Children's Ministry?

You have my prayers.

Teaching the Bible to children is so fulfilling. And truly, honestly, and in my humble opinion – you don’t need a curriculum except the Bible. I’ve used all sorts of curriculums and I’ve used just the Bible. I prefer using the Bible alone.




Here’s some tips to remember.

• Because children are very literal and struggle with abstracts, don’t start with deep doctrine. Start with the stories – primarily Genesis 1-11. If children don’t understand that God is the Creator and that He created humanity and humanity rebelled and was/is in dire need of a Savior, then Jesus Christ, the Savior, won’t mean as much to them.

• There is LOTS of richness in the Old Testament that children can handle. Jonah, Daniel, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Joshua, and more. Don’t exclude the Old Testament just because the Old Testament.

• Teach with them having a Bible and following along with you and teach in small bites. Ask them LOTS of questions. "Why do you think this happened? What do you think God is going to do? What would you have done? Can you think how this might be seen today?" You can never ask too many questions when teaching children.

• Use LOTS of repetition. "Remember what we said last week about God telling Cain to 'Watch out! Sin is crouching at the door!'? Someone remind us of that story."

• Make correlations to the New Testament. When telling the story of God and Cain’s conversation before Cain killed Abel, refer them to Peter saying that “ Stay alert! Our adversary is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”

• Make correlations to real life that they will understand. Say, "Why do you think God made a plant grow over Jonah's head while Jonah was pouting in the sun?" Let them answer. Then say, "You know, it's kind of like a pouting two-year-old who is whining about why Mama won't give him a cookie. Sometimes she may pick him up and put him to bed. And she covers him to sooth him. But is she going to leave him there forever? No. She is going back later and pull back the cover and make him get up and eat a good lunch instead of that cookie. That's sort of what God did. He didn't leave Jonah under that shaded plant, but made the plant die so that Jonah would get up. But Jonah's problem was that he was still in a whiney mood. What do you think about that? What do you think God thinks about that?"

• Be prepared for TONS of questions and never be afraid to say, “I don’t know ..... what do YOU think?" You might be amazed at what the Lord might lay on the heart of a child. And call on other children to answer the first child's question. Say, "Does anyone know how to answer Jeff's question about why Moses hit that rock instead of speaking to it?"

• Don’t water down anything. If you are teaching children that you feel aren’t prepared to learn about Lot offering his two daughters to be raped, don’t “change” the facts and say “Lot offered his two daughters to be hostesses at the town celebration”. I have seen more of that than you can imagine and it makes me SEE RED!! :BangHead: You can leave out explicit details and still teach the main points of most stories that contain adult content.

• Practice teaching the story and asking questions out loud. Practice it until you can read ANY passage in the Bible and questions to ask your audience just naturally come to mind even when you are not preparing to teach, but just going about personal Bible study.

• Just remember that with children, it isn’t going to be the immediate results that you are looking for, but your spiritual benefits will come after much faithfulness with your time and possibly years down the road. Don’t expect them to become scholars in just one semester.

 

I do like the Good News Club.