Sunday school teachers - Good advice

Mr Sam Doherty of Child Evangelism Fellowship says:

I trust that God will enable you to help Christian children to grow as you feed and nurse the new born babes He has committed to you.

1. You are the nurse. Nursing a child (both physically and spiritually) is often difficult and frequently inconvenient, but it can be very worthwhile and rewarding both in this world and the next.

“Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child away and nurse

him for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the

child and nursed him. And the child grew. . .” (Exodus 2 v9, 10a).

2. The Bible is the food or milk which helps the child to grow. But it needs to be given in an attractive and drinkable form. “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2 v2).

3. The Holy Spirit is the supervisor, the helper, “the doctor” and the One who gives power and ability to the “nurse.”

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1 v8).

And we pray that the result will be—growth.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ.” (2 Peter 3 v18). 

4. The danger is that if the child is not nursed properly he might “stumble and fall” and become, spiritually, like Mephibosheth, the child who was dropped by his nurse and was crippled in both feet for the rest of his life.  (2 Samuel 4 v4).

As we pray and work we trust God that the children will grow up in Christ and become mature believers.

Let us join Paul in saying -

“Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all

wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To

this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in

me mightily.” (Colossians 1:28,29)

A few teaching tips:

1.     Get their attention -  start telling an interesting story to capture their imagination and then get to the next step.

2.    Show them a need -   why question and answer because they are eager learners

3.    Set a goal – “today our goal is to find God’s answer to a problem in the Bible.”

Build relationships with the children in your group.  “Kids don’t care what you know until they know how much you care”.  Cultivate Christian love for every child you teach – best way to do this is to pray for each child by name.  Ask God to help you and to help them to have a good attitude towards each other.

Study, pray and understand the passage you are going to teach and trust the Holy Spirit to use you and reach the hearts of the children.

Bible talk for children

Bible talk – Mr. Sam Doherty’s book

(Bible talks for children nr. 2)

STICK TO THE RECIPE

TRUTH: God’s Word shows us the way of salvation. Be sure to follow

and obey it.

VISUALS:

A cook book, recipe cards (if you have them). Something you have made

using a recipe in the book – preferably something which children really

like.

A Bible. Four cards with the words TURN, ASK, ASK, READ. Use one

colour (white) for first two cards and another colour (green) for second

two cards.

Put cards inside Bible and produce them at the right time.

LESSON:

Do you boys and girls like chocolate oats cookies? I made it

myself, but I needed to follow exactly a recipe in this book (Show book).

Or sometimes I use recipe cards like these. Listen to all the things I put

in it (1 cup of sugar, ½ cup of milk, 100g of margarine, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, 3 tablespoons of cacao, 3 cups of oats and 1 cup of coconut). That sounds good, doesn’t it? Would you like to

have some? Perhaps you can do so afterwards.

But it was important for me to follow the instructions in the recipe book

exactly. What would have happened if I had left out the sugar? Or if I

had put vinegar in instead of milk! The result would have been a mess.

If I want the result to be good I must follow the recipe – exactly.

Did you know that God has given us a recipe book? It’s not a book with

recipes for food. It’s a book with the recipe for salvation – and recipes

for how we can live for the Lord Jesus. Here it is (Hold up Bible). And

we had better stick to those recipes or the result will be a mess for us –

not just in this life, but forever.

Do you know what God’s recipe is for salvation – to become a Christian?

It is very simple and has two ingredients. You can see them on these two

recipe cards (Show them):

1. TURN from your sin.

2. ASK Jesus Christ to save you.

Do you know what God’s recipe is for your life as a Christian? It is very

simple and also has two ingredients. You can see them on these two

recipe cards.

1. ASK Jesus Christ to help you live for Him.

2. READ your Bible and do what it says.

Don’t forget to read God’s recipe book and follow His instructions –

and the result will always be good.

The Bible says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the

man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34 v8).