A good Sunday School lesson is. . . interesting

People don't look at their watches. They linger after it is over. They are involved. They are engaged. They are not easily distracted.

Crummy Sunday School lessons--and let's admit it, there are too many of those--are just the opposite. People look around the room. They count the tiles in their ceiling. They play with their cell phones.

What makes for interesting lessons? What does the mind pay attention to? How do we get and keep people's attention? There are basically two ways: the Sesame Street way and the Blues Clues way.

The Sesame Street way is lots of color, lots of flash, lots of bangs and fast changes. This is the way of the average thriller movie. Not much of a story, but lots of stuff blowing up. In a Sunday school lesson this translates into lots of props, object lessons, videos, touching stories, jokes, and request for physical activity. I like a little of that. But, a little goes a long way.

The Blues Clues way is all mystery. It is slow moving. It is intrigue. It is asking a really thought provoking question and rejecting the first five answers. It is pondering. It is moments of silence. People can be totally engaged and it is silent in the room.

When people are really interested, there doesn't have to be a lot of smoke and mirrors. Get people thinking. Get them curious. Get them involved. Give them a problem to solve.

Too many Sunday School lessons do the opposite. They give answers before people are really curious about the question.