Our blog today is by our guest author, NLD’s Director of Childrens Ministry, Debbie Leonard to discuss what exactly we are trying to communicate through our Children’s Ministry. Ultimately, it is the same across all our ministries that the Gospel of Jesus would be believed and savored at all times, and to all ages.
I love the “Jesus Storybook Bible”. After the actual Bible I think it is the most effective tool we have in teaching kids the gospel. Recently I read a blog from someone who was quoting Sally Lloyd Jones, the author, about why she chose to write this book. This is the reason I love this book so much!
“Sometimes I go into a Sunday School and ask two questions of the children, “How many people here think you have to be good for God to love you?” and “How many people here think God will stop loving you if you stop being good?” I wrote this book for the children that put up their hands.
Unfortunately, quite a few do. These are not children who don’t know the Bible. These are children who know their bible stories very well, who could answer all the questions, who go to Sunday school, who are “good”. But somehow they’re missing the most important thing of all, the true heart, what the Bible is all about.
The Bible is of course an adult book, so in order to make it accessible to children, by its very nature, as you retell it; you’re going to have to reduce it down. Unfortunately, the danger is that you reduce it down into moral lessons. The entire Bible is hammered down into one long lesson on obedience. Almost like a Bible Aesop’s Fables. Each story becomes a lesson so you can fix your behavior and be a better person. Children are then likely to be left with the impression that they must be good for God to love them. Disastrous and inaccurate. It’s as if Jesus never came.
If you lose the greater story of the Bible, the danger is you start thinking that it’s all about you and what you should or shouldn’t be doing. You can start to think it’s a book of rules to follow (of course there are rules in it and they show us how life works best but if we could save ourselves by following the rules, Jesus never would have had to come); or you can think it’s a book of heroes to copy (clearly that can’t be right though. So many of the people God uses are not heroes at all-they are broken sinner!)
But if you see that everything in the Bible is pointing to the greater one, the greater Hero, the greater David, the greater Daniel, the Greater Shepherd, the True King-it transforms everything. Suddenly, it’s an incredible adventure. A wonderful love story.”
I pray for our children here at NLD, that through our teaching they will not miss the point of the gospel. I know that as adults we still struggle to understand, but all the more reason to pray for God’s leading in choosing strong gospel centered curriculum, and people who are committed to loving our children into the kingdom.
Filed under: Children's Minsitry, NLD Vision, Theology
