not their friend. You can be someone used by the Lord to guide them to salvation, to encourage them in the Christian life, depending on their age and if they're saved or not. But you're not their friend. Also, class clowns. As I mentioned, I had a few of these. They can be difficult cases, because I know in my, being a guy, if I had a class clown, it was on. I'm not going to let them have control of the room, so I'm going to give it back to them. And not in a distracting way, but it's, squelch it when it's necessary, and then have fun with it when it's appropriate. And yet you need to have wisdom and sensitivity because, especially as men, I think there's a tendency to go too hard on the kids or to have too much fun. So we need to be praying about wisdom for that. Be careful about making kids read. That can be an issue that's been addressed. Show them you care. And I would encourage you to pray about, how can I show my Sunday school kids, each one I care? And it's again, not usually the likable or the extroverts in the class, it's the ones that are quiet. How can I show that child that I care about them, that they are important here in Sunday school? And be careful about making them a spectacle. Now here's one of the more sensitive issues in Sunday school ministry, especially as teachers, but helpers can play into this, is towards the parents. All of you, no doubt, have had some interaction with parents, whether they're friends of yours in church, or new people that are checking in, or kids that are new in the class, and how did Billy do? And I would just say we need to consider a few things in this regard. Number one, if they're new or visiting, be sensitive. If someone's new and visiting and they have a child, I've seen or heard of or perhaps I've been guilty of being too hard on the parents to say, you know, we really enjoyed having Billy and Susie or Susie in class. And I think that's important, if they come in contact with you, to show that your kid was valued in class. In fact, just this last few months ago, Jolene had an autistic boy in her class, and as she was able to talk shortly with the mother afterwards, the mother was just touched. It was a great testimony, because Jolene showed interest in her kid, and that he was welcome here. And she said, he's never been welcome in any class. It was a great testimony. Consider when talking to parents, and I'm assuming that we're dealing with perhaps a behavioral issue in this sense, how well you know them. You may not want to push too far. Be sensitive regarding the child's shortcoming or an exalted view of the child. If a kid has some legitimate issues, be sensitive that you're not exploiting them and then complaining to the parents about them. but just that you're supportive in helping them. As well, be sensitive, if you know the parents, if they have an exalted view of their child. Because it's not going to go well if someone thinks that their kid's the champ and you're there to tell them that they're not. And it's really not your place. The Lord's going to have to show them that. If you're talking about a problem, be sensitive and pray for wisdom of the nature of the offense. Is it really worth addressing? And it very well may be, because the other side of that is it's worth addressing and you have to do that. Be sensitive, pray for wisdom. If the child has a legitimate struggle or just a behavior problem. And again, that was covered largely beforehand. But do not be afraid to address issues with parents. If you do have issues, you certainly can talk to me or Pastor Roxer. Do be humble and straightforward in your approach, as you don't want to come from above, and yet you want to approach that You know, Billy here, Billy needed some help today. He was not paying attention repetitively and was fighting me on it. And yet, I just wanted to let you know is one way is that I have actually literally said that to a parent that I do know and have some familiarity with. I do offer praise for what the child does well. You know, well, Susie had a little problem paying attention today, but she was really right on her verses, and she said it very well, and I was really pleased with that. Parents appreciate that as well, to hear that, not only what their children have done poorly, but what they've done well. And do pray about it, if you are going to especially address a behavioral issue. Do pray about it before and after, and leave the results with the Lord. Now, what can be a hangup in these areas? We're almost done here. Saying nothing due to fear. That can be fear of your approach, fear of getting some, a tongue lashing from a parent or some, negative feedback, but we don't want to be hung up by that. We want to address these issues as we want to maintain order. Another issue can be the exhort one another perspective versus live peaceably with all men, and by the end of class you're just ready to, I'm ready to talk to the parents versus I'm not going to say anything to the parents because I just don't want to stir any waves. We want to find the balance. Stay, not get in the ditches, but stay on the road in between there. We also don't want to sugar coat, oh, Billy just deserves an award. He's a Sunday school champion. Let's get a pin for him. And I'm being facetious, but in a sense, we don't want to just overly praise these kids for what is expected in class. But we also don't want to act and interact with the parents out of frustration. And that, well, let me tell you what your kid did today. Not wise. Lastly, in Sunday School ministry, we will need to rely on the Lord to be creative. And I would dare say that the men need to rely on the Lord in the area more than the women. in Sunday school teaching, at least being one myself. This can be a struggle, and yet it can be very beneficial. This has been covered largely so far this day, so I'm not going to dwell on it a lot. We need to maintain using many visuals, be creative in our object lesson in your classroom. One thing I did want to hit on was just bulletin boards. And Pastor Ed just mentioned to me, you could talk to him about the bulletin boards. And I just thought, well, let me look around at the bulletin boards. It's been a long time since I've actually studied what we have up in our classrooms. And so I walked around and I thought, you know what? I think we do a pretty good job. Not that there can't be room for improvement. But I think that you teachers and helpers could walk around to the other classrooms to get ideas, to talk with one another. Because we want to not only have a personal, warm, and structured environment for these kids to learn in, but we also want to have a physical environment that's going to stimulate them towards the Word of God. And if you Google Sunday School Bulletin Boards, I have a picture of one at the end of this series. Don't get your ideas from there. They're just the corniest, most worthless, it'll be a waste of your time. But I thought this was good in the 5 and K. As they're learning about the resurrection of Christ, they have a timeline there. And this will change for different age kids, though the timeline tactic or the