It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

The name Disorganised Sunday School is becaue I’m disorganised - I’m not naturally a planner or organiser, I work well (actually better) under pressure - so I usually plan at the last minute, I lose things, I change my mind and it is only by the grace of God that anything happens at all! Over the years though I have learnt to start Christmassing sooner, especially as I’m never working alone.

All that to say:
It is only the 9th November and Christmas scripts and Outdoor Activities are already up!

• There’s plenty of time to adapt the scripts to your situation. Are you filming on line? How many actors and how able are they? What is your setting is?

• You also have time to find props and costumes. Do you have a stash that you use every year? What ordinary household objects can you use?

• There’s also time to think about how you can reach your community with this? Do you have an outdoor space at home or in the church in which you could run a few activites? Could church families in your area each have one activity in each garden? Do you have an online platform where you could share a nativity story with people outside your church?

• It’s a good time to start praying. Is there a family or a friend you specifically want to reach out to this year? Ask God to show you the opportunities to share the gospel with your neighbours? Thank God for the church family and ask how you can get everyone involved in some Christmassy evangelism?

Tips for Online Sunday School

It’s not an ideal situation to be in - where you can’t safely teach kids in Suday School face to face. You can’t see if they’re engaging with you, activities are tricky to organise and impossible to supervise and it’s hard to ask or answer questions - a staple for Sunday Schools!

I’ve written, prepared and filmed somewhere over thirty online Sunday School lessons now - including a few in German which I’m still not fluent in - and, through trial and error, I’ve worked out some important questions to ask myself as I prepare.

For the Story

• Where does this happen? Who is there? What has just happened? What is about to happen?

• What is the main point of the passage? (You can find more detail on this step in my ‘How to …’ guide)

• What apects of the Bble passage need to be focussed on to get this main point across? (And if it’s a long passage what can you leave out without altering the story while still supporting the point?)

• How can you best tell the story? Reading the text (from the Bible or a kids Bible), acting it out, with pictures, with playmobile or lego figures? Write with the best possible method in mind and then work out how to make it happen afterwards.

For the Talk

• Would the youngest child watching be able to hear and understand the main point?

• For older children how can you break the main point into smaller sections?

• Can you predict any problems or difficulties with this message? If so help them to deal with them now.

• What would you like them to change in their life as a result hearing this main point? Tell them and ask them about how it might look in their lives.

For Prayers, Songs and Activities.

• Do they relate to your text and support the main point?

• Can they be done without requiring special equipment?

• Do they need parents help? How can you support parents in this?

Many, many prayers for you in producing online teaching for kids - you can check out the Digital Sunday School lessons I’ve made here:
Series 1: Healing
Series 2: You Can Trust God because

Feel free to use them as they are, to watch them for inspiration before making your own, or to edit the sections you need into your own videos. Happy Teaching!