I have been a Sunday School teacher for about 7 years and I have been involved with VBS (Vacation Bible School) for 5 years. I have worked with many kinds of children in this time. I group them into three different categories. First, the old Christians: the children who are born into Christian families and raised in a Christian manner for their entire little lives. Second, the new Christians. These are the children come with their parents who have only recently converted to Christianity and started coming to church. Third are the new Christians with no support. These are the bus ministry kids. In most cases these children have parents who do not pretend to be Christians, and do not reinforce any teachings we (the Sunday school teachers) gave their children. Every bit of godliness these kids learn is compacted into one hour once a week. There are many children and many situations, but they all need to be reached.
As a Sunday school teacher and VBS worker, I know very well that reaching and teaching children is hard work. Fortunately though, children are children and the approach to reaching them can be simple (simple doesn’t mean that there is no hard work).
As a very general overview, there are five major sections of Sunday School/VBS on which to focus:
- Lessons
- Crafts
- Snacks
- Games
- Decorations
“What?” you may say, “Only the lessons are really important. How can crafts, snacks, games, or decorations be that important to Sunday school?” It’s a valid question. The answer is: they are only as important if they are used to teach the lesson or help the children to remember the lesson. If the crafts, snacks, and games are used as time fillers and have nothing to do with the lesson or with any godly principles, they have little value. However, if used in a way to support and enhance the lesson, these supports can be as important as the lesson itself. Proof of their importance exists in the lives of adults who were once Sunday school students. To give just a few examples, one of the Sunday School teachers in my department can still recall a time when her old Sunday school teacher made locusts out of celery for the class snack to represent one of the ten plagues of Egypt. This lesson has stuck with her for over twenty years and she can still remember the lesson. Another teacher in my department remembers one of the decoration themes when she was a Sunday school kid about fifteen years ago. It was a simple garden/greenhouse theme, but she remembers how much she loved it and how it drew her in. For myself, I remember visiting a church near my house for a VBS when I was a kid. My favorite part was the crafts. I remember asking my father for a piece of sandpaper one night, so I could give my wooden bookends some extra work during craft time at VBS. This was twenty-five years ago, and I still remember how much I wanted to go to VBS to work with the crafts.
These examples show me clearly why every little thing a Sunday school teacher does can impact their students. Don’t discount any of it!
For the purpose of this blog, I’m going to focus just one of the five sections: Decorating. Why decorating?
First: It reaches children. The first glimpse of a well-decorated Sunday school room or VBS set is (excuse the term) magical. It’s the hook. It draws them in. Keep in mind that your amazing decorations need to be followed up by an exciting and engaging lesson, but good decorations set the stage and excite the children. Excited students are easier to teach than bored students.
Second: It’s fun! I love decorating for children’s ministry. I can use my imagination and the kids won’t criticize the strange things that I come up with. Also, if I make mistakes, the kids aren’t likely to notice or care.
Out of the five sections, decorating is probably my favourite. Based on my earlier story, you might have thought that my favourite would have been crafts. I kind of think that decorating is just what happens when you make kid’s crafts for so long. The crafts just get bigger and bigger until they start turning into props and murals. This is just grown-up crafting!
That being said, decorating can be a challenge. It takes time to pull together a plan and even more time to execute the plan. Decorating can also be expensive. Most Sunday school teachers have a limited budget to get the job done. Some Sunday school teachers have the added challenge of a Sunday school room in which they are not allowed to use staples, tacks, or tape.
A challenge that a lot of us face is the complete lack of artistic talent, but I’ll let you in on a little secret. I have no artistic talent. Fortunately, I found out after years of decorating anyway that I didn’t have to have artistic talent to put together a fun Sunday school room or VBS set (it sure would have been helpful though).
My goal is to share as many decorating ideas in both Sunday school and VBS as I possibly can that you can use regardless of the challenges you might face.
Let the decorating begin!
