by Jeffrey Yeh

For the past couple of years, our K-5 Sunday School ministry has been teaching through the Old Testament. We have more recently been walking through the accounts of Jesus’s life and ministry. Because we cover such a wide breadth of material in the Bible, I have been thinking about how to keep the lessons grounded. How do we tie these varying Bible accounts together? What relation does the account of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years have to do with the account of Judah’s exile in Babylon? What relationship does God’s promises to Abraham have to do with the ministry of Jesus Christ?

Beyond these questions, our ministry has several teachers and support staff that we cycle through on a rotation each week to help with scheduling. Each teacher has his own personal style of teaching, and each staff member has one’s own unique style of leading discussions during small group time. Because the children will often interact with varying staff members and teachers on any given Sunday, what common mindset can the ministry servants share to present a consistent message each Sunday?

In meditating through these questions, I arrived at two general objectives to follow for Children’s ministry. I believe these objectives are applicable for any church ministry that is focused on ministering to elementary-aged school children but they can certainly be applied beyond this focus. And while there are certainly more objectives that a children’s ministry can follow, these two objectives provide a good starting point from which to build upon.

1. Teach children about mankind’s (and their own) sinful state

The Bible makes it clear: the chief problem of mankind is our sinfulness. Romans 3:23 states, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is evident even from Genesis through the texts of the Minor Prophets and up to the last book of Revelation. Our (mankind’s) enslavement to sin is even revealed in the Bible passages that are popularly used to teach Sunday school lessons to children. Listed are several examples:

• In Genesis 6, the account of Noah, God decides to cast the Great Flood because of the sinfulness of mankind. (Genesis 6:5-8)
• Pharaoh continually hardens his heart despite witnessing several plagues brought upon by his sinfulness. (Exodus 9:34)
• In Exodus, even though the people of Israel witnessed several miracles to affirm the presence of God, they sinned and built an idol when they felt Moses was taking too long to come down from Mount Sinai. (Exodus 32:1-10)

Indisputably, the portrayal of mankind’s sin is evident throughout the pages of Scripture. Thus, glossing over it to only present the lighthearted themes of the Bible is a disservice to the children. That is not to say that we should focus only on the topic of sin and nothing else. Rather, in children’s ministry we need to present the Bible faithfully and accurately in an age appropriate way, and in doing so, there is absolutely room for accurately discussing the topic of sin in an age appropriate way. Should we fail to do so, the children entrusted to us may grow up failing to understand why they need a Savior. However, when teaching about sin we must be careful to avoid one common mistake.

It is a mistake of teaching children to avoid sin by action alone, without addressing the heart attitude. We need to avoid focusing only on the external behavior lest we make little Pharisees within our church walls. In 1 Samuel 16:7, the LORD says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” As a result of the Bible’s statement, we need to teach about the difference between a heart that seeks to worship God versus a heart that seeks to disobey. It is also important to keep in mind that our children are not always likely to sin in the same exact ways described in the Bible but the heart attitude behind each sin is universal. Instruction about selfish and idolatrous attitudes can easily be applied in the modern context. This past year, when our ministry taught about the idolatry of Israel and the surrounding nations, we would often question the children about how they might see idolatry manifested in today’s world. We have seen several of the children in our ministry begin to understand how idolatry manifests itself in through an obsessive desire for the attention of others at school, or through selfish possession of their toys.

2. Ultimately point children to their need for God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ

Many of the children in our ministry come from Christian households and have been attending church for most of their lives, and many will be able to do quite well in Bible trivia quiz, but that alone does not make them actually Christian. Let us not confuse Bible knowledge as the sole evidence of a changed heart filled with the Spirit of God. Our ministry understands that most of the children are probably not saved yet and thus we operate as an evangelism ministry.

Our children—who grow up around the church—hear so much about what is right and wrong but care must be given to remind them that they will never measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. Humanity’s insufficiency to save itself from its sin is evidenced by the repeated pattern of Israel and Judah to follow God faithfully for a short time only to turn away in a few generations. This insufficiency then requires us to point the children to the Gospel; focusing exclusively on morals is not a path we should take. Addressing the Gospel is possible even when focusing on an Old Testament curriculum as we did for the past few years. For example, when instructing about sacrifices under the Mosaic Law, there is an opportunity to refer to Hebrews 10:1-18 so that the children may see that Christ is the perfect sacrifice. Or similarly, teachers and parents can show the connection between the Abrahamic Covenant and Christ.

More recently, our ministry has been doing an in depth study of the Gospel by walking through the book of Matthew. It is our hope that this section of the curriculum will benefit the children who have mostly been learning about the Old Testament for the past few years. If it is our mission to make disciples of Christ, then logic follows that the children should know about Christ before they can know Christ.

“How they will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)

In striving for this goal of a gospel-oriented ministry, it is important to remember that the ministry staff only has a short time to spend with the children each week. Those serving in children’s ministry should take heart and not get discouraged if fruit doesn’t always appear to manifest in the children’s lives. Parents who are saved will usually have far more time available to minister to their children. And ultimately, we must remember that God is the one who does the saving work, not us. This is according to Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; and not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So let us endeavor to pray and lift up the salvation of our children to God. Indeed, let us trust in God to save, for in Him we have a wonderful, merciful Savior.