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Newsletter
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No January 2006 |
November 2004
Newsletter: The Sunday School Offering and More Adult Resources:
September 2004:
“I Need Help!” and “Not Enough Money to do the Job.”
July 2004:
“The Summer Sunday School Doldrums!”
June 2004:
“How do I gain the interest of my pastor and leaders for Sunday School?”
May 2004:
Sunday School record-keeping and Teaching Teens
April 2004:
“A Disciplinary Code for Sunday School”
March 2004: "Changing the Culture of Sunday
School"
February 2004: “Church Education Ministries Appreciation”
and "CEM Budgeting"
January 2004: “Well Begun is Half Done” and “Ordering
Lesson Materials”
November 2003: "Getting started on the first
lesson!"
August 2003: “Help me understand this before I teach!”
and “Outlining the Lesson.”
July 2003: "Help me understand this before I
teach."
June 2003: "Developing a Lesson Plan for the
Adult Class"
May 2003: "Young Adult Sunday School - What is Truth?"
April 2003: "Senior Adult Sunday School - No One
Wants to be Promoted"
March 2003: "Relating to
Teens"
February 2003: "Who Should be Teaching the Older
Teens?"
January 2003: "Who Brought the Wiggle-Worms to Church?"
December 2002: "Promoting Sunday School"
November 2002: "Toddlers
& Babies" Also, "Quarterlies or not?"
Jump on board and subscribe...
You may subscribe by sending an email to the following address. Just click this
link, NCCEMSS-subscribe@smartgroups.com,
send the blank email and you will begin receiving the monthly newsletter in
your email box.
DECEMBER 2005 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday
School Teachers, Superintendents and Leaders,
No ‘happy
holidays’ here!! As Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, because it is the power for salvation...” (Romans 1:16).
From the NCCEM Board, let me wish you a very Merry Christmas! The next
e-newsletter will come in February 2006.
I would like
to encourage each of you to interact with this group and ask questions or send
in comments on the newsletters. This is a discussion forum and each post
is forwarded to everyone on the list. If you have topics of interest to
you with regard to Sunday School Ministry, then we would like to hear from
you. This is an entirely open forum even though I usually set forth a
piece each month.
Please look
out for information on NCCEM the convention coming up in the New Year.
This years convention will feature Stan Toler and Elmer Towns. The
convention dates are March 24-25.
For our
discussion this month I will continue with my versions of the presentations
given at a teacher training event in Clinton, NC. These sessions were
based on Howard Hendricks book Teaching to Change Lives (Seven Proven Ways
to Make Your Teaching Come Alive – Multnomah Publishers).
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Teaching to Change Lives |
Topic of the Month: The Law of the Communication! (Originally prepared by
Greg Long, member of the NCCEM Board, and presented by Paul F. Evans, NCCEM
board member)
Jesus Great
Commission involves making disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). The method he
envisioned for making disciples was teaching. The substance of that
teaching was everything that he had taught his disciples. There is a sense,
then, in which effective teaching is at the heart of evangelistic ministry,
because truly the job is not done until converts are full discipled. This
make Sunday school one of the most important evangelistic tools of the local
church.
Effective
teaching depends upon clear, effective and substantive communication.
Communication needs to be understandable, have serious, valuable, and helpful
content, and it needs to be well packaged and presented. Therefore, the
teacher’s mission is the clear, effective and substantive communication of
biblical and spiritual principles.
What is the
number one teaching problem in the church? Effective communication!
We just don’t communicate well from the pulpit often, and even less so in the
Sunday school classroom. We sometimes major on unimportant theology,
dissecting nuances in the text, touting a denominational distinctive or we
break things down to a level that the truths loose their contextual
meaning. Often teaching is either flashy to the point of being distracting
or mind-numbingly boring to the point of tears! Neither effectively
communicates the truth of God.
The English
word communication comes from the Latin word “communis,” meaning
“common.” Howard Hendricks said, “To truly impart information
requires the building of bridges.” Effort is required by teachers to find
or develop a sense of true and natural commonality with their students or
hearers. Teachers must be prepared to reach out in some way to their
students, to make a personal connection (in conversation and fellowship), to
understand their circumstances (through visitation), to create some level of
relationship (by being available), to develop respect (for the teacher, of the
student and for the Word), to earn the right to speak to them (through genuine
friendship).
