How to Teach Kids Theology

Before we dive in, let me just ask by a show of hands, who feels like it is a struggle to teach kids theology and teach kids the Bible? What are some of the hurdles that you find yourselves running into? I think time is usually something that we have an issue with. Between school, sports, dinner, trips, church, and ten thousand other things, we find that we just don’t seem to have the time to really dive deep into teaching kids of any age theology. I think that we can also get discouraged because even if we do take the time to have a family quiet time or study time that it seems like the kids just aren’t invested or just don’t seem to understand what we are talking about. It is a struggle and I think that if you are here, you are admitting to yourself that you are struggling. I’ll admit that I struggle with it. I am in no way the poster child for in home theological training or family worship and I’m a pastor! So we have to do something. What I want us to do tonight is have a discussion and I’ll throw out a few things that I think will be helpful for you, that I think will be helpful for me and we’ll just see if this format is something that we would want to do more of in the future. Maybe make something like this a quarterly or bi-monthly sort of thing. Let’s pray and then we will dive in.

Recognize our Responsibility

I’m hoping that you all recognize that there is a responsibility that we have as parents for training up our children in the Lord. I’m sure you know Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” I’m sure you remember Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB95

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

I’m sure you’ve also heard Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” We can find Scripture after Scripture that tells us what our responsibility as parents are. We cannot save them but we can certainly lead them in the truths of salvation. Part of what we need to recognize is that we do have a responsibility to be the spiritual heads of our families. Our children need to know that we are Christians. They need to see that in the things we say, in the things we do, and in the things that we donate our time and resources to. We need to accept the fact that it is not largely the church or the pastors responsibility to be the primary Christian example or teacher in your household. No, that responsibility falls into your lap. We need to recognize that we are all theologians already and that means that we cannot ignore or run away from theology. So, just by a quick show of hands, how many of you know what I mean when I say theology? What is theology? The easiest definition is usually just the Study of God. We are all theologians. R.C. Sproul said, “No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theologian. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nonetheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians but whether we are going to be good theologians.” That is what we need to aim at. You are all, for better or worse, going to be a theologian in your home. But will you be a good one? So what do you all do for your own spiritual health? How do you make sure that you aren’t running on fumes? Our kids need to see that we take the Bible seriously. Our kids need to know that our personal quiet time with the Lord is some of the most important moments of our day. Do your kids see you in the morning or during the day with a Bible in your hand? Do your kids see you praying as you sit at home? Do your kids hear you listening to good, rich worship songs throughout the day or in the car? If it doesn’t appear to be important to you, why would they think that it is important for them? If you want to be a good theologian, make sure that you take the time to pour into your own soul. You can almost think of it like the instructions that we get when we go on a plane about what to do if there is a drop in pressure. When the oxygen masks come down you’re supposed to put yours on first right? Then you put the mask on your kids. You can’t take care of your kids the way that they need you to if you haven’t started taking care of your own needs. Fully recognize your responsibility. You might just be the closest image of who Jesus Christ is to your child. If we are to represent Jesus to them, what should we represent Him as?

Theology During the Day

Something that I think we need to remember is that we are not just theologians when the Bible is open. We are not just theologians when we sit at church on Sunday morning. We are theologians 24/7 and that brings with it some pretty awesome opportunities for our kids. So much of what happens to us in the course of the day brings with it teaching and Gospel opportunities. This doesn’t have to be a weird or uncomfortable or forced opportunity, these things just happen on their own. One of my own flaws is that I think about these opportunities as I see them but I hardly ever say anything. Take advantage of the little moments. Let that episode of Bluey be a moment to say, “Doesn’t this remind you of Jesus? Doesn’t this remind you of that one verse in the Bible.” So let’s take Bluey because I think Bluey is God’s gift to struggling parents. There’s an episode of Bluey called Sleepytime, probably one of the greatest episodes of television ever made. If you’ve seen the episode you know what I’m talking about. In the episode, Bluey’s sister Bingo has a dream where she’s in outer space and there is a part towards the end where she flies to the sun which represents her mom and you hear Bingo’s mom say, “Remember, I'll always be here for you, even if you can't see me, because I love you.” What a great teaching moment that is for our kids. They’ve already watched the episode and that is a great moment to teach on something like the omnipresence of God. God is always there, God loves them, and just because we can’t see Him yet, that doesn’t mean that He isn’t there or doesn’t love us. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote an essay back in the late 1940’s called “On Fairy Stories” and in this essay, Tolkien talks about the reason why so many people enjoy fairy tales is because at some point in the story, there is this turn in the events. The bad things come untrue and we get to that happy ending that we all want. What Tolkien does at the end is he basically says that in those moments, in those fairy tale moments, what we are actually witnessing are pieces of the Gospel story shining through. He says that what we see in the Gospel is the greatest fairy story of fairy tale coming true. Tolkien ends the essay like this: “The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable Eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the Eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the Eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the inner consistency of reality. There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be “primarily” true, its narrative to be history, without thereby necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the “turn” in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.” Just a little comment can get their little brains thinking. Again, this goes back to the need for you all to be studying so you can pick up on these moments. Be ready to pick out Christian principles in the things that our children see and then be ready to lay down Christian principles when there are things that are anti-Christian that they see. What are the things that your kids like that you can connect back to the Gospel?

