Using and Promoting Good Resources

This year we needed someone to teach half time in our Sunday School classroom for three-year olds. I have found that to be a wonderful – and often fun – challenge. The three year olds I teach in Sunday school are wonderfully creative and fun but I need to be ready to adjust my lesson on the fly. A few weeks ago the lesson I had prepared began with each child getting a paper figure of a child to represent themselves. I wrote their names on the figures. Then I handed out the figures for their family members --moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and babies. That’s when things started to go in ways I didn’t plan for.

Gabbie decided to add 3 bunnies to her family. She was pretty determined that her family needed bunnies because they have bunnies at home. So, OK. Gabbie’s paper family got bunnies. After seeing Gabbie’s pets, August realized that his family needed to had pets too, even though he didn’t have any actual pets at home. Well, OK – here are some pets for his family. Noah thought that his family was incomplete so he drew a heart on each figure in his family. After getting all of this sorted out it was time to go to the story circle to hear the story. Noah was determined that this paper family needed to hear the Bible story too and took them to the story circle. This is a fairly typical Sunday for this group. Actually, this is a pretty good one.

That’s why I like to have some other tricks up my sleeve. So when I teach my three year olds, I usually bring along a couple of issues of The Little Christian.

The Little Christian is a magazine published by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that comes in the mail 10 times a year. Each issue includes a Bible story, a song with motions, an article about children in the world, things to look for, and more. It is fun to read with a child.

I wanted parents to know about this resource so I wrote an article for the church newsletter. I don’t think anyone paid a great deal of attention to the article, even with my excellent (and well-written) recommendation. I decided to follow the lead of our worship planning committee. They wanted to make the new devotional book from Faith Alive, Seeking God’s Face, available to congregation members . They purchased 10 copies and set them out in the Fellowship room for our congregation to see and purchase. All ten copies sold in 3 weeks!

So that’s my plan. I will place The Little Christian magazines I had collected on the coffee table in our Fellowship Room. I’ll add papers with subscription information and bulletin announcements encouraging people to take a look. I’ll see if this brings some interest from parents or grandparents.

What have you done to make your congregation aware of good materials? What works for you?