There are three important places to build bridges between
the student and the teacher for effective communication to occur.
1. Intellect (thought).
The teacher has to make a connection on the intellectual level of the
student. This may require reaching up or reaching down in order to do
so. Teaching children is a totally different proposition to teaching
senior adults. Teachers have to work hard at connecting at an
intellectual level. In this case it is better if the teacher thoroughly
works through the process of analyzing the educational and intellectual
strengths and weaknesses of his or her group.
2. Emotion (feeling). The
emotional aura of teacher and students has to be a good fit. A powerful,
driving, enthusiastic teacher working with a group of laid-back unemotional
adults is doomed to frustration, and probably will fail at teaching the
class. On the other hand, a spiritually and emotionally alive class with
a boring and emotionally unexciting teacher is liable to diminish in numbers to
the point of having to disband altogether.
3. Volition (action). Every teacher needs to build a bridge to the
students through action. By this we mean that a teacher needs demonstrate
the truths he or she is communicating by consistent spiritual efforts and
commitment for themselves. What is not acted upon by the teacher is
likely to be received with indifference by the student. And if a teacher
does not live by the principle he teachers, he will not inspire or communicate
with his students.
Now if you want to communicate with others it involves
something you know. Therefore, effective communication means thorough
preparation, and a genuine pursuit of a greater knowledge of God and his word
on a personal level. Communication also involves something you feel.
Effective teachers teach with enthusiasm and passion. Dry and dull
communication from someone unaffected by what he is communicating will never
inspire learning. It will lead to a failure in the process of communication
when the teacher is not first impacted on an intellectual and emotional by what
he seeks to teach others! Every effective attempt to communicate is
negatively impacted when the communicator does not demonstrate what he is
communicating. Effective communication depends of something you are
doing!
Here is the summary of all of this. Before you attempt
to communicate you should know it thoroughly, feel it strongly, and be engaged
in doing it consistently. In this way you will be able to communicate it
intelligently, passionately, and practically
There is one other important principle of communication we
should briefly consider. The teacher’s commitment to the Word of God,
whether or not you are for real, will be reflected, in your values, in what you
prize (priorities), in where you invest your time, and your
money. So if the teacher does not invest his time, energy and
money in his students, his church and his commitment to God, the teacher will
come across as hypocritical and his communication hollow. Since integrity
is also reflected in what excites you, when the student sees enthusiasm in the
teacher reinforcing a strong and consistent value system he or she is more
likely to give careful consideration to what you are communicating.
Paul F. Evans
NC CEM Sunday School Coordinator
http://www.NCCEM.net
NOVEMBER
2005 SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
Sunday School Teachers, Superintendents and Leaders,
The year is fast coming to a close and the time for
Christmas programs is here. If your Sunday school (traditionally who
sponsors children’s Christmas programs in most churches) is going to do one,
now is the time to plan. In fact, you are really playing catch up at this
stage. Programs can be simple, so don’t try to imitate Broadway.
All you need to do is get the kids on the stage and they will be happy, so will
their parents and grandparents. Now here is a suggestion. Make this
an outreach for your church and Sunday school. Invite everyone you can to
come. Plan to serve refreshments afterwards. Most of us don’t do
formal outreach like we should, but throughout the year we have these “special”
events. Stan Toler says make them into an evangelistic productions and invite
people to your church.
For our discussion this month I will continue with my
versions of the presentations given recently at a teacher training event in
Clinton, NC. These sessions were based on Howard Hendricks book Teaching
to Change Lives (Seven Proven Ways to Make Your Teaching Come Alive –
Multnomah Publishers).
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Teaching to Change Lives |
Topic of the Month: The Law of the
Teacher! (Originally presented by Joyce Hodges Member of
the NCCEM Board)
If you stop growing today, you will stop teaching
tomorrow. It is the first principle of teaching that you cannot draw
water from a dry well. There has to be something there to be able to
effectively teach. A teacher is primarily a person committed to growing
and learning, before they are committed to teaching. In fact a desire to
teach is often the result of an insatiable appetite for knowing.
A flowing stream is a much more enticing source of drinking
water than a stagnant pond. This is true of certain people as well.
