Power House draws people of all ages. Our program is geared towards children ages 5 -12, but it is not uncommon to have people from the age of 5 – 35 attend. It’s great to have such a wide range of ages attend. It just makes our job of teaching more challenging. Here at church we have the ability to split age groups up so each child is taught at their learning level. But what can us sidewalk Sunday school people do to ensure that each person is taught God’s Word on their level?

This is something that Power House is currently dealing with at a few of our sites. It seems as it gets cold and as we go inside, we have an influx of teenagers who attend our program. I believe the teens come because they want something to do and somewhere to go. I think Power House is the best place they could be. Since the program is geared towards the 5 – 12 age range the teens will tend to get bored and resort to talking. So what can we do? There are a couple of things that we can do to effectively teach God’s Word on each person’s level.

Probably the best thing that can be done is to separate the ages. I would split the ages from at least 12 and up, and have a separate program for the older kids. Now that we are inside, most of our sites have an extra room available. For example, Sheldon and Lisa Dekryger are at the Traditions site. They go into a small apartment during the winter. They have the older kids upstairs in a small bedroom while the younger kids are down stairs in the living room area. Lisa sent me an email last week letting me know how things went. This is what she said,

“It was so cool we had 21 older kids in the room upstairs. They are SOOOOOO
hungry for God but don’t even know it. Half of my time last night was spent
just answering their questions!!!”

Having teenagers at the sites gives us an opportunity to make a greater impact in the neighborhoods.  Teens are searching, thinking, and making decisions now that will effect their futures.  It’s a great time to be a part of their lives, to help steer them in the right direction.

Stay tuned next week for part 2 of Teaching to various Ages