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Recruiting Puppeteers
Tips for a Successful Puppet Ministry
In order to find reliable and
suitable puppeteers for your Puppet Ministry, you have to start by
having a clear mission statement for the ministry. What is your goal?
Will this ministry consist of weekly or monthly performances? Will it
be geared for preschool or upper elementary audiences, or perhaps both?
Will you write your own skits or buy them? Answering these questions
will help you determine what character traits you will be looking for
in puppeteers and help you decide what kind of time committment you
need from the puppeteers. Now you will need to advertise for puppeteers
and see who transpires.
Here are some others points to consider when recruiting puppeteers:
What age should puppeteers be? Some churches have a
Puppet Ministry led by older elementary aged children, while some use
teens in the church, and still others have an all adult team of
puppeteers. Some churches even combine all age groups. Knowing your
goals for the ministry will help you decide what age your puppeteers
should be. If you are in a large church, you may have more flexibility
to choose an age group; whereas, a smaller church may have to make due
with a intermingled age group. As long as your volunteers are willing
and committed, it really does not matter. It's what works best for the
ministry.
Who makes a good puppeteer? Basically anyone makes
a good puppeteer, if they are willing to be. As long as your volunteers
are willing to be teachable and stay committed to the ministry that is
all you need. Your best bet for finding good puppeteers is seeing that
they understand there is more to this ministry than just putting on
shows, but that the message they are giving to the audience is more
important than anything else. The ministry is for the glory of God, and
not just to make children laugh.
Should tryouts be necessary? Tryouts are not really
necessary for puppeteers. If you have people that are willing to commit
to rehearsal times, learn the ropes, and have a heart for leading
children in God's Word, then they can be taught to be a successful
puppeteer. When you first announce that you are looking for volunteers
for the Puppet Ministry team, you may get a good response and, in that
case, you may have the opportunity to screen individuals that you think
would be good for the team. If you get a low response of interested
individuals, you may have to work with who you have, and that is fine,
too. Again, the most important part of choosing puppeteers is that they
understand this is a ministry before anything else.
How many people does it take to have a successful ministry? You
want enough people to run a smooth performance, but not so many people
that someone might lose interest in the ministry because they do not
have enough to do. There is a definite balance. It helps to have your
year planned out with the scripts you will want to perform ahead of
time, so you can get an idea of how many parts there are in each script
and average out how many puppeteers you will need. If you are new to
Puppet Ministry, then start with smaller scripts and use about five or
six puppeteers, and then work your way up to bigger skits with more
puppeteers being added at a later time. It's easier to add, then to let
someone go.
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