I was recently in a situation where I was reminded, once again, of the importance of being able to lead a small group Bible Study effectively. There are many good reasons for having a small group Bible study. These reasons may include: fellowship, praying for one another and encouraging one another. But it would all be pointless if we weren’t spending time in God’s Word. Thus the most important reason why we have it is to teach a Bible passage accurately, so that the group members understand it and how it applies to their lives.
Before you can teach God’s Word to others you need to have done the hard work of understanding the Bible passage for yourself and how it applies to your own life. Once you have done this you will need to figure out how best to communicate this to the children in your class. Unfortunately, this does not mean that, when it comes time to teach your lesson, the children in your class will automatically be sitting quietly waiting to hear what you have to say. You will need to “set the scene” for them. In this blog we will be looking at a few things that you will need to consider to help your children to be fully engaged with your lesson.
I am going to break your small group time into four sections. First: The time just before you have even sat down with your group: physical environment. Next: When you first sit down: starting the session. Then: While you are sitting down: presenting the material. Lastly: Just before you get up: wrapping up.
Let’s turn our attention to our first section: Before you sit down
1) Your physical environment.
• Seating
If your small group is with younger children it is a good idea to get them to sit in a circle on the floor. You may want to put some sort of mat down on the floor for them to sit on. This helps the children know where they are supposed to sit, like boundary markers. It will also assist with any issues like cold or dirty floors. You can either sit on the floor with the children or on a small chair so that you are slightly higher than the children. This way everyone is able to see you and you are able to see everyone, which will help with any discipline issues that may arise. If space and resources allow you may want to move them to sit at small tables with chairs for the activity time.
When working with older children you may decide to rather sit them around small tables and chairs. This will give the children a place to put their Bibles. The leader should either sit at the head of the table or in the middle.
• Eye contact
Make sure that you position yourself so that you are able to have eye contact with all the children in your class. If a child is being obstructed for some reason then tell them to move to a better spot. It will also be easier to maintain eye contact if you have prepared your lesson well because you will not be relying on your notes. So be sure to prepare well.
• Split up potential problems
When you see two children sitting together that you know are usually a problem, either give them a warning and then separate them if needed or separate them immediately. Alternatively, you may want to put labels at each child’s seat so that you intentionally split up potential problems beforehand. (For more on discipline)
• Use your co-leader
If you have a co-leader it is important for them to sit opposite you, just off center. You can speak to your co-leader beforehand and ask them to sit next to those children who need special attention. It is always useful to have an extra set of hands to help open up Bibles, stick down activities or help to fill in answers.
• Avoid distractions
Be aware of your surroundings. You may need to close a window or a door if there is a noise distraction outside. It is also important to take note of any pictures on the walls, especially the ones that are behind you, that may be distracting to the children. Lastly, be sensitive about what you wear. Anything that will draw attention towards yourself and away from the Bible passage is a distraction. I have had children so distracted by my dangly earrings once that they failed to hear the message. Needless to say, you will never see me wearing dangly earrings when I teach ever again.
• Timing
Be sure to start and finish your program on time. This is especially key because it shows the parents that you are organised and that you respect their time. Again, this will be easier if you are well prepared for you will be able to discard questions if you are running short of time or have extra activities to keep the children occupied if you finish early.
Now that you have got all your children sitting down calmly, what do you do next?
2) Starting the Session
• Welcome
The first thing to do with your class is to welcome everyone, but especially visitors. You want them to feel so welcomed that they will want to come back. This welcome time will look different depending on if this is the first time you are dealing with this particular group of children or if this is the same group that you see week in and week out. You may want to ask the children a few questions about themselves to get to know them a bit better, like what school they go to or what Grade they are in. You could do this in the form of a game or ice-breaker to make it more fun.
• Bibles
For those children who are old enough to read, try and make sure that everyone has a Bible in front of them. All the Bibles should be the same version, where possible. This will make it easier for everyone to follow along when the passage is being read.
