Puppets are an effective tool in children’s ministry. However over the last few years, they’ve gotten a bad name. The main reason for this is because they aren’t used effectively. Here are a few tips to help you utilize puppets in children’s ministry.
Short Skits: Using puppets for life application skits can’t be effective if they’re kept short. Don’t ever use skits that go longer than five minutes. This isn’t a puppet performance, it’s a children’s service. Puppets are only one part of the service and should never go longer than the youngest child’s attention span.
Bible Stories: Puppets are a great tool to tell Bible stories. You can use Bible character puppets or have a puppet tell the story in his own words.
Comic Relief: Comedy is a great tool for keeping children’s attention. One way to do this is to have a silly puppet that always messes up the lesson.
Announcements: Puppets are a great way to make announcements or to share the rules.
Music Specials during offering or opening: Just as churches have soloists during big church, use puppets to do solos and perform a song in children’s church.
Memory Verse Introduction: Puppets are a great tool for introducing the memory verse for the day.
Click this link to buy a downloadable book with short memory verse puppet skits.
Back-up Singers for Praise and Worship: Puppets can be your praise team during praise and worship. One word of caution – Be careful not to detract children from praising God.
Some Cautions:
- Always keep the skits short
- Make sure the puppeteer is trained
- Don’t use puppets too often or for the entire program