Assemblies are a shop window on your values, your approach to working with children, how you see your community as well as how you talk about God with those of little or no faith. It is therefore important to make a positive impression, so here are my top tips:
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“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde
Be yourself. This is harder than it might seem! If you are week in week out conducting liturgy at the front of a church – you might, just might, over time have developed a “liturgical voice”. You might sound and act differently leading worship than you would in conversation. In order to engage well with a group of children, whatever age, I would always recommend a relaxed and conversational style – yes, you might be leading worship in a school (depending on the type of school) but most of the children will not be used to you, or your “liturgical voice”. Also, don’t stare at some imaginary spot at the back of the hall, look around the room and make eye contact. You can “deliver” a talk – but it so much more effective if the children and staff present feel like you are talking to them.
Who are you when you don’t have a collar on, when you are relaxing with family and friends or chatting to a mate? Your primary aim in doing an assembly is NOT simply to come in to the school and do an act of collective worship as the Vicar of “Such and Such” – you are Brian, or Peter, or Wendy or James, or Sue . . . the aim of doing an assembly as a guest is –
• Firstly, to share your excitement about your faith and to share the Gospel in an attractive and accessible way for those who may never have heard that Jesus loves them.
• Secondly, to leave them with ONE thought to reflect on and maybe ONE action to help your audience remember what you said.
• Thirdly, you want to leave them with the impression that Christian’s are normal!
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“You see persons and things not as they are but as you are.” – Anthony de Mello
Start where you are. For a while, I regularly spoke at a Wednesday school Eucharist at a church where there was a new Curate. One day just as he was about to do his first assembly, he dashed up to me asking for some help and, to quote him he said, “I didn’t know what to speak about – all I can think of is St Hubert of Liege.”
I was worried. Starting with something that is very familiar or comfortable for us (whether it is our faith or our favourite hobby) might not be the best place to begin for the children!
We need to start where they are. We cannot make assumptions that they know the names of obscure saints or our favourite parables from the Bible. In fact, research from the Bible Society has highlighted the general biblical illiteracy among children. See their report, “Pass it On”. You might go to a school where there is a great Christian ethos and collective worship is valued – but a significant number of the children arriving in reception do not know the Christian narrative of Christmas and Easter, nor have they ever heard the parables. Therefore, let’s not start with obscure Saints, however worthy they are, since many do not actually know anything about Jesus.
The challenge again about doing an assembly in this context is getting out of the habit of saying things that we might typically say in church, by force of habit, for example, “You remember the story of the Good Samaritan?” (not if they have never heard it they won’t!), or “as it says in Romans” (what is Romans?…Aren’t the Romans those people in togas that we learnt about in Year 1?)
Starting where you are means getting to know the children, getting to know the school and getting to know the community. I was in a predominantly white Baptist church in Edgware at the end of the 90s – we had one Asian family who attended regularly. The school I did assemblies in at the time was 90% Asian with 70% of those being from Muslim families. Starting where they are will often means starting right at the beginning.
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“If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.” – Bill Gates
Be visual. The quote might be a bit tongue in cheek – but being visual matters! Apparently, we process visual information 60,000 times faster than we do text – it’s pretty much instantaneous in comparison. Children and young people are experts are interpreting images and visual stimulation.
Metcalf (1997) carried out some research on what people are able to retain. These were his findings, we remember: 10 percent of what we read; 20 percent of what we hear; 30 percent of what we see; 50 percent of what we see and hear; 70 percent of what we say; and 90 percent of what we do and say. There are a bunch of things to look at here, but I want to focus on the need to be visual.
50% is way up on 20%. if you are just standing at the front talking at people, they will struggle to remember what you said but, make it visual with an object, video or some other aid and the visual engagement then aids memory and retention.
You might be talking about the lost sheep (have a bunch of things that get lost easily e.g. keys, a sock, a pencil, a hair clip, a comb, a pair of glasses etc), just having those things and holding them up is more visual than you just speaking.
A CLASSIC visual illustration is to use an Ox tongue when you are doing an assembly surrounding how we use our tongues to speak. You could start by talking about the fact you are going to show them the most dangerous thing in the world, it has caused pain and death, wars and suffering. You could just have it a box, and then show this to your audience when you discussing the tongue. Alternatively, you could put on a lab coat, wear long thick work gloves complimented by special protective goggles and decorate the box with toxic signs – and come across like some kind of mad scientist, and THEN when you have freaked everyone out ask a child to open the box!
How creative and imaginative you get will depend on time, and to some extent, knowing your audience.
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So there you have it: always be yourself, understand, and therefore connect to your specific audience and lastly, incorporate visual aids into your assemblies! Keep these in mind – not just for places where you are a one-time guest, but remember them as essential keys to good engagement.
Big Start Assemblies are offering you 13 free assemblies from their ‘Giants of Faith’ series to use in your schools, churches and homes. Access them here.
This blog post was written by Ali Campbell from The Resource. He has over 30 years experience in children, youth and family ministry. Ali has worked as an educational practitioner and advisor on collective worship as well as trained headteachers and clergy in delivering fun and engaging assemblies. He is also one of the Big Start Assemblies contributors, helping develop a large number of the walkthrough scripts. The Resource is full of insights and resources to help empower those working with children and young people today.