You want to start teaching the children Bible handling skills. So don’t open their Bibles for them. Explain the contents page and that the Bible is made up of two parts: The Old and the New Testaments. This is particularly relevant when you have new children so that they can begin to understand how to use the Bible for themselves.
• Pray
Before you start you need to ask for God’s help. The key in praying with the children is to make sure that they understand that you need God’s help just as much as they do. (For more on prayer)
Now that you have their attention and focus you can begin your lesson.
3) Presenting the Material
To what extent you present your material will largely depend on whether the lesson has already been taught in a big group setting beforehand or whether you are needing to teach it from scratch.
• Review previous lessons
If you are teaching a story or lesson that falls within a series then it is a good idea to recap the previous lessons. This will be particularly necessary for those children who may be new or may have missed the previous lesson. If you are starting a new series or teaching a once off lesson then it is still beneficial to give the context of where the passage fits into the Bible.
• Introductory Activity / Question
This is an activity, or question that you ask, before you start your lesson to get the children engaged. It is something to “whet their appetite” and get them intrigued to keep listening. It can be something that relates to their lives, something that links to the passage or to the application.
• No lectures
As much as possible, if not always, you need to make your lessons as interactive as possible. Whether you are teaching younger children or older children you want to make your lesson engaging.
When you are teaching younger children you will be telling them the story with the application added into the story. When you are teaching older children, however, your small group time will be more like a discussion group. So you are more of a facilitator. If you have prepared well this will be easier to do. It will give you the freedom to talk more and preach less.
• Visual aids
There are many different types of visual aids that one can use. You will need to figure out what is going to work best with your group of children and with the lesson that you are teaching. (For some more ideas of visual aids you may want to check out my course)
• Bible handling skills
It might be helpful sometimes to print out the passage for each child so they can mark on the page as you work through it. You can get them to highlight words they don’t understand and to circle repeated words or concepts. You can also ask some basic comprehension questions to help the children get into the text. You are doing this not only for small group time, but also to equip them for their own devotions.
• Promoting Discussion
Sometimes it will be difficult to get the discussion going in your group. It will be helpful to have some questions on hand to help guide the discussion and to get them focused on the passage.
You want to try to ask open-ended questions instead of closed questions that only require a “Yes” or “No” answer. This will promote discussion.
You also want to encourage everyone to contribute. At times this may require you to ask questions to specific people. This will ensure that everyone gets a turn. To build up confidence in those who are shy, ask them easier questions.
If you don’t understand an answer that is given, ask them to clarify. If an answer that is given, however, is incorrect you need to tell them or even better show them from the Bible. Ask a question like “Where did you get that from the passage?” You want to make sure they know that they are wrong because the Bible says so, not you. You don’t want them to leave your small group believing something that isn’t true and you don’t want others in your group to start believing what they said either.
There will be times when someone starts a discussion that has no relevance to the Bible study and is not helpful. These are called red herrings. Don’t slam them down, instead say something like “let’s talk about that later if we have time”.
On the other hand, there may be times when someone starts a discussion that is not relevant to your study, but is helpful. We will call these “Profitable byways”. We always need to leave room to be flexible and let God lead. If it is something that you feel is important then skip the rest of the lesson and continue with it next time. Just be sure not to do this every week.
Lastly, you need to wrap up the lesson.
4) Application
The application is by far the most important part of a small group. This is not something that should be rushed, so leave sufficient time for it. This is the time when you want to show the children how God’s Word applies to their lives. It is useful, especially with young children, to give them practical examples of what they need to do when they go home after hearing this message. Once you have finished, spend some time praying about what you have been learning about.
In this blog we looked at a few things that you will need to consider to help your children to be better engaged with your lesson. First, we looked at what you can do before you have even sat down with your group. Next, we saw some things to do when you first start your small group time. Then, we dealt with everything to consider while you are sitting down. Lastly, we looked at how to finish your small group time well.
Thanks for reading my post. I hope you found it helpful. Please send me any feedback, comments or questions that you may have. I would also like to hear if there are any topics that you would like me to deal with in the future. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Bye for now.
Thanks Marion. Very helpful!