Are your lessons getting stale or falling flat? Are people failing to engage? Do you feel like you are talking, and no one is listening? It happens! Don’t sweat it. There are a few easy ways to drive engagement in your lessons.
All it takes is a giant bin of Legos!
Let me explain how it worked for me. In a recent lesson series on Noah and how God gives us second chances, I decided to spice things up with a parallel activity.
What is a parallel activity? It is something that takes place during the duration of the lesson.
My lesson was about how God gives us all a job to do. The lesson was about how Noah built the ark with very specific instructions from God. Because Noah “did everything God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22) everything went well.
Before I even started my lesson I carried a large Rubbermaid container into the room and set it on the edge of the stage without saying anything about it. Instantly the room was a buzz as this was out of the norm. “What is in the bin?” Everyone wanted to know. The more you play it up the more excitement you build.
After building suspense I opened the bin and spilled the Legos across the stage.
I canvased the room to see who was the most enthusiastic about Legos. Though I was teaching adults many still loved Legos. Then I introduced why I brought in my Legos. We were going to have a Lego Master Builder Contest during my lesson. I asked who would like to show off their Lego-building skills. Again purposefully I tried to pick people in the room who would not normally participate in lesson discussion.
After selecting my Lego Master Builders I let them know what they would be building during my lesson, Noah’s ark!
Was it distracting? Not at all! I was thrilled to share the stage with people working diligently on building a hands-on example of what they thought Noah’s ark might look like. Believe it or not, the Lego Master Builders were listening to the lesson as I was teaching. They too interacted and answered questions while I taught and they built. The rest of the class was captivated too!
After the lesson, our class voted on their favorite Noah’s ark. Because they were all amazing we deemed it a tie! I had some prizes for all our Lego Master Builders.
One of our Lego Master Builders told me after the lesson, “We should do this more often. This was the most fun I have ever had!”
How much extra effort did it take? Almost none. All I had to do was load the Legos bin into my car before I left for church. There was no effort in cleaning up because everyone wanted to help.
Don’t have Legos? No problem. Do an artist challenge and have a few artists draw or paint their interpretation of the lesson while you teach. All you need is a posterboard, easels, markers, or paint.
What other ways have you creatively engaged your friends during a lesson?
For more ideas to help drive engagement check out our other blogs.