Little Chunks Approach

So for those of you that take the time to read the Bible with your kids do you mainly use kids Bibles like the Jesus Story Book or do you read from your own Bible? Or do you do like a combination of different things? A couple of months ago I put out on our website a 30 day Bible study through the book of Philippians and it was designed with kids of all ages in mind but it was also designed to be able to be used in about 10 minutes. It wasn’t a kids Bible story set up but it used our own adult Bibles because it is important for our kids to see that there is more to the Bible than just Joshua and the big wall, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the lions den. If we believe that the Scripture is the Word of God and it is sufficient to do what Paul says of it in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” then why would we think that it should not be the primary tool that we use when discipling our children? Going back to the little Philippians study I put out, most days there were only 3-5 verses that you would look at each day and the reason I did that was because I feel that a deeper study into smaller sections of Scripture is more beneficial than less depth but bigger scope. John Calvin’s approach to preaching could very easily be connected to how we teach out kids theology and how we teach them Scripture. Calvin said that the way that he approached preaching was like a father cutting up pieces of bread for his children to eat. Look at it in this way, steak is great but when your kids were younger, you didn’t give them the entire steak and let them cut it on their own. You knew that they needed smaller, cut up pieces in order to eat it. Same thing has to be done when it comes to sharing Scripture and theology with them. Little chunks during study combined with intentional Gospel references throughout the day is really going to help you. Remember you know your kids. You know what they can handle. Like I know that Benji isn’t quite ready to talk about the deep hitting doctrine of predestination or the amillennialism. But I know that we can talk about the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of the fall, the doctrine of creation, and the doctrine of salvation. I know that I can talk about it in a way that is understandable, even if he does have questions about it. With that in mind, really embrace the questions that your kids are asking. Their questions are an opportunity to not just educate them but to learn together. It’s a way of encouraging them to make the Christian faith their own, it encourages them in the way that they are reassured that they are asking good and important questions, it encourages them to do their own research, and it even shows them that there are things that even you still need to know. It is ok to tell your kids if you don’t have an answer to one of their questions but don’t leave them hanging. It is ok to say, “I don’t know but give me some time and I’ll look into it.” Then actually do the work. Don’t say you will and then tell them nothing. Not only be ready for their questions, be ready to ask them questions. Make sure that they are also fairly open ended questions. Don’t just ask them who the guy was that led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. The answer is Moses and the answer and engagement stops at Moses. Instead ask them, “How do you think we see Jesus in the story of Moses and the people crossing the Red Sea?” Don’t just ask, “Who was the guy that got eaten by a fish because he ran away from God?” Jonah but the answer again, stops at Jonah. Ask instead, “Why do you think Jonah felt like he could run from God? Do you think we ever try to do that?” Sam Luce and Hunter Williams have a great book out called How to Teach Kids Theology and I think it was written more with Sunday school teachers, pastors, youth leaders in mind but I read it and I thought that it was awesome for home life and in the book they say that one of the most important things that we can do is connect all of Scripture to the Gospel story. In one of the chapters they give a helpful list of study questions that I think we can use for ourselves when preparing to talk to our kids and we can even use these questions as a template of what questions to ask them. The questions that they ask are: 1. Which aspect of the gospel is shown in this story? 2. How does God accomplish the same thing- only better- in Jesus? The example that they use in this question comes from the book of Esther and they mention how Esther was willing to stand on behalf of her people even if it cost her her life. How does Jesus do something like that but better? 3. Who in this story needs the good news? Here we see that even negative examples in Scripture can be used as a positive teaching moment. 4. How does this connect to creation, the fall, and redemption? What do you think are some other ways that we can ask our kids questions about what we are studying or talking about?

