Read your Bible
The first and most important part of any children’s talk is getting to know your material. Read the passage in your Bible (the reference is given at the top of each page). Reread and reread it until you know the story well. This cannot be over emphasised. The one thing which this website does not do is to retell each Bible story. Why not? Well first of all it is unnecessary. The Bible is God’s word and it should remain the source of our material. There are also many good children’s Bibles which you can use and therefore it would be a waste of time and energy.
The Hooks
For each Bible story there are several hooks. What are these? They are ideas which you can use to enliven your story. Ideas for different ways of presenting and telling the story. Many people find it difficult to be original or to do something different or unusual, so what you have here is a series of ideas. You might select one hook as your main idea. You might combine more than one or decide to modify the hook – GREAT. However, do not be tempted to use all of them. That would be overkill and can lead to distraction. The important part of your talk is the story and the teaching behind it. The hook should stimulate the children’s interest but not satisfy their interest.
Why Hooks?
The ideas are called hooks because you as a storyteller need to initially catch the children’s interest. You are a ‘fisher of men kids’ and need to initially hook the children in. A boring opening will send them to sleep. We’ve all experienced that situation and it is so important not to repeat it.
Types of Hooks
Many of the hooks are lists of everyday objects which you can use as illustrations while you are telling the story. Others might be a game or a challenge which you can use as an introduction. If you use these as an introduction to the story make sure that they are not the most interesting part. They must also not take over by being too long or complicated. Your introduction should be short and sweet. Think of a meal. The starter should not become the main course!
Tips and warnings
These are there for your benefit. I have given these after years of experience telling children’s talks. Please accept them. They are given to you as a way of helping you, they are not to spoil your fun or to hinder you. They are what I have found out through trial and error. There are also safety warnings. You need to consider these. Having fun should not mean putting a child at risk of an accident!
Questions
When using DVDs or visuals, consider how you begin to tell the story. To help you there are a series of relevant questions to encourage children to reflect (usually the last hook in each section). Many are rhetorical questions but you need to judge whether you want a discussion and how much discussion – or whether you want to use the questions as a thought-provoking introduction.
The questions are followed by a short sentence which can be used to bridge the introduction to the story, while at the same time acknowledging that it is a biblical story.
Language
There are many words and phrases which we as Christians use and understand which are meaningless to other people. If you choose to use words or phrases which young children do not understand then you may as well be talking in another language. There is also a danger of using antiquated language which again is meaningless. By all means use biblical terms but make sure that you give a short explanation to its meaning. When you do give an explanation however, it should not distract from the story or become the main learning objective of the talk. You must also have in mind the length of your talk (see “How to give a children’s talk” about length of children’s talks).
My advice on all of this – KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Plan ahead
Don’t leave everything to the night before. If you are using this site to consider ideas then you will need time to be able to source the resources and 9.00pm on a Saturday evening is not the best time to acquire things for Sunday morning. None of the resources are difficult to get but you might need a day or two to obtain them. Plan ahead.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER
Do not ever read out part of this site to children. Not even the lesson aims or the applications. This website was not written for you to read out so please do not do so. You need to speak to the children and you will not relate to them by reading out adult material.