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An Effective Way to Move Your Presentation from Entertainment to Ministry

Puppets are entertaining which is a major reason why they are so effective. You have to be careful you don’t focus so much on the entertainment factor, that you weaken the ministry factor. Also, without some direction, most people will watch a puppet show for the entertainment factor and not think about the message behind it. So, how do you get beyond entertainment into actual ministry?

One way is to take time after the play to review the lesson you want them to learn. This is the method I used for several years in our ministry. I’d introduce the play, we’d present it and I would come out and apply it. Sometimes it would be a short teaching and others would have an object lesson to further drive the point home. This method worked well, but then I found out I was missing one key that when applied would bring far greater and lasting results.

My wife and I were taking a course called Teaching Children Effectively sponsored by a local Child Evangelism Fellowship chapter. We had the opportunity to put on a puppet show at a nearby church during the training and one of our instructors attended. When I asked her what she thought of the presentation, she gave me the missing key.

She said the program was well done, but there was one thing that would improve it. When I gave the introduction before a play, I should have used focus questions.

Now you may ask, “What are focus questions?” They are a question or statement you share that gets the audience to look for something specific in the upcoming play. It may be something like, “In this play, Bernie doesn’t feel like going to Sunday School. After the play is over, I’m going to ask you why Mr. Quimper always goes to Sunday School even though there are times he doesn’t feel like it.”

Now, the audience is watching the play with a purpose or focus. They’re looking for something specific and when they find it, it adds excitement and satisfaction. They’ve gone from passive to active listening. Not only that, but when it comes time to apply the lesson after the play, they are already focused on the application.

This is a simple way to move an audience from an entertainment mode to a ministry mode and it only takes about a minute. Give it a try and see what happens.

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