RULES OF THUMB - ONE

Rule One

Over the course of the next few days, I will share with you a few simple rules of thumb when presenting a Gospel magic trick, object lesson, story or whatever you find yourself doing. If you use these guidelines, I promise you, your lessons will become more effective and you will be come more organized in preparing yourself to teach.
So, here's number one:

1. Research your lesson and study. You may need to make it more personal than what you read from a book or lesson manual. Keep in mind that it needs to flow with the rest of the theme for the day. Some people don't think that children's pastors are as learned as the other pastors at your church - unfortunately, many children's ministers fall into this false thinking themselves as they go about thier ministry. Nothing could be - nor should be further from the truth.

Just like any pastor, you ought to have a collection or library of reference works to use in doing research on a topic, key word, or scripture. Check out e-sword.net for a great, free, downloadable Bible software. It has many versions of the Bible, concordances, dictionaries, commentaries, topical studies and other cool study helps. You can always get online at biblegateway.com or blueletterbible.com

The point is simple, you cannot put into the heart of a child what is not already in your heart. So, study, research, pray and generate the message in your heart first!