We have all sat in classes where the teacher rambled on endlessly following a
rote pattern of teaching that hasn’t changed in years. His style, his
materials and even his own spiritual experience are stagnant and
uninviting. If you want students to listen and become excited about what
you are teaching, your material must continue to fascinate and impact your
life. Your students should be able to see the life-giving effects of the gospel
as it impacts you.
Growth should be real including knowledge and depth of
commitment to God. It is not enough to have enthusiasm if you are not
increasing the breadth and depth of your understanding of truth, life and
experience with God. Growth means maturing. Maturing is a deepening
appreciation and experience of the things your are teaching, and of God and
your relationship with him. Growth is about which way the movement of
your life is taking. If everything about your life is pointed inward, and
everything is about you, then you are probably stagnating. The movement
of your life, your thinking, your social interactions, your spiritual vision,
your praying, etc. should all be moving away from yourself.
Jesus is the master teacher, and Luke says about him “…Jesus
grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52).
Even Jesus grew in every dimension of his personality in his endeavor to obey
the will of God.
Spiritual growth requires a persistent effort in the spiritual
disciplines that are so neglected today in the church. Prayer should be
regular, practiced often, persistent and enthusiastic. Reading the Bible
is essential to a deepening knowledge of God. It also needs to be read
regularly, often and not just for lesson preparation. Reading the Word in
the context of prayer is how we hear from God personally, and grow in the depth
of our relationship with him.
Intellectual growth is important in the Sunday school
teacher. Try to maintain a consistent study and reading program. Enroll
in continuing education courses--courses that will improve not only your
content, but also your skill in handling the Word of God. Training events
are often planned by the NCCEM and other good Christian Education organizations,
designed to develop the personal lives and skills of teachers. In this
respect Paul says, “Study and be eager and do your utmost to
present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause
to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing-rightly
handling and skillfully teaching-the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy
2:15). Paul seems to mean that through the careful study of the Word of
God, the teacher will not only develop himself, but become more and more
skilled at teaching the Word of God as well. John Milton Gregory give us
this warning, “The teacher must know that which he would teach….Imperfect
knowing must be reflected in imperfect teaching.”
The physical or material dimension of growth is important
too. This is particularly true of the Bible or Sunday school
teacher. The principles you teach are designed to be implemented in the
course of practical, daily Christian living, but the impact of the teaching is
going to be adversely impacted if the teacher shows no personal maturity in the
areas of practical Christianity and life. If the teacher cannot or will
not implement biblical principles in their daily lives (where it shows to the
students) then the students will be inclined to ignore the teacher and dismiss
his teaching. Here are some areas that the Bible addresses as important
areas for growth with respect to tangible Christian living, handling money,
correct attitudes towards material possessions, proper use of time, moral and
sanctified attitudes toward sexuality, controlled and vibrant thought Life,
correct attitudes towards food and diet, proper exercise and rest.
Your social life is also important to God. You cannot
influence people if you have formed no relationships. Teaching is a
social vacuum produces poor results and almost no sense of connectedness to
what is being taught. In fact, the first attachment the student will have
to what is being taught will begin with a sense of attachment to the
teacher. So ask, who are my friends? With whom do you fellowship?
It might be time to enrich your circle of friends, and make a greater effort at
getting to know your students.
Jesus says, “Everyone who is fully trained will be like his
teacher” (Luke 6:40b). This is the goal for any teacher, to have his students
become like him, to imitate him and therefore to put what is learned into
action. However, The teacher himself must first become like his own
teacher, Jesus Christ. Does this principle represent an exciting prospect
to you--or a frightening one? If we are excited about becoming more like
Christ then we are all the more likely to produce the same excitement in our
students, but if we are unconcerned about our being like him, and we are not
engaged in any effort to grow in our experience with God, then we are never
going to impact our students’ spiritual lives positively.
In closing her session where these principles were very ably
taught a few weeks ago in Clinton, NC, Joyce Hodges ended the session with a
question that you might think is offensive. “Are you FAT?” The
answer should be yes: Faithful, Available and Teachable.
These are the marks of a good teacher. In his book Teaching to Change
Lives, Dr. Howard Hendricks says, “The good teacher’s greatest threat is
satisfaction--the failure to keep asking, ‘How can I improve?’” After
today, our prayer is that you will be FAT and sassy (moving on with life and
vigor for the glory of God)!