timeline set up is really good for when you're teaching through a series. For example, you could do this through Jonah and how he ran from Nineveh, went in the belly of a whale, came out and then went to preach to Nineveh and went up on the hill and just totally became a grump. that could be very good. And I think that that will help the kids follow through. You could use it at the beginning of the lesson, go through that. That's one idea. Using the kids' pictures or names that I think is really good at any age. It can be used to a more competitive level at the fifth and sixth grade class. It can be used for memory verses, but it helps them identify with the class. The trick to this though is if you get a new kid in class, make sure they get up on the board. Here's another example. I believe this is a 5 and K. I thought it was well done. The kids can come in. They take attendance. They can perhaps see their picture, at least at some point. They may forget. I thought this was also really done well, though it's more needed in the younger ages, a parent reminder board. Nothing's up on that. Apparently the parents in our church are all up to date. But I thought that was a good idea. And adopt a board program. So in other words, if there's four, between the teachers and helpers, there's four adults, I thought it was a good idea that maybe each one of you take a bulletin board or a chalkboard. That's something to consider. I thought this was good in the first and second grade classroom, that if their attention is directed to this, they can think about God's way and my way, something that's very pertinent and a very simple two-choice option in a child's mind. And that can help not only for them to look to that and think about that, but Jolene or Val could go up to that and say, and use the my way or God's way if it pertains to their lesson. Putting your verses up there is really good. This was either Kathy or Sandy or their helpers that just a lot of work really put into this, but I know kids love the third and fourth grade classroom because not only is it well structured, but it's also well decorated and it's a great environment. Kids love being in there. Also, having the books of the Bible up there is good. In fact, that can be used to review week in, week out, or at specific times. They may not do that every week, but that's good for them to not only help find the passages, but to learn the order. I thought this was excellent. What this is is a I don't know if it's hard to see back there, but it's the Wiseman around the manger. There's a piece of cloth backing it, and then there's just a thin film with this printed on it. But I just thought, I walked in this classroom, I thought, I want to be in here. because it's well decorated, they can tell that there's effort put into it, this is an environment that our children will learn. I mean, good grief, they got pine trees and camels, what are we gonna learn today in this classroom? So, I thought that was an excellent thing. And I thought that this was, I believe this was the fifth and sixth grade, but I think Philip Orman came up with this, he used the, some basic elements of this lesson regarding the old sin nature. And he has Velcro, and he can spend some time going over, perhaps, the body, as Pastor will do, the box, and go through that. Kids can start taking in basic elements of that. That's simple truth that we all need to know and be reminded of, and not grow dull to. And so that's up on their board, and he can go over there. Now, is this self? Or is this the product of the Spirit of God? And so you can use interactive things on your bulletin board, which I think would be really good and helpful for the kids to be engaged. This is the one off the Google, Fall for Jesus. And if any of you put this up, I'll come and tear it down. Don't use corny things. I would encourage you, what my point here is, is to use or design, pray about using practical, usable bolts and board ideas that are going to engage the kids. What's critical in this and the nuts and bolts of Sunday school? That you're walking with the Lord, of course. You have a sacrificial mentality in that you're taking heed to yourself so that you don't grow dull. You don't let Sunday school become a duty or an afterthought or a Sunday morning hurry up shuffle. And you don't lose the sight of the priority and privilege of Sunday School ministry. We all can do it in any ministry. And yet, we know we want the love of Christ to compel us. knowing what Christ has done for us on the cross. And we do need to be faithful, 1 Corinthians 4, 1 and 2. Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. So that's my nuts and bolts. I trust it was a bit of a review, perhaps an encouragement to some of those aspects of Sunday school ministry. Pastor? I want to say a real thank you to all the teachers for their work today, and as obviously they came prepared, ready for bear. Just one clarification, when Jim said, you know, you're not their friend, what he means is they're not your buddy. That's the idea. It's not that obviously you're not friendly and caring, but in the sense that you're still an authority in their life, per se. By the way, you must be careful that you've resolved, depending on your church situation, who addresses a parent if needed, if there's a problem. That's an important thing. I know that our rule of thumb is the teacher does, the helpers don't, per se, because then you might get conflicting stories and so forth and so forth. We also do have a Sunday school parent booklet that is available that we can give to new parents that are coming. It has a welcome, it has a scope and sequence, it has some things like that. Teachers, if you don't have those, you need to pick those up. They are available and give them to new parents when they come. You know, there's a lot that's been covered today, again, like I've said. But you're going to do, again, key things. Again, we're dependent on the Lord. We're teaching the Word. The Bible lesson is the key. The aim is what the lesson is all about, including various elements. And as a teacher and a helper looking to the Lord, you're working interdependently in order to accomplish this objective. And again, we're not going to normally override the home, but in some cases, we're going to perhaps complement it, hopefully. Some cases, in cases of unsaved homes or even carnal homes, hopefully give those children an opportunity to hear the Word of God. When I'm dismissed here, we're going to need some help with putting away these tables. Is there someone in charge of that, Jim? Okay, very good. I'm sure you could use some helpers, especially if some of the guys can stick around. And if you have any feedback for us or further questions, email Jim Miller, not me, okay? Let him take care of that. Jim is our Sunday School Facilitator for our oldest classes, and Barb Skolg, overseas, those younger classes as it is per se, and I trust that this has been a helpful workshop. It's only been 11 years since we had one, and so hopefully we'll have one in less than 11 years, but this is something you can go back to time and time again.