Shadow Dancer - A Storytelling Convention

This is an artist called named Miwa Matrayek she is a visual artist that does AMAZING things.

The really neat stuff happens at 2:49

Watch the video and then keep reading...

Imagine experiencing Christmas or Easter like this as a child. What if a "shadow" character walked through the world of Jesus and observed those events first hand. Think about "Where the Wild things Are". The boy falls asleep and finds himself entering a new world. How cool would it be if we could do something like this for kids? We could create new worlds or make them come alive for them.

Christmas night? Easter? Creation?

Think of all the possibilities!  Kids could re-live these events vicariously through this shadow figure.

TIPS

-- It would be a great idea to use a dancer/actor as the shadow to insure graceful and artistic movement.

-- To be more literal and less abstract, you might need a narrator talking along with the story.

-- Its important to think about the narrator's voice for such things. A voice like Fran Drescher's would kill the moment completely.

Song Re-mix - A Storytelling Convention

Do your kids LOVE music? Do you have an awesome Worship Leader who would love to be more involved? Do you have kids with musical talent?

Try this...

Take a song that is really well-known and re-write the words to tell the Bible story! Next, perform it for your Large Group!

- Using your Worship Leader, do it acoustic which means he/she can stop and start to interact with the audience. WARNING: Only do this if you can do it well... nothing is more awkward than an awkward worship leader doing something he feels awkward doing!

- Using karaoke tracks, have a talented kid (or kids - Glee style) perform the song! Your LG will love it!! The down side is that this one is less interactive.

You will also need to include and intro/outro/application for this. Don't expect the song to do it all - just to tell the story!

Props In A Box - A Storytelling Convention

So.. this one is a bit self-explanatory.

This one is also great for a young audience.
This is ALSO great for touchy subjects like the Crucifixion. 

Basically, as you are telling the story, you pull out props from a box and hand them out to the audience to be passed around and back to you. As props are being passed, you continue with the lesson.

What makes this SC awesome? Its a great way to interact with the audience without over-stimulation and crowd control.

- Its smart to have an assistant to make sure the objects are passed nicely and returned.(especially with little kids).

Freeze Frame - A Storytelling Convention

This storytelling convention great for Bible stories with a lot of action.

Basically, you have kids come on stage act out the story. You call out "FREEZE" at key moments and the actors stop in their tracks. At this point, you ask the audience what they think happens next. You can also trade out the volunteers for new ones from the audience too. 

Give the audience multiple choice options and create teams to create tension.

Every time "FREEZE" is called, cue some fun music and make it like a game show.

This is an easy and low-budget way to make a Bible story interactive and fun! 

-- When writing this script, make sure you pay special attention to ACTION words. Remember, the kids are looking to the narrator for cues on what to do and how to act!

Foley Artist Teach - A Storytelling Convention

"Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in film-making.These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best Foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience.It helps to create a sense of reality within a scene. Without these crucial background noises, movies feel unnaturally quiet and uncomfortable.^"

<sup>This storytelling convention takes a little more practice and preparation. 

Write a script for your lesson that involves a telling of the story with as many action words in it as you can. Next, go through and create a way to make SFX for those words using foley items. 


Once you have planned out your SFX, buy all of the materials you will need to make it happen and set up a foley area in your large group teaching area. Its not the focus, so not front and center, but to the side. 

For the lesson, you pull kids from the audience to act out a scene. Its a good idea to read the script out of a book for this one because the foley sound effects are going to have to be well planned. As the kids are acting out the scene based on your script, have per-rehearsed volunteers creating the SOUNDS as they happen.  

Try using small group leaders for the foley SFX. The kids will feel more connected and its always good to make the SG Leader look like a rock star. 

Keep the foley SFX down to about five SFX total (eight if you have a couple leaders doing it), but use them more than once.


If  you have a BIG room or a lot of kids, remember to mic the table! 


I think that's it - let me know if you have any questions!</sup>

The Call and Response Teach - A Storytelling Convention

This one is simple and fun!

At the beginning of the lesson, you explain that there are key words and responses to each one of these words. 

For example: 

Call: "Nebuchadnezzar"   

Response: BOOOOOOO!

Call: "Furnace"

Response: "Oh that's HOT!"

Call: "The Three Amigos"

Response: "I got your back bro!"

Then go ahead and tell the story. You have to make sure that you keep the energy up. Do this by using props, pulling up some kids to play the characters or combining this with another storytelling convention like Art Attack.

Another fun tip to try is to have cue cards for your audience. Its good because it helps keep the kids' attention, but it also uses kids up on stage which is always a plus!

Add a challenge by adding more key words or speeding up the frequency of these words too.

Art Attack or Pictionary Teach - A Storytelling Convention

This one is really fun!

Basically, the story is told in pictures. There are several ways to do this.

-You, as the teacher could draw and teach at the same time. (Stick figure are FINE)

-You could have a teacher narrate while a guest artist draws. (What's really fun with this one is to have a "french arteest" come in and he draws everything wrong. 2nd and 3rd LOVE that. For example: The narrator could say, "And then Mary and Joseph took the long road to Bethlehem." Meanwhile, the funny French Arteest is drawing a minivan. The kids will giggle and point out that its wrong. The you can have a little back and forth with the narrator and "Frenchie".)  

