I’m always thinking about ways to “teach” using traditions (things we do every week on purpose).
Every week in Main Street (HWC’s children’s ministry on Sunday morning) we sing a couple of songs, celebrate birthdays from the week before and the coming week, relay any necessary announcements, chat and see how things are going with the students as a whole, teach the story, and send them to their small group classes. I’ve been wanting (for a long time) to help the students to learn how to navigate their way through their Bibles. And nothing contributes to this incredible lifelong gift like weekly practice.
Starting this past Sunday, prior to the Bible story time, all the Main Street students grab a Bible off the shelf (or eventually, open their own Bible) and we help them find the location of the story we are about to share and help come to life. Hopefully this weekly practice helps the students be more and more proficient at locating Bible passages.
Update: We’ve been doing this tradition the past couple of weeks and it has been going well. It takes an extra 5 minutes from the limited hour-long programming we do, but the students are learning how to navigate their Bibles. I’d say that’s worth 5 minutes!
