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Storytelling tips: ‘How to tell difficult Bible stories to children’


How am I going to tell this difficult Bible story to the children in my Sunday school class?

Not every Bible story is easy to tell. Especially when you have to tell the story to children in your Sunday school lesson or within your children’s ministry.

As a storyteller for children I have struggled in the past with the re-telling of several Bible stories in which the Israelites had to do certain ‘cruel’ things in the name of God. Stories such as the annihilation of the nations in the promised land, the strict laws about no mingling between the Israelites and their neighbours, the Bible story in Ezra where married men had to say goodbye to their foreign wives and children, because the Law commanded them to.

How can we tell these Bible stories in a time of religious tolerance?

How to tell difficult Bible stories object lesson and science experiment for Sunday school lesson Bible lesson youth ministy childrens ministry


Is the Bible a children’s story book?

Of course you can choose not to tell any of these stories.The thing is that the Bible is not written as a children’s book. It is God’s word, but it is also a book written by adults for adults. Within our children’s ministry we can take most of the Bible stories and tell them to children. But maybe not all...

On the other side maybe the difficult Bible story is in your Sunday school curriculum. It's the next story on the list and you struggle with it. “How am I going to tell this difficult Bible story to the children in my Sunday school class?”. I have been there. So I have thought of an object lesson / cool science experiment, that will maybe help you explain God’s reason behind some of His commandments to the Israelites. Especially His commandment that the Israelites were not allowed to mingle / marry with the nations that surrounded them.

What do you need:

- two glasses
- yellow and blue colouring drops
- kitchen paper

Watch the video below:

Tags: Object lessons, Experiments , Demonstration videos, Children's moments in church, Storytelling - ideas, tips, Obedience / Disobedience, Holiness / Sin

Scripture reference: 2 Chronicles 13:15-18, Exodus 12:29, Numbers 16:41-49, Joshua 6:20-21, Deuteronomy 2:32-35, Deuteronomy 3:3-7, Numbers 31:7-18, 1 Samuel 15:1-9, 1 Samuel 6:19, Exodus 32, Joshua 10:10-11, Genesis 19:24, 2 Kings 2:23-24, Judges 21:1-23, 2 Kings 1:9-10, Ezra 9:1–2, Deuteronomy 7:3–4, Ezra 9:3, Ezra 10:2–3, Ezra 10:10–11
You can use this idea in a: Children's Sunday School, Sunday school lesson, children's ministry, kids ministry, Messy church, youth work, youth group, teenagers, small church, RE lessons, children's moment in church