Thoughts on Teaching Children in the Church
Through the years, I have read many different lessons for
children. I have seen enough problems in
teacher’s manuals that I sometimes cringe when I am handed a manual and asked
to teach. Fortunately, people who know
me know that I will refer first to the Bible and later to the manual. They
expect that, so I am blessed that I am not expected to take the manual and use
it exactly as it is presented.
At the same time, I know there are people who may be
teaching for the first time. They will
usually take the materials and use them in the way they are presented. So when I read something that misses the
mark, I think of all those teachers who do not realize that the material they
have been given is inadequate. They
think they should follow it as written.
In order to alert teachers to the need to carefully examine
their teacher’s materials, let me give you some of the main errors that I see
in children’s curriculum.
- Leave out or undervalue the main point of the
Bible story. What is the main point of
the “Feeding of the 5,000?” It is that
Jesus, who looked like just an ordinary man, could take a little bit of bread
and fish and feed more than 5,000 people with it. He was not an ordinary man after all, but the Son of God. A miracle happened that day! Yet too often that story, when it is told to
children, focuses on the need to share.
The story is not about sharing.
It is about a miracle. It showed
the people the power Jesus had. We
should teach the story with awe and wonder, not make it a moral about sharing.
- Make the lesson one that will build up the children’s
self-esteem by assuring them that they are at the center of God’s love. Yes, God loves children with a love that goes
beyond our comprehension, and nothing can separate a believer from that
love. However, we do not need to
encourage a child’s self-centeredness. Instead,
if we help the children to understand God and His amazing plan of redemption, then His
grace, mercy and love will naturally create a healthy view of God and a healthy
view of themselves.
- Focus too much on the human characters instead
of the supernatural One. David killed
the giant, Goliath! Yes, he did. But David was the first to give credit to the
One to whom credit was due. “I come in
the name of the Lord.” God was the one
who put David there that day. God was
the one who gave David the ability to shoot straight. God was the one who responded to David’s
faith. If we leave out God, why are we
asking our children to come to Sunday School?
- Waste time by using filler that has nothing to
do with the main points you are trying to get across. We have so little time in our children’s
ministries that not one minute should be wasted. Yes, we can teach using games, songs, crafts
and other activities. But we need to ensure that the activities actually teach something important that will help them remember
the lesson. For example, does the song, “Father
Abraham” really help to teach children something about the lesson? When the child walks away from Sunday School,
will they go home talking about an amazing God or something much less
important?
- Focus on good behaviors instead of dealing with spiritual issues. Too many lessons encourage children
to act right rather than helping them realize that without God’s grace at work
in us, none of us can ever measure up. God has set
a perfect standard before us. Good behavior is not enough. When children are old enough to understand
their own sinfulness, we need to help them depend upon the God who can change
them rather than asking them to change themselves. We want to see what God can do in their
lives, not what self-discipline can do.
- “Dumb it down.”
Too many people assume that children cannot learn the great theological
truths of God’s Word. True, it is very hard to
teach those truths in simple terms, but if a teacher will give careful thought
on how to present those truths, it can be done.
Since children are trusting, they will often believe these truths even more
quickly than adults, and those truths will stay with them for a lifetime.
- Forget about the whole counsel of God. I have used curriculum that uses the same
Bible stories over and over and thereby neglects huge portions of
Scripture. I have been in churches where
the same lessons were being taught on Sunday and Wednesday, but the repetition
was accidental, not intentional. There
was no attempt to say, “If this child stays in our church until they are
eighteen, will they be equipped for adulthood when they are done?”
- Ignore the fact that the child is part of a
family. If we are going to do a good job
of teaching children, we must also teach the family. We have very little time with the children
who come. Their families are able to
teach much more than we can. Therefore,
we must reach the home and help the parents teach their children.
God has given us a book.
That book is about Him. When we
teach it to children, we need to be sure that we are teaching in such a way
that what we teach will not have to be unlearned at a later date. We want to provide a solid foundation that
will last a lifetime.
