Creating a Puppet Ministry with Puppet Scripts and a Puppet Theatre

Creating a Puppet Ministry for children with Christian puppet scripts being shown from a live puppet theater is quickly becoming a popular trend for Children's ministries. All that is needed is gathering together some great biblical puppets, willing volunteers, a puppet theater with some memorable puppet scripts and you've got a way to not only entertain kids but also teach them important moral lessons from the bible. The best part of incorporating puppets into your bible lessons is it allows you to breach sensitive subjects such as disabilities, race and age differences while teaching children how Jesus feels about these subjects. Puppets just know how to make everything less serious and a whole lot of fun!

Awkward or sensitive stages kids go through can also skillfully be mastered by through a puppet ministry. Puppet scripts can easily be modified to include these subjects being discussed by non-intimidating 10"-28" puppets on a puppet theater. Helping children feel better about themselves and also not feeling as if they are the only one going through something is the puppet's number one goal. It also gives the teachers an opportunity to model through a non-threatening puppet how Jesus reacts to such circumstances. Here are some free puppet scripts to use at no charge.

Free Puppet Scripts

The success of a puppet ministry depends not only on the puppet script used but also on the puppets themselves and whether their appearance is believable. The puppeteers are very important in conveying a sense of reality to the show and helping the audience feel like they are pulled 'into' the story not just watching some dolls being manipulated by an adult. It takes considerable concentration and practice as well as talent to operate more than one puppet, while changing voice tones and energy levels to introduce additional characters to the scene. One of the most difficult aspects of a successful puppet ministry is operating puppet movements in synch with the voice and mouth opening of the puppet. Don't be fooled by the age and innocence of kids, sometimes they can be some of the biggest critics of puppet theater. However if you can pull off some great acting along with even better puppet scripts you have just locked in on a child's attention and heart.

Yahoo Discussion group focused on Christian Puppetry

True puppets are composed of the head, hands and a shirt like costume. However some of the better quality puppets include legs and feet to make it more realistic(some legs are even removable). Some perks of the larger puppets are that you can use old donated baby clothes to change the costumes or outfits of the puppets and if you are performing on stage for a larger group the larger sized puppets are more easily seen. They also tend to be more life-like and believable in your puppet ministry than the hand puppets. If you are on a budget start with some small hand puppets and work your way up to the larger ones. If you are using a small tabletop puppet theater the small puppets tend to work better anyway.

© Beth Rimstidt - 2005 Permission is given for non-profit use of the information from this web page provided it is accompanied by the citation:

Used by permission of Beth Rimstidt www.child-bible-lessons.com

All requests for other uses will be considered. Please ask.