Simplifying Vs. Distilling Theology

The last thing that I want us to talk about is something else that I got from Luce and Williams’ book and it comes from a chapter called “Simplifying Vs. Distilling Theology.” The problem that some of us probably have with theology is that we go into it with the mindset of: “How can I make this topic or this verse simple enough for a child to understand?” Luce and Williams say that’s the wrong method to be pursuing. Instead we need to think about how we can distill what the Bible teaches to our children. They write, “Simplification asks, ‘What can I teach?’ Distillation asks, ‘How can I teach this?’ Distillation is the process by which we take a passage of Scripture or Bible story, which can be complex, and apply the heat of the Spirit of God through prayer and study, through which the Spirit guides us into truth. The result is concentration of truth and clarity as we come to see the truth… The goal of distillation is to focus on the message of the text and what the passage meant to those to whom it was written and then to convey that truth in an age-appropriate way to the kids you are teaching.” The goal of teaching isn’t to water things down, that’s simplifying the Bible. The goal of teaching is to carefully balance and rightly divide the Word so that what we teach is faithful to Scripture and keeps the essential elements of what we are teaching understandable. So think of a story in the Bible that you might hesitate to tell your kids. Maybe think of a story like Noah’s sons walking in on him while he’s passed out, drunk, and naked in his tent in Genesis 9. Like on the surface that would seem like a story that people would want to skip right? But should we? Is it possible to retain the essential elements of that story and explain to children what is happening there? Luce and Williams said, “The question is not if we should teach it, but how can we help kids feel the weight, get the point, and, as a result of hearing this tory, worship Christ for all He has done.” You can teach a simplified lesson of drunkeness is bad, so don’t get drunk like Noah. That’s a simplistic way of teaching that still has a morally good lesson. But don’t you think it would be more effective to teach about how Noah is an imperfect father? That Shem and Japheth are a picture of good and obedient sons that honor their father? That Ham experiences the curse for disobeying and dishonoring his father? Then couldn’t we connect that to the Gospel by saying, “Ham and his descendants would experience a curse for disobeying their imperfect father. Jesus is the greater Shem and the greater Japheth in the way that not only did He honor His perfect Father, the perfect Son of God took on the curse that the imperfect son deserved so that we could all take part in the blessing that was given to the son.” That’s a way that you can distill the truth of the passage in a way that kids could understand. If we are teaching all of Scripture in this way, we will see that our kids are going to grow into faith and grow deeper into the Word of God because they see that there is more to it than just a simplistic, easy approach. When we study at home, ask the question: Am I simplifying this? Or am I clarifying this? Remember you are doing an amazing thing. The children that God has loaned to you to lead and to raise, you have the chance to point them to Jesus. You have the chance to be a little church at home. Donald Whitney said, “Since the church is comprised of family units- from singles to large families and everything in between- if the homes are changed through family worship, the church will be changed.” We want to see a generation of Church changers that are being led by a family of good theologians. Richard Baxter said, “A holy, well-governed family tends not only to the safety of the members but also to the ease and pleasure of their lives. What a sweet and happy life this is! It is the closest thing to heaven on earth.”

Recommended Resources

Before we have some discussion or take some questions, I wanted to share with you all just a couple of resources that I have found helpful or have heard good things about that could help you out.

Donald Whitney- Family Worship

Sam Luce and Hunter Williams- How to Teach Kids Theology

Bruce Ware- Big Truths for Young Hearts

Kenneth Taylor- Everything a Child Should Know About God

Champ Thornton- 10 Questions About Salvation

Matt Chandler- Family Discipleship

Marty Machowski- The Ology

Kevin DeYoung- The Biggest Story Bible

Greg Gilbert- What is the Gospel? Who is Jesus?

John Stott- Basic Christianity

New City Catechism