Paul F. Evans
NC CEM Sunday School Coordinator
http://www.NCCEM.net
October 2005 Sunday School Newsletter
Sunday School Teachers, Superintendents and Leaders,
We had a very successful teacher training event last
Saturday in the Clinton PH Church, Clinton, NC. There were seven lessons
shared by members on the NCCEM Board which focused on effective teaching.
The PowerPoint presentations used for these sessions will soon be available on
this sight. Those of you who attended will be thrilled to know that they
are available to you so that you can use them for teacher training in your
local church.
In this e-newsletter I would like to share the information
from one of these sessions and each month for the next several months I will be
basing the e-newsletter on a different teaching principle that was a topic in
these lessons. These sessions were based on Howard Hendricks book
Teaching to Change Lives (Seven Proven Ways to Make Your Teaching Come Alive –
Multnomah Publishers).
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Teaching to Change Lives |
Topic of the
Month: The Law of Education!
Introduction Jeremiah 1:8; 15:20
Consider Jeremiah’s Sunday School Class/Teaching Experience!
The students were fiercely opposed to his message. His
own town’s people planned to kill him (11:18-23). They even dropped him
into a dry well. He was imprisoned and fed bread and water. But God had
warned him this was not going to be an easy class to teach. He would need
to finds ways to communicate with them.
So Jeremiah began to teach in an innovative way.
·
He
taught at the gate to the Lord’s house (7:1; 17:19).
·
He
taught as a street evangelist (11:6).
·
He
used object lessons… a linen belt that he buried until it got rotten (13:1-2),
from the potter’s house (18:1-12), a clay jar (19:1-2).
·
He
used his visions and dreams (I don’t recommend this, however, Jeremiah was able
to boast that he had special divine inspiration (24:1-2)!
·
He
wrote letters (29:1).
·
He
even wrote a book that the king cut up and which he wrote a second time (cf.
chapter 36)!
·
He
even bought some real estate when his country was at war on it (32:6)!
In other words, Jeremiah adapted his teaching to
communicate more effectively with his students because he recognized that there
were differences of dynamics involved in each class and situation.
Take Peter’s Sunday school class. One occasion his
students numbered over 3000. His approach was a public confrontational,
no-holds-barred lesson to a curious Jewish crowd on the Day of Pentecost
(Acts 2:12). Later on he held a private lesson with hostile Jewish
leaders who threatened them (cf. Act 4 & 5). Paul’s Sunday school
classes tended to be different too. On one occasion Paul taught a
spiritually hungry crowd who went home to check out the truth for themselves
(Acts 17:11). On another occasion Paul spoke to an elite and arrogant
group of Greeks who barely listened to what he had to say (Acts
17:16-34). They were virtually disinterested in his message.
Principle One
The nature of the learners changes from situation to
situation… even from one occasion to another within the same group. The
teaching environment is dynamic and teachers need to be prepared to adapt their
approach, sometimes on the fly! While teaching is about many things,
including our attitude, personal learning habits, approach and preparation, it
is also about learning is about the learner. Who they are your
students? What is their background (affluent/poor), attitude toward
knowledge or the message (interested or disinterested), educational level (well
educated/immature/uneducated, social status (professionals/blue collar),
personalities (confident/happy/melancholy), group dynamics (is their a dominant
personality/interactive/quiet).
Effective
teaching must take the learners into account.
“The way
people learn determines how you teach.” (Hendricks 39)
In other words, teaching is not all
about the teacher… YOU!! It is not all about your lesson and
material. It is about what your students take away with them when the
lesson is over. Therefore, the reason, or motivation for teaching should
be learner oriented. You want to impact the learner so that the
student experiences a change in their lives.
Teaching is the learner is and what the students takes
away. The ultimate goal is that the learner demonstrates godly and
victorious Christian living. The bible teacher cannot be a coach,
shouting directions from the sidelines. Instead the teacher must be a
leader discovering truth with the student, and applying that truth to their own
lives as an example of how it works. The teacher is more like the team
captain. He is in the game!!
Principle Two
Truth is discovered, not force-fed. The teacher must
first find ways to engage the learner for there to be discovery.
Discovery will lead to implementation because this will lead to ownership by
the student. The teacher’s roles is to lead the process of
discovery. Leading discovery requires insight and knowledge (preparation)
into the topic, enthusiasm for it (personal experience and passion), correct
communication style and approach (learner-oriented).
