When You Have an Epic Teaching Fail

When you have an epic fail…

Or even a semi-epic fail.

Like I had. Last week.

You’d think after working with kids so many years, I’d get it. I would know beforehand whether something would work or not. But I got it wrong.

See, last week was my turn to teach the verse and the lesson in Sparks. The lesson was on S is for Savior – The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world – 1 John 4:14. I got the bright idea of putting each of the words of the verse on a different piece of card stock, handing them out to the Sparkies and letting them put “themselves” in order. Let’s just say this: energetic/restless kids, too many words, too small of a space. That tells my story.

But we struggled through the process and got to the lesson itself which, thankfully, went much better.

If you’re in children’s ministry – you’ve been there. You’ve also had those moments – whether it’s a lesson that, though well-planned, suddenly seemed like it was flying over everyone’s head, an object lesson that didn’t work, the game that no one “gets,” or the activity/craft that turned out to be too complicated and confusing.

What do you do?

1. Don’t panic. Remain calm. Kids are very forgiving. Don’t make the situation worse by getting flustered.

2. Be open. Don’t be afraid to tell the kids, “This isn’t working, we’ll do something else.” Again, kids are very forgiving.

3. Move on. I remember one time in Trek, the game director told everyone to remove their shoes for a game. Well, five seconds of 40 middle schoolers standing in their sweaty socks was all it took for the game director to tell everyone to immediately put their shoes back on (and open the windows and turn on the fans). Don’t feel that you have to play the game because you wrote it on your schedule.

4. Be prepared. Plan enough activities for the night so that if you see one isn’t working, you can always replace it with the next one. That includes having a couple extra games ready if the ones you scheduled are over too quickly. Or a back-up plan if the video doesn’t work.

5. Get through it. If you can, finish the activity and then move on. Just remember not to attempt the activity again.

6. Laugh at yourself. Let the kids see you don’t take yourself too seriously. You now know that not all kinds of bleach can turn a glass of red-tinged water clear in spite of what the internet says.

7. Turn the “fail” itself into an object lesson. I remember one night at camp the Bible teacher dressed up as Elijah and planned to call fire down from heaven. (See 2 Kings 1:10). The skit would be elaborate with a counselor up in a tree, ready to lite a gas-soaked rag and allowing it to fall at the right moment. (I might add that the chapel service was outside with the branch over the lake for safety sake.) However, the gas-soaked rag, did not light as planned and instead of fire coming down from heaven a an unlit gas-soaked rag plopped into the lake.

Immediately the youth pastor doing the lesson said, “You know, kids, not everything we plan goes right, just like our skit tonight. We’re human. We make mistakes. But everything the Lord does always happens exactly how it’s supposed to happen. He does not make mistakes.

He turned a potentially bad situation into a teaching moment.

Be diligent in your preparation, but relax. You’ll have moments that don’t go according to plan. And when those moments happen, pray silently, asking the Lord to help you turn it into something positive.

And don’t do a Sparkie verse scramble with 40 energetic kids.

Seriously. I’m giving you fair warning.