NEW

2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

#15 – Challenge Your Kids (Tips For Large Group Teaching)

Welcome to a continuing series of tips on working with large groups of children. I hope that you will find these tips useful and be able to implement them in your dealings with large groups of kids. If you do, please leave a comment and let us know. For a complete list of posts in this series, please see the index page. So, without further introduction, here is today’s installment.

There is no denying it – we work in children’s ministry.  We work with kids, and because of that, many people are of the opinion that we must “dumb down” our message in order to reach our audience.  Nothing could be further from the truth!   Indeed, the idea itself is offensive to the gospel of Christ.  No doubt, elements of God and his Word are so mysterious and so foreign to us as finite human beings that we will never understand them this side of heaven.  Nonetheless, the simplicity of the gospel is oftentimes easier grasped by children than by those jaded by years of life and hardness of heart.

As those who work in Children’s Ministry, we are in a unique position to know what kids are really capable of.  Oftentimes, that which they are capable of will exceed our wildest expectations.  In Children’s Ministry, and all other teaching of children, we must not be content to teach to the lowest common denominator.  A child who is never challenged will never have the opportunity to exceed.  If we were teaching mathematics or foreign language or any number of other topics, the consequences of underestimating our audience would not be as grave, but we are called to teach them the things of God.  We cannot afford to deprive them of God’s knowledge solely because we deem it incomprehensible for someone their age.

So, what does this look like in Children’s Ministry?  How do we consistently and effectivel challenge the kids in our ministry?  Well, we start by not shirking away from those things that we deem too hard for them to understand.  Challenge them with theology.  Teach them doctrine.  Get their little heads thinking about things like the trinity, the hypostatic union of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, and election vs. free will.  Their heads might not process it the same way we would – though frankly I think they sometimes grasp these concepts much better than we do – but our job is to start them on the path of thinking and considering the things of God.  Part of the challenge, part of the fun, and part of our calling to teach kids about God is finding a way to convey complex information and concepts in a way that they can understand.  If we leave our kids scratching their heads because they do not understand something we have taught, it is much more likely the fault of the teacher than the material being taught!

Return to the Tips for Large Group Teaching in Children’s Ministry index page.

Previous

Next