The Tabasco Company was having trouble moving their sauce. They called a big meeting to increase sales with the intent of getting consumers to use more of their hot and spicy product. A secretary was in the room and suggested that they make the hole where the sauce comes out of the bottle bigger. They did, and that simple change more than doubled the use of Tabasco sauce.
We get children for approximately 3 hours a week, if they go to two services, so we need to pour as much of the Word and Spirit into them as we can. Here are some tips:
1. Start on time and put a time limit on each activity and stick to it.
2. When doing the necessary non-spiritual things (snack, restroom break, giving prizes or candy, collecting offering) find ways to be efficient and save time.
a. Snack – have a helper set out the snack while class does another activity, and then all students come get the snack, or get 2 or 3 people involved in the distribution while students are waiting in their seats to be served.
b. Restroom- ½ class goes at a time, while the other ½ is doing a craft
c. Prizes or candy- have a helper pass it out so you can go on to the next thing.
d. Collecting offering- have kids come put their offerings in the buckets, you could make a race out of it, passing buckets takes too much time. Even in the adult service, often try to do another activity while buckets are passed. It is too hard to get a class to do two things at once.
3. Don’t take on all classroom responsibilities yourself—no lone rangers, please. This would be like using the small hole to dispense Tabasco. Use your helpers and delegate some activities of the class for them to lead.
4. During class time, alternate the teaching responsibilities for consecutive activities. This allows those not in the lead to get ready for the next learning activity. For example, the worship leader shouldn’t be taking up offering right before they lead worship. And the craft person shouldn’t be teaching the lesson right before leading the craft time.
5. Make transitions quickly from one activity to the next. The person who is leading the next activity needs to be “on deck” so that there is no pause during the switch.
6. If an activity is taking a long time to do, ask other teachers in your class for ideas to expedite the process.
7. Don’t allow one child to monopolize the class time. If they have a justifiable need, have a helper handle it so you can proceed with leading the class.
8. If an activity isn’t working, and you can’t fix it quickly; stop and move on. Get it fixed and come back to it.
In every business, church, or class, there are always bottle necks that are slowing down work flow. Let’s work to find the bottle necks and enlarge them so we can get more of the Word and Spirit into our students.