Any good teacher will figure out the starting point.
No the starting point for teaching, but for learning. It is like
arranging a meeting, and the student gets to pick the place. Teaching has
to begin where the student is.
Learning is not an event, it is a process involving first
discovery (right starting place), assimilation (realization of how this impact
their lives, and includes acceptance of the truth), behavior (implementation of
what is learned). There really is a Learning Curve!
Learning is a journey with a starting point and a
destination.
Learning, according to Hendricks, involves 4 major stages
(cf. 41-43).
·
Unconscious
incompetence (ignorant and not knowing it).
·
Conscious
incompetence (ignorant and knowing it).
·
Conscious
competence (knowing and knowing that you know).
·
Unconscious
competence (knowing and applying what you know without thinking about
it).
The purpose of teaching is to move the student through these
stages to unconscious competence with respect to the teaching and principles of
God’s Word.
To begin the process the teacher must identify the ‘points
of ignorance.’ These are truths the students need to hear, learn and act
upon. They are Christian, biblical and spiritual principles that will
change and mature their lives in Christ. But bringing attention to
ignorance inevitably involves tension. Getting people to realize and
accept their ignorance may produce either a positive or negative
response! Nevertheless, this is the beginning of the learning process,
and it requires the teacher to shake people up a bit… to invade their comfort
zone, to confront attitudes, lifestyles, and habits sometimes, and to gently
come along side (encouragement). These all require learner oriented
approaches so that the student is confident that you mean to do him/her good
not harm. However, at the beginning, when the teacher raises the
awareness of ignorance, the whole learning experience can go either way…
acceptance or rejection. But if there is never tension, there is probably
never going to be any learning. There will be teaching, but not
learning! Learning involves accepting a challenge to learn something
previously not consciously known.
Principle Three
How do you now engage the process to of learning to get to
full competence? First, know your long term the goal for teaching. Have a
vision for your class, or group of students. Know what level of spiritual
competence your want to raise them to.
Where do you want your teaching to take the learner?
This is the overarching framework for your teaching expressed in terms of the
desired outcome! In other words, “What are you trying to do?” (cf.
Hendricks 43).
Know your plan. There are three universal principles
in a teaching vision or plan (as argued by Hendricks).
Teach People How to Think: Ordinary people don’t think
deeply anymore. Generally we avoid over stimulating our brains (usually
by sitting in front of the TV). The Bible is interested in renewing the
mind because that leads to spiritual and moral transformation according to the
Bible (Rom 12:2). Spiritually dormant minds can be squeezed into the world’s
mold (J. B. Philips translation). The role of the teacher is to encourage
the learner to think through things biblically, spiritually and morally.
The teacher will do this by demonstrating enthusiasm for learning the Word of
God, by exposing the learner to biblical concepts that challenge their
lifestyles, the prevailing culture, their presuppositions, ideas, accepted
norms, and even their personal convictions. The teacher will need to
personally demonstrate biblical principles in their own life.
Teach People How to Learn: There is a terrible dearth in
learning skills in America to day. We are big on teaching but pitiful
learners. The process of learning is called synthesis. It is
when the learner takes what is being taught understands it for himself, accepts
it as valid and applies it to his life. The teacher must lead the learner
into an examination of truth and its relationship to them. “What does
this have to do with me and my life?” “Why is this relevant to me?”
The teacher needs to lead the learner in an examination of all if the parts of
a given truth by breaking it down, and then by reconstructing the whole in such
away that the learner can understand how it works and apply it. Breaking
down truth through examination lets the learner discover it for themselves.
As a side benefit to this process, the learner learns the
truth and the process of discovery at the same time. The learner gains
ownership of truth, because they have discovered it for
themselves and not just had it crammed into their heads! Allows the
learner to intelligently judge the conclusion, and whether they are valid and
right. At the same time the learner can go on to independent discoveries
by applying the same techniques of examination.
Teach People How to Work: It is important that what is learned
is put into action. Learning is only complete when action is taken.
Therefore, learners will only keep what they act on. Learners will only
keep their zeal for learning when they feel the stimulus and joy of the impact
on them.
The teacher must follow through with a challenge the learner
can embrace and respond to, one that asks for a change in their lives.
