Building a Successful Teaching Team
Ask children's pastors what are their greatest needs in children's ministry, and most will say getting enough qualified workers is among their top three concerns. Our hectic society puts time at a premium, and most people feel they are already stretched to the limit. Yet, despite busy schedules, many concerned Christians want to contribute time and resources to expand the kingdom of God. How can we help them be involved in Christian education? One answer is team teaching.
A team consists of people who share teaching tasks but are not responsible for the whole program. Consider the class secretary who welcomes the children and helps them feel at ease as soon as they arrive. This person can keep track of birthdays and record attendance, along with other pertinent information. Secretaries can send cards, make phone calls, put up bulletin boards, and help prepare teaching materials.
Other team contributions include: Preparing an interest center, presenting an object lesson or a puppet play, leading worship, preparing presession or craft activities, or leading Bible review games. Team members can be part of a drama team who make occasional visits to the classroom as Bible or modern-day characters.
When recruiting for your children's department, remember some of these benefits of team teaching:
- Teaching materials and resources are multiplied through the contributions of various team members.
- Larger classes can be taught more effectively.
- Team members can learn new teaching methods from each other.
- Fellowship opportunities are increased as people work together.
- Team teaching helps prevent overload or burnout.
- Team teaching utilizes the natural abilities and spiritual gifts of several people.
- Team teaching provides in-service training for the novice teacher.
- Discipline problems are reduced as more workers attend to the needs of individual children.
- Substitute teachers are conveniently built into the system as team members can fill in for the lead teacher. This also provides the children with a sense of stability and continuity when the lead teacher needs to be absent.
- Workers can rotate responsibilities allowing them opportunities to develop new teaching or support skills.
Recruiting your team
A key element in recruiting is sharing your vision for children's ministries with your congregation. Explain your goals and vision, as well as the classroom responsibilities. Teacher guidelines and ministry descriptions are a good idea–even for small churches. Organization and planning speak well of your ministry and your church's commitment to children.
When recruiting, look for people who will be good role models for the children–those who have character, enjoy children, and will be good team players. Better to wait for the right person to fill the gap than to make a hasty selection. Also, avoid trying to persuade people that they must teach. It is best to present the need and the opportunity to serve and then pray the right decision to be made.
As a policy, some churches require anyone who wants to work with children to be involved in some other kind of church ministry for at least 6 months before serving in the children's department. This allows time for the leadership to observe the level of Christian commitment, faithfulness in ministry, and suitability of the individual to work with children. It also allows time to check references for those who are new to the community or to your church. Every church should have safeguards in place to protect the children in their care.
When recruiting a new person for your team, be specific about your needs. Do you need: A lead teacher? A support person to work with small groups of children? Someone to plan and prepare craft activities? Give recruits suggested periods for service in various positions. This makes transitions and changes easier and often eliminates the problem of random dropouts.
Designate one person to serve as the lead teacher who will serve as a coordinator, making sure that all team members understand their assignments and the classroom is set up and ready to go. Putting a new recruit with an excellent, experienced teacher provides a perfect opportunity for growth and in-service training. This method of teacher training gives new teachers the opportunities they need to develop their teaching skills.
Monthly planning meetings provide time for workers to receive training and to pray, plan, and fellowship together. This is essential for developing a cohesive teaching unit and for identifying lesson aims, planning the lesson and application, and dividing the various responsibilities. Many lasting friendships have grown out of such meetings where people plan and minister together.
Team teaching is biblical and it is a practical way to build your Sunday school and provide workers. Most important, it will lead to the spiritual growth and development of the children of your church.
