Podcast – Early Prep = Exceptional Results

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If you have been in children’s ministry for any length of time you have likely heard the worn-out and tired expression, “don’t wait until the last minute to prepare” or, to put it a bit more familiar phraseology, “don’t wait to start your lesson until Saturday night!”

These are indeed phrases that have become almost too familiar to us and so passe that it can be easy to ignore them or at least to let them settle somewhere to the back of our minds until it is too late and early preparation can only only an aspiration for the NEXT week.  These maxims are oft repeated because they ARE SO TRUE and vital to success in the classroom.

I was inspired to write this article because I found a statistic on the www.apostolicsundayschool.com website that is either new or was so buried in other stats that I hadn’t noticed it before.  It is a statistic on when the website has the most traffic or what is the most popular day and time for its visitors (quick reminder here… this is a SUNDAY School website).  The most popular day and time of the Apostolic Sunday School website is…. drum-roll please!

SATURDAY AT 8:00 PM… really.  I promise.

Now it doesn’t tell me WHO is on the website at that time 🙂 so you are safe should you be browsing at that time but hopefully that is the exception NOT the norm.

Life is crazy and I completely understand that some weeks are better than others.  We have all experienced those weeks that no matter how hard you try you just can’t seem to allocate the time to get ready for Sunday.  Trust me… we have all been there.  But to some people, this isn’t a crazy week… this is just a way of life.  and THAT isn’t good… at all.

Solid preparation ALWAYS leads to better classroom experiences.  Solid preparation results in fewer discipline problems because kids that are interested do not typically act up nearly as much as those in a poorly organized classroom.  I believe also, and I could be wrong, that solid preparation also receives a blessing from God even if the presentation of the lesson itself may not be the best. Let me give an example.

I have been in a rush and due to the lateness of the hour, instead of coming up with something new I have repeated a lesson that I had done before, relying entirely on the fact that I already had the materials and/or the lesson on hand.  Preparing not a wit, I blithely walked into class knowing that this particular group of kids had never seen or heard the lesson before and expecting to wow them but instead was taken aback by nearly everything going wrong!  Nothing went right… kids weren’t paying attention, I stumbled and stuttered, messed up on the lesson and otherwise made a hash of things. Otherwise, I have spent a long time preparing for a lesson and though I didn’t really do a good job in the actual teaching portion and may have made mistakes with the visual, the kids didn’t seem to care, paid strict attention and the class went great!  I believe this to be the blessing of God on my taking the time to prepare for my class.

So when should you begin preparing for your upcoming lesson?  My answer is Sunday afternoon! Right after you taught your LAST lesson.

No doubt you are thinking me excessive… but hear me out.  There is perhaps some minor method buried in this madness.  I am not necessarily suggesting that you go home Sunday afternoon and begin a grueling study session for the upcoming week, however there ARE at least two things you need to do as soon as your can following your most recent lesson.

#1 – Every Sunday afternoon you should take the time to evaluate your most recent performance.

• What did I do well today?  Give yourself kudos where kudos are due.  If some part of the day or lesson went especially well, give yourself a pat on the back and make a note to continue improving in this area.  Perhaps you did an especially good job on your object lesson.  You had found a great visual, had ordered what you needed, had practiced at home and everything went off without a hitch.  Good job!
• What can I improve on next week?  Take the same deep introspective look at your performance and see if there was anything that you could have done better.  Don’t beat yourself up but do be honest.  Perhaps you were really nervous in your delivery and could have done with a few more rehearsals at home prior to the live performance or maybe you didn’t show up early enough to have everything setup JUST the way it needed to be before the kids got there.
• What should I START doing?  Is there anything that you didn’t do that you know you probably should have done this week?  Perhaps have a time to get serious and allow the kids to pray somewhere in the lesson?
• What should I STOP doing? Hmmm… What did I do that I shouldn’t have?  Did I get frustrated and snap at a child?  Did I ramble on without visuals for 15 minutes straight on the book of Revelations while the kids zoned out and started throwing cookies?

#2 – You should find out what the topic is for the next week and do a quick read through of the curriculum should it be available.  If not, at least sit and think for a moment about the topic or theme for the upcoming class… let’s say it is “honesty”.  This will begin to open up your mind to possible ways to teach that topic and EVERYTHING that happens to or around you for the next week will make you think, “HEY! That’s a GREAT way to teach about honesty!”

I heard Bro. James Wang from NextLevelKidMin.com (great website… check it out) give a great illustration on early preparation.  He likened it to the “red car” effect.  When you are looking at buying a red car or have just bought a red car, they are EVERYWHERE!  In fact, suddenly your city has become infested with red cars!  Where did they all come from and where were they just last week?

This is VERY similar to being familiar with your lesson early in the week.  Now that you know the topic is on honesty, you will see ways to teach honesty EVERYWHERE you go! Every bible verse you read will suddenly seem to lend itself to honesty, every conversation you have will teach you something about it and by the end of the week you will have more to teach than you can possibly fit into the time allocated.  It’s incredible!

Prior prep will ALSO help you with the “wow factor”.  The “wow factor” comes into play on those rare Sundays that you absolutely knock the socks off of every kids in the room with the INCREDIBLE object lesson you came up with that so perfectly fit the topic.  You KILLED it!  Walk-off homerun! Out of the park! But… these don’t happen by accident.  These come by preparing well ahead of time.

Many times a “wow Sunday” requires even more prep than a single week can afford.  This illustrates how good it can be to look further ahead than only a week but to even be aware of the next month or two of lesson topics.  Perhaps you are going over science experiment websites or maybe even a fun Sunday School site (like… I don’t know… apostolicsundayschool.com?) and you see a lesson that you just HAVE to do.  You give yourself plenty of time to ORDER the materials needed, plenty of time to build that crazy device, plenty of time to test it out and plenty of time to make sure you have your entire routine DOWN!  This can’t happen if you prepare Saturday night.  This takes discipline, responsibility and a passion to be the best you can be.

One thing I haven’t hit on yet is spiritual preparation.  This cannot be overemphasized.  A great class happens when both spiritual and the physical preparation meet.  Prayer for the lesson, for each regular attendee and for visitors in the classroom is essential.  It makes a huge difference turning an “entertaining” Sunday morning to an “impacting” one.

The greatest teachers are not necessarily only the best speakers, clowns, scientists or magicians but are also those who care the most and show their care through prayer and love toward the children.  An entire article can and likely will be written on this topic alone.

To recap this now lengthy article I can but say that greatness in children’s ministry is not achieved during class time but rather in the hours of preparations each week.

Now let’s go do something awesome for God!