-You could have an older child draw out scenes. (This works well if you have already created small sketches that the child can then copy into the whiteboard.)

Another variation of this for an older crowd (4th and 5th) is pictionary. Kind of a guess-what-happens-next interaction. You can split the class in two and have Small Group Leaders be the drawers. Keep score and award a winner at the end!

So there you go, 4 ways to do the same lesson!! And I promise all of these will be a win.

**TIP: JUST LIKE ON THE RADIO OR TV, NEVER LET THERE BE DEAD AIR. So while someone is drawing, there should either be narration, interaction or music. Keep the energy up!

The Voiceover Teach - A Storytelling Convention

SO MUCH FUN! 

If you don't know... now you know... there is such a thing as the COMIC BOOK BIBLE! Why is this awesome??? Because there is also an invention called a SCANNER! Put them together and you have an AWESOME storytelling convention.

1. Find the lesson you need in the Comic Book Bible. 

2. Scan the pages into the computer. 

3. Create a PowerPoint using those pages. 

4. Recruit some ridiculous teens or kids who do silly voices to read what the characters are saying on a mic.
6. Large Group teacher fill in the blanks as a narrator. 

Easy breezy and hilarious.

The Buzzer Teach - A Stortelling Convention

This storytelling convention is great for stories that your kids have already heard. Basically, you tell the story as usual, but you throw in incorrect variations. They can be silly, like saying that there was an elephant at the nativity, or they can be challenging like, "Joseph and Mary traveled to Nazareth for the census..." (it was Bethlehem). The kids are then charged with finding the incorrect variations and buzzing you when you go off track. 

You can choose one or two kids to hold actual buzzers...

You could have all the kids just make a buzzer noise when they think you're wrong...

You can give them all some type of noisemaker...

Or you can use HUMAN BUZZERS (which is totally what I would do - blog coming soon!)

FAST, GOOD or CHEAP - How to Protect Your People from Burnout

My sister is an event planner - and a really good one at that. In the midst of ministry Christmas mayhem she once bestowed a tidbit of wisdom on me from the event planning world:

"FAST, GOOD or CHEAP.  Pick two."

If you need something for your ministry and it has to be FAST and GOOD then its not going to be CHEAP. But as most of you know, everything in ministry has to be CHEAP so you're left with GOOD or FAST. Next we think to ourselves, We're doing for this for our Lord and Savior and to bring children to know Him. So it HAS to be GOOD too.

There you have it. Almost everything in ministry needs to be GOOD and CHEAP, therefore it can't happen last minute - it can't be FAST.

Yet so many times we demand all three of ourselves, our volunteers or our staff. This is how burnout happens.

(For the record, I DO think that GOOD, CHEAP and FAST can actually happen, but not without a huge amount of effort, stress and sacrifice. Also, even thought it can be done does not mean it can be sustained.)


Once, I was asked to sustain all three for an extended period of time. I knew that this would be impossible, but I tried anyway. After 90 days, I was managing but I knew it couldn't last. I was having physical side effects from the stress. Another 90 days came and I began breaking emotionally. Another 90 days came and I was desperate. I was suffering physically, emotionally and now my Spirit was suffering. 90 days later, I resigned.

Don't let this happen to your people. Its your job as a leader to protect them by diligently planning ahead so they aren't put in the impossible position producing a high quality program with barely-there resources at the drop of a hat.

So when you have a great idea, remember to ask yourself, "Do we have enough time to do this well and inexpensively without killing ourselves to make it happen?" If the answer is NO, you have to be a good enough leader to pass. In the long run, your staff will thank you.
 
 

"THAT" Kid - What to do with trouble-makers

There is one in every ministry. A kid for whatever reason that is just a handful. There are a plethora of reasons that this child takes more time than others, but none of those reasons are ours to judge.  


Regardless, they exist. SO what do we do about them?


Ignore them?
Restrict them?
Separate them?
Punish them?
Kick them out?


Believe it or not, kicking them out is an actual option to some ministries. I took a new job at a small church down south and before I got there, I was getting phone calls and facebook messages about "T". T as a very challenging child that the volunteers wanted kicked out of the ministry. Obviously, that wasn't an option to me so I couldn't wait to get a read on the situation myself. 


One of my first Sunday's on the job, I finally met T. "Here comes trouble." One of the volunteers jeered when they saw him and his raggedy Grandma coming through the door. 

At first glance, I knew something was wrong. He was dressed in really dark clothes, looked poorly maintained and deeply angry. Grandma didn't look much better. 


I decided that I was going to make it my mission to make T feel welcomed and loved at church.


The first thing I did was try to gain as much information I could about his life FROM HIM or HIS GRANDMA - not from other more gossipy sources. 


Turns out, his mom was a drug addict. His dad was in jail. His Grandma and Grandpa had just adopted him and he was really close to his Grandpa. Then his Grandpa suddenly died. 
So we are left with a grieving WIDOW and ORPHAN that the church wants to kick out. 

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

FAIL. 