This step requires an environment of accountability. This is not always
exclusive personal accountability to the teacher,
but group accountability based upon fellowship and personal
relationships with others who love God in that learning environment. The
teaching environment should be where people share testimonies, in formal and
informal ways, where the learner is accountable for putting discovery to work
in their daily lives, and where a teacher should be able to ask learners about
how they are making application of their discoveries.
Conclusion
From the perspective of this lesson, teaching must have an
eye on the learner. Learners are different, with different needs,
attitudes, personalities and backgrounds. Teaching is a process which begins
where the learner is, and with a definite purpose in mind. Teaching
should be designed to lead the learner into discovery, and hold the learner
accountable for applying what is learned.
Paul F. Evans
NC CEM Sunday School Coordinator
September
2005 Sunday School Newsletter
Sunday
School Teachers, Superintendents and Leaders,
The
kids are back at school, mom’s are breathing easier. Dad’s don’t have a
clue what is going on… life is good! It is the fall or will be very soon,
and temperatures will be dropping to reasonable levels.
This
summer has been hard on a lot of people, but especially those who have been
affected by the hurricane, Katrina. This might be a good time to teach
the children in Sunday school about prayer and giving. Try some video
clips and reports or some pictures of the devastation. Help them to
understand that the people need to know that God loves them.
Topic of the Month: Multimedia in the
classroom!
I was
privileged to go to a Kids Ministry Convention this last weekend which showed
how some interesting things could be done with a computer and some
pictures. Most of us now have computers or access to one. If you
are reading this e-mail and have Windows XP you have access to some powerful tools
for your classroom. You may even have a computer in your classroom.
Multimedia presentations can be very effective, but daunting to put
together. And yet there is something about music and pictures, or video
and music or pictures and dialogue that captures the attention of children.
It is
easy at first to turn away from this e-mail and say I can’t do that stuff in my
classroom… but here are a few ideas you can try. First, decide if you
have access to a computer, notebook and a monitor or TV in your
classroom. Most of the time classrooms are small enough for kids to be
able to gather around a TV or a large screened monitor, you don’t need a
projector to rudimentary multimedia. Your cost just dropped $1500.
Newer notebooks have a function key with the symbol ‘Fn’ (usually blue).
By holding that and hitting the display mode keys (usually a symbol of a
monitor also in blue like the ‘Fn’ key) you can change the display mode to send
a video signal to a monitor or TV. If you have S video on the computer it
will be audio and visual. Using an inexpensive adapter connect that to
the TV and you can do multimedia in a small class setting using your
computer.
If you
don’t have access to a computer in your classroom, but you have a DVD burner on
your computer at home, you can make videos at home using Microsoft Windows
Movie Maker and burn it to a DVD. There may be some intermediate steps
you have to take, but let one of your teens show you how! Bring your DVD to
church to play on the TV and DVD Player in the classroom as an introduction to
your lesson.
Secondly,
if you do not have access to a computer at church, do not have a DVD burner,
don’t know how to use one, don’t want one, don’t want to run a program to make
a video, then here is another suggestion. Use you computer to produce
slides printed on paper which you can use in your lesson on Sunday morning.
Now let
me tell you how you can do these things. Let me begin with the simplest
first. Using pictures in your lesson on Sunday morning. Since you
are reading this I know you have a computer and access to the internet.
If you want a snappy intro. to your lesson, why not search for some good
pictures that capture the essence of the lesson you plan to teach. The
pictures can be from church functions, life, scenes, Bible land pics, satellite
pics. (great for a creation story (NASSA has some beauties). Save
them to your hard drive in a folder as jpeg files, in a location where you can
find them (try pointing, at the pic’s right mouse click, save target as,
navigate to the location you want (here’s a tip: give them a friendly name,
like ‘Noah’s Ark’) hit OK). When you have the pictures you want for the
lesson gathered into a single folder, go to PowerPoint and select insert, go to
new album. When it opens the window go to the folder where you saved your
pics. click on a pic, or hit ctrl+A to select all, and then hit OK.
