Leave Boring at Home-Bring Your Passion

The Incredibly Boring Bible Class (A short play) Class:     (Sits with all eyes on the teacher.) Teacher:  (Dry, boring tone.)  So (long pause)  today we will learn about, uh (another long pause)  Jesus turns water into wine. Class:     (Begins to look around the room and one messes with the kid next to him) Teacher:  Class.  Pay attention.  (Looks at paper like trying to find place.) (Some look up.) Teacher:  This was a miracle. Class:      (Again, looks around the room bored.)

Remember the scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day off?”  The scene with the blah teacher?  Have you ever sat through a class or training like this where the speaker was unbelievably boring?  A class where you wondered if the presenter even cared about the topic?  Our kids see right through us!  If we are not excited, passionate about sharing God’s word with them, they are not going to get excited either.  Why would they? We know that a child’s attention span is short and it will be even shorter if they are bored out of their minds.  Take a moment to reflect on what kind of teacher you are.  Be honest with yourself.  Do you have a passion for God’s word?  Does it bring a smile and excitement to your face when you talk about it?  Do you get energized when teaching children?  If you answered “no” to any of these, you may need to serve in another area.  Teaching children may not be your gift.  At the very least, you need to change your presentation. Now, if you truly have a passion for God’s word and a desire to teach His message to children, but it doesn’t show, there are things you can do right now to fix this.

• Number 1 seems obvious, but is often overlooked.  Know the lesson and find the thrilling parts, the parts you now the kids will love.  For example, in the story of Adam and Eve, they are going to go crazy when you tell them they were naked in the garden or that a serpent talked to them.  In Jonah, they will think it is gross but interesting when you share how nasty and fishy it must have smelled in the belly of the fish.  You get the idea.  Find what is intriguing so you can engage the kids.
• Smile when you talk!  If this doesn’t come naturally to you, practice in a mirror.  Practice while you drive.  Practice, practice, practice until it becomes natural.  “It seems that the simple act of a physical smile, authentic or not, tricks your brain into thinking you’re actually happy.” (Huff Post)  And we want all of our kids to be happy when learing about their amazing, powerful God.
• Read with inflections and movement.  Raise and lower your voice.  Use your eyebrows.  Use your hands.  If this is not natural to you, it will feel weird at first, but keep exagerating your tones and motions and eventually, it will be.  In theater, students are taught to exaggerate their movement so people in the audience can tell what they are doing up on stage.  It’s the same idea.  We want kids to see and engage.
• Engage the class.  As you are sharing God’s word, a story from scripture, ask questions.  Engage the hearts and minds of the class.  Getting them involved gets them excited.

More than anything else, as a children’s bible class teacher, you must have a passion for God’s word and sharing God’s word with children!  Passion brings energy and it is contagious.  What could be better than a class full of kids with a contagious passion for Christ?