This kid needed attention and he was going to get it one way or another. So here's the moral of the story:


THAT kid is going to get special attention. THAT kid is going to take time away from the other kids one way or another. No its not fair. But its reality. It is up to you as the leader whether THAT kid gets positive or negative attention. 


You have a choice:


POSITIVE attention at the beginning

OR

NEGATIVE attention the rest of the time


POSITIVE ATTENTION looks like this:
PRAY before your day begins for genuine empathy and patience for that child. Then, when you see them coming, stop whatever you're doing and go to them. Get on their eye level and ask them how their week was. Smile. Show them love. Give them attention. Be genuinely interested in what they are interested in.  


If the child asks for something that the other kids don't have, make an exception if its harmless. For example: T was in my office before kid's church began and he saw a balloon on my desk. He asked if he could have it. Would it be fair for him to have one and not the other kids? Nope. BUT there's a good chance that if he gets special attention in a positive way, he will not seek it in a negative way by being disruptive, disrespectful or worse. 


Make a real effort to give that child praise for EVERYTHING they do well as they do it. For example: "T, you are listening so well right now. I just wanted to say thanks for that. It makes me feel like you respect me and I appreciate that." Or, "T, thanks for helping pass out the papers. You are really helpful."


Look for ways to make that child a leader. Yes, its risky, but its worth it for sure. it makes kids feel special when they are given special responsibilities. This is just another form of positive attention.




This is not easy. Nothing worth it ever is. 


Let me know how this works for you.

Regressive Pull - What is it?

Regressive Pull means simply losing sight of yourself as the leader and placing more importance on being "one of the gang". Here's an excerpt from a camp blog that explains it well:

"... Regressive pull, is when adults, after spending a lot of time with children begin to look and act just like the kids. That is, they become more impulsive, more easily excited, more sarcastic in their verbal interactions, or more easily ruled by their feelings. In other words, adults can become overstimulated, too! Once a counselor has regressed, there is a loss of perspective and sense of consequences that may result in unsound judgment calls."

A great example of this is a small group leader talking or being disruptive when large group is going on.  I can tell you that there is nothing more annoying to a teacher than an adult making things more difficult. Something inside just wants to stop everything and grab that person by the throat and scream, "You're on MY side here! HELP ME! Its hard enough to keep their attention as it is! Yeesh!"

Another example is the group of adults gathered in the back of the room while the kids sit on the floor. The adults would rather be with their peers than with the kids. 

The closer the leader is to the age of the kids, the greater chance of Regressive Pull. So... yes... that means teens are at a greater risk. But don't rule out those that are young at heart!!

When you see this behavior, you better handle it asap.

MINISTRY LEADERS:

Try this: "Hey [leader], I can see how important it is for you to really bond with the kids on their level and that's awesome. Just remember that they are looking to you to set the example of behavior so remember to keep the balance between being a friend and a leader ok? 

Have you had any experiences with this? Let me know!

How To Fire A Volunteer

If you as a leader do a great job defining expectations, training new volunteers and enforcing the status quo, there's a good chance that you will never have to fire a volunteer. 

If you are lacking in any of these areas, chances are it's your fault to begin with. 

I witnessed a situation once where a new staffer was hired with no experience, no training, insulting salary and zero support. Soon, discussions of her falling short started echo through the meeting rooms. I must have sounded like a broken record, but I couldn't leave it alone. "What training have we provided her with? Has she been evaluated and critiqued? Has anyone tried to help her at all?" 

To make a long story short, it all ended on a teary Sunday afternoon when she was fired in front of other staff. Totally caught off guard, this poor girl was shocked and devastated. "You just don't have what it takes to teach kids." This was the message given to this poor girl who's major was Elementary Ed by the church. 

FAIL. 

We as a church had failed to do our job, but instead blamed it all on the clay we were supposed to mold. 'You just don't have what it takes to become a pot." Said the potter to the clay. 

Makes just as much sense eh? 

All that being said, when you DO do your job and check all the boxes and you STILL have a lackluster volunteer - you owe it to the kids to fill that spot with someone passionate ans on-board with your ministry's vision.

Try this:

"[Volunteer's name], I love that you have the willingness to step in and spend time with our kids, but a willing heart is just the beginning of what we need to fulfill the mission that God has called us to. I need all of our volunteers to [fill in the blanks here with your expectations. For example: Show up ten minutes early, be familiarized with the curriculum, be prepared, organized, etc]. I've noticed that you have trouble coming through on some of these. When you first committed to this, you committed to [insert length of time]. Do you think that you can fulfill that commitment to the level I just explained? If not, its ok to let me know right now and we can work something out. I'd like to understand your thoughts on this. [Wait for response]."

If your volunteer can't fulfill the commitment, ask that they stick around until you have found a replacement. Give yourself 2-3 weeks max.

If they seem to have an awakening, tell them that you are elated and that they are on a 30-day trial period and that you will meet back with them after that time to re-evaluate.

More than ANYTHING ...


YOU MUST FOLLOW THROUGH. 

Yes, this approach is assertive, but you are the LEADER. If you don't assert the needs of the ministry, who will?


Give it a try and let me know how this works for you!