PowerPoint
will open a window to allow you to lay out your slides. For
instance select 4 pics. to a page. Hit OK. Now you have a presentation
all done for you in about 30 secs. Rearrange what you need to get them in
the right order for the lesson. Go to print, select print slides, in
color, print… and there you have your pictures for class. All you need now
is a cassette or CD player some worship music and you can go multimedia,
showing the kids the pics. While the music plays in the background you,
tell them the story for that lesson using the pics! If you drop out all
the computer and PowerPoint stuff you can use pics. found in a picture Bible,
or from just about any other source. Telling the story in a way that is more
interesting than just reading it from the lesson book is the point. The
big thing here is you don’t need a projector to make this work! One last
thought why not substitute pics. for objects which relate to the story and
lesson, showing each object and even demonstrating or wearing it as you teach.
For
those of you who like the techie stuff, let me suggest you try playing around
with Windows Movie Maker. If you have Windows XP you have Movie Maker
(start, accessories, entertainment). First let me tell you what you can
do and can’t do. Movie maker will require a computer to show the results,
usually on Windows Media Player, so make sure you have the latest version
(10.0) right now because some of the older versions won’t show the WMM
files. If you have still pics. WMM will allow to import them from a
picture folder much the same way described above. So find and save your
pics. to a designated location first. Import them to WMM (select the blue
film icon in the tool bar at the top of the WMM window, it will open 4 panes
views. In the left frame will be an option for ‘importing’ pictures, video and
sound. Navigate to your pics select what you want and import them.
They will appear as thumbnails in the middle panel. The right panel is a
preview panel to let you know what you work is looking like.
Now
simply select the timeline view in the bottom of the window, and then drag and
drop any imported item into the timeline below, in the order you want them to
appear. You can pass the cursor any item and drag the arrow to lengthen
or shorten the time they display. Got music? Imagine you have a
song that tells the story or relates to the lesson. You can find pics.
that fit the song and create a video intro. to the lesson to show on your TV or
large computer monitor. Import music files from your computer or CD in
the same way you imported pictures (you’ll need to rip tracks from a CD using
Windows Media Player, it automatically saves them in the My Music
folder). Drag and drop a music file on the time line and it
will show beneath the pics. as a long squiggly line! Try it out… hit the play
button and your pics will show one after the other (in the preview pane) while
the music plays. Lengthen or shorten the song in the same way you did the
pics. Move the pics. around until they match the song and words… all on
the time line with the drag and drop procedure. Here’s a tip: if you watch
the cursor on the time line move you can pinpoint the exact moment certain
words are sung or verses and choruses begin. That way you can position
you pics. to coincide with the music more precisely.
Now you
can fancy all of this up with transitions, effects, titles, and so on.
You need to play with it to see what it will do. But the point is you now
have a video for you classroom computer. Now go to the file menu and save
the movie using ‘save as movie’ option. Save it to the hard drive first.
Select the location, save in the best quality you can. Now when you open
that file it will play in Windows Media Player. If you right mouse click
you can send it or burn it to a CD-R or RW and take it to church for Sunday
school. You can add narration to this project to tell the story if you
have a microphone connected to the computer. Look for the narration
option in WMM.
My
point is, if you are reading this on a computer with your e-mail program, you
already have the tools to add some degree of multimedia to your lessons.
Kids love it. It also works with adults too. It’s a way to bring
the lesson to life.
You
don’t need a 30-minute video. Keep it simple and let it enhance your
lesson not dominate it!
Paul F. Evans
NC CEM Sunday School Coordinator
August 2005 Sunday School Newsletter
Sunday
School Teachers, Superintendents and Leaders,
Some of
us have recently returned from the IPHC General Conference in Oklahoma City,
where it was hot and dry! Things went well in the Fine Arts
Festival. Congratulations to Charles Boyd who did a masterful job!
The kids put out some incredible ministry over the three days of
competition. It was quite remarkable. If the talent this year is
anything to go by, the future looks bright for ministry in our local churches.
There
have been some changes in our Church Education Ministries General Church
leadership. Doug Beecham, former Director of CEM has now been assigned
the portfolio of World Missions Ministries. We will certainly miss his
insightful and steady leadership, and the great emphasis on discipleship
through teaching that he has championed. Thank you brother Beecham for
encouraging us to go deeper and to stretch ourselves in Sunday school.
Talmadge
Gardner is taking over as General CEM Director. Bro. Talmadge, those of
us who are seeking to develop strong Sunday schools, emphasize teaching
ministries and who are endeavoring to make disciples, would like to be among
the first to welcome you aboard!
Topic of the Month: The Philosophy of Sunday School
Ministries