Teaching Daniel 2 and 6 to Kids

This August, I had the opportunity to teach kids club 2 (Sunday school) twice. It’s a valuable thing, and a joy to me.

I wanted to share what we did because it went, as far as I can tell, really well! I wrote two skits, gave the kids a role in it, and they read it out and performed it a bit. Then we paused after two skit reads and we talked about what the point of the stories are. After that, we all went to kids club 1 and performed for them.

While I’ve found this really helpful, and most of the kids seem to like it, it does have its negatives as well. It’s a hard for those who don’t get a speaking role, and that’s a big downside of this sort of thing. Expanding in the future for more group roles would be wise.

A huge positive for me is that it forced me to condense the narrative, while keeping the essential plot and meaning as best I could. It’s a great practice for me, especially when one of my weaknesses is to be needlessly complicated as I teach or talk things through.

Teaching Sunday school, we need to see the kids in front of us, and where they are at. If you are like me, it’s helpful to have a goal that fits every week, regardless of what we are talking about. For me, I have two points I always want to hit.

1, The Gospel – Every Sunday, I want to talk about the Gospel. That should always be a given, but sometimes, the Gospel can easily be replaced with a moral takeaway. What we need to do or who we need to be like is central, and not what Jesus has done for us and who He is, and our need to trust Him.

2, Get the Story – When I teach, I’m not expecting the sort of intensive Bible study that I might in a Bible college. Yet, I do what them to engage with the Bible, expecting that God will be moving in their little hearts and minds. My goal is to lay a foundation that others (like parents, future youth leaders, and themselves) can build on the rest of their lives. There is likely no better way to do that at the age level of kids club than through presenting stories well. I want to get them invested in a narrative of the Bible (Daniel and the lion’s den, for example), and what the point of that story is and how it connects to the Gospel. If I do that well, God’s Word goes out, and it never comes back void. It may be decades before anyone sees genuine fruit in their lives from what the Spirit has been doing, but my job is to give the Word out!

As I write, it’s early in the morning and I wasn’t planning on doing this last night, so I think I will end this here. I hope it’s been helpful!

Below are scripts for both Daniel 2 and 6.