This month’s Teach the Word article is by Pastor Kurt Wetzel. Pastor Wetzel is a 2016 Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary graduate. He serves at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Nampa, ID, and as the coordinator for the Commission on Worship in the Pacific Northwest District.
Nuts and Bolts on How to Do It
My church members and I sort of stumbled upon an extended experiment with intergenerational Bible instruction. We’ve been learning through the process. There have been plenty of flops. But we have also discovered some things that tend to work better in our setting when we bring youth and adults together for the education hour. Perhaps some of our gleanings will be helpful for you in your ministry setting.
Kids can get squirrely pretty quickly (or totally checked out). We’ve found that keeping the education hour with kids to less than an hour (more like 45 minutes) is about right. It forces us teachers to keep things moving and make our words count. For this kind of setting, we’ve discovered that it’s much better to break up the time with different media, activities, and other opportunities for movement, with shorter periods of lecture. Repetition is the mother of all learning, and it can be a great tool to keep the main focus in front of everyone through the lesson.
If you’d like to try intergenerational instruction in your ministry setting, feel free to experiment. Some weeks may flop. Shake it off. Keep trying. It’s actually a lot of fun. And creativity is your friend as you try different educational techniques to teach and review the timeless truths of Scripture with the people you serve.
Here are some simple suggestions of effective things you could try.
Children’s lessons
Children’s lessons are a great way to engage kids during worship. The same is true during Bible study. After the first section of the study, I’ve invited the kids to the front like we do in worship for a children’s lesson. Kids feel special getting invited forward, and it gets them moving. But the children’s lesson isn’t just for the kids. It’s for the adults too. While they might initially think it’s cute, I’ve found that adults often reflect on the point from the children’s lesson more than the other material in the study.
And that’s probably because a children’s message is intentionally simple, which makes it easy to understand and easy to remember. Children’s lessons during Bible study are a great time to incorporate object lessons and illustrations that present the main truth in a concrete way. Or if there’s a doctrine you’re covering in that study, the children’s lesson can be a time to tell a corresponding Bible story in a compelling way that involves the kids while also teaching the adults.
Videos
Attention spans continue to shorten for both kids and adults. Incorporating “commercials” in our presentations can help refocus attention and reignite engagement. Using technology and different media is one effective way to do that. These “commercials” don’t need to be off topic, though. Quite the opposite. You want to select videos that summarize, reinforce, or add to the topic you’re covering in meaningful ways.
YouTube has many videos that are useful resources for telling a Bible story designed for kids, while engaging the older students too. Videos can introduce a Bible story or doctrine, review a teaching, or even give students a little break to process what’s been covered so far while they watch the video.
Learning activities
After presenting the points of part of a lesson, it’s helpful for students of all ages to take some time with learning activities. These exercises help the truth sink in. They can be opportunities to get up and move around, allow students to engage with one another, and begin applying Bible truths to their own lives.
Several educators in my congregation have taught me some different ways to engage all ages with learning activities. One time when we were studying the Lord’s Prayer, we had every participant write down a particular thing they wanted to say to God (or have an adult write it for them if they couldn’t write yet). One person reviewed and compiled those petitions and prayers of thanks and then read them as our closing prayer. Another time, participants wrote their key takeaways from a lesson onto sticky notes and stuck them to the glass at the back of church. We allowed for some longer transition time so they could read what others had written. Students can vote on a certain item (like which of the supplied promises from Jesus is especially meaningful to them right now) and meet in groups with others who voted for the same one to compare their reasons and report back to the group. Online resources like Kahoot! are free learning platforms students can use to participate and engage with the content you’re teaching.
Writing
Writing is a simple but effective way to help students remember key points—tell them to write it down. While it’s true for all ages, it can be especially helpful to address the young ones directly. It can serve as another “commercial break” to refocus attention. You could mention at the beginning of the study that there are certain questions they’ll want to listen for and fill in during the time together. Then, when the time comes, peak their attention again by saying, “Kids, you’re going to find the answer to the next fill-in-the-blank here.”
We’ve actually incorporated this concept into our worship services (another intergenerational setting for spiritual growth). Our kids’ questions allow us to especially highlight something we want them to listen for in the next reading from God’s Word or a key truth from the creed or another part of the service. Kids get excited about filling it all in or seeing if they can guess the correct answer before it comes. Interestingly, we’ve had to print extra copies because adults take them and fill them out too!
Preparing for and leading intergenerational Bible studies can feel like a lot of extra work, and you don’t always hit a home run. I’ve found, though, that it can be a lot of fun. And we grow together with all generations in beautiful ways over the Word because the Spirit is working as you study the Scriptures together. There’s so much you can try and use as you experiment in your own setting. Maybe some of the options mentioned in this article could work for you. Trust me, those 45 minutes (or more if you choose) will fly by!