I love using props and gimmicks to help make a message stick in the mind of a preteen. I have to admit – it’s an idea I stole…from Jesus. He’d use things that were in people’s everyday experience to help explain abstract concepts. He uses seeds and soil, water and clouds, children and widows as His “object lessons”. And while some just love utilizing stories to demonstrate points, I just love utilizing objects and activity. For those of you, like me, that are searching for more ideas for utilizing props and gimmick, or for those of you who want to strengthen the “object lesson” muscle in your ministry, here’s something that worked for me.
Recently, I utilized an idea that elicited a “COOL!” from the audience. It was a 5th grade boy who shouted it out. A boy who knows cool. If he thought it was cool, then it probably was. Here’s how it went down:
I was teaching a series about faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, and what it produces in the life of a believer. And while utilizing a vine and fruit to make the point made sense 2000 years ago, I thought it was a little bit outside the everyday experience of most of the preteens in my ministry. How could I communicate the same idea in a way that would really resonate with them? And then it hit me. When I stick a game into a Wii, something pops up on the screen – and what’s on the screen in directly related to what I put in. And so…during the whole series, as I taught about faith in Christ, and what it produces in our lives…I had a Wii on the stage, plugged in to a power supply.
To start with, I found a blank screen shot of the Wii home page on Google Images and put it on the screen (as though the Wii was actually attached to the screen).
I showed different games and asked what will appear on the screen if I put this (holding up each game one at a time) into the Wii? After explaining that each game PRODUCES something different on the screen, I asked, “ If I put in Mario Kart, would you expect it to PRODUCE Wii Play on the screen? (no) Why not?”
Then I held up a CD that had “REAL FAITH” printed on it and asked, “What if I have real faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior? What would that PRODUCE?”
From there, I placed the “Real Faith” CD into the Wii and my tech person put other pictures on the screen – the Wii home page with pictures of what I was teaching about in the “game spots.” Each week during the series, we added to what we had the week before. This provided a great way to review what was taught in previous weeks as well.
This is a GREAT idea! You have taken the biblical principle and illustrated it marvelously in a way that young people can easily understand in our culture. Thanks for sharing this!