Teaching the children

Perhaps some of us need to be reminded of this when we are distracted by a noisy baby on a Sunday morning, or when we raise our eyebrows at youngsters chasing each other around the pews after a service. When Jesus said, Let the children come to me, he was administering a stern rebuke to disciples then and now who want their walk with God to be a child-free zone.

Of course, children are at times silly, ignorant and irritating – the Bible never holds a pink fluffy view of them – but they are unspeakably precious to God and a token of blessing to their parents and the wider community.

Children are not merely to be tolerated, or even just petted and loved, they are to be taught. The whole baton-passing idea from one generation to another is a clear motif throughout Scripture. Tell your children…(Exodus 10:2), Teach your children…(Deuteronomy 4:9), When your children ask… (Joshua 4:6), One generation shall tell another… (Psalm 145:4). Teaching can be informal and spontaneous, but normally the word implies an activity which is purposeful and strategic. There is a learning objective: ..that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord..

Many of our churches rightly stress that it is parents first and foremost who must instruct their children in the things of God (Ephesians 6:4). But remember that many of the commands above were addressed to the whole believing community. The insular, nuclear family is very much a modern, western idea. In the Bible, raising children implied a collective, community responsibility – as is still the case in many parts of the world. So don’t look pained or bored, or take a nap, when the minister addresses the children. Support him, pray for him and model enthusiastic and rapt attention to the youngsters around you. They have not heard the story before, or if they have, are not so silly as to think that a good story will not bear repeating.

I realise that this is a contentious point and I am certainly not in favour of making everything in church life child-centred, but my observation and experience teaches me that children under a certain age will not gain much of spiritual value from the average sermon. They may learn to sit still and quiet even when what is going on around them is incomprehensible and inaccessible; they may become highly proficient at mental mathematical games with the numbers on the hymn board; they may, being supplied with felt tip pens etc produce a beautifully coloured-in picture of Noah’s Ark; they may do none of the above and suffer due chastisement. Even worse they may gain the dubious skill of being able to switch off completely, the skill of unlistening, which in later life, post-conversion, is very hard to break. (An older Christian of my acquaintance confesses she was an expert at this last skill, and struggled for years afterwards.) But children’s presence while a sermon is preached does not mean they are being taught. Nor is the fear of the Lord caught by osmosis. For these and other reasons, I believe there is a strong argument for removing the children to a place for separate, accessible, meaningful instruction.

Parents and others who have engaged in teaching children often recount tales of how they think they have taught one thing but the children have learned quite another. It is possible to totally misunderstand, sometimes hilariously, the content or meaning of a lesson, like the child who thought Pontius Pilate flew an aeroplane or the one who thought losing his your soul had to do with footwear. Sunday school can be a mishmash of archaic images and metaphors – all those arks, tabernacles, garments, weapons and vineyards! We must make sure that the children are learning what we intend them to learn. How can we do that and make the most of the time we have with the children? I have four suggestions:

1. Decide on your aims. At the church where I serve the ‘aim of Sunday School is to teach children the Bible, so that by the age of 11, each one is reasonably familiar with Bible history and the major doctrines of the Christian faith. A secondary aim is to engender amongst the children a sense of belonging to the family of the church.’
2. Invite and support suitable people to be involved in this exciting work. When I say suitable I mean, among other things, people who are well-taught, competent to explain truth to children and who are passionate enough about Jesus to want to talk to children about him and concerned enough for his glory to want to talk to him about children. Age is not a barrier to this job.
3. Devise an appropriate teaching programme. There is a limited range of materials on the market. Some are better than others. Nothing will be a perfect fit for your group. If you want something tailor-made, become a tailor: select, cut, adapt or create to your requirements. Your curriculum should cover the whole Bible and yet be Christ-centred. A ‘big picture’ approach is very helpful especially when teaching the Old Testament, lest you reduce it to a series of moralistic tales with dodgy theology. (For an excellent ‘big picture’ resource, I recommend ‘The King, the Snake and the Promise’, published by the Good Book Company.) The major doctrines of God, man, Christ, salvation should be presented systematically.
4. Use songs, games and activities to serve your purpose. Lively sessions will be more effective than boring ones. Storytelling is central and it is a skill which can be improved upon by practice and by observation of good practitioners. But songs are also an effective means of teaching doctrine and memorising Bible verses. Don’t waste time on nonsense! Use games to illustrate a concept: many children, especially boys, learn more when they are active. For example, start off a session on ‘the pearl of great price’ with a treasure hunt.

Sometimes you hear conversion testimonies which say, ‘I went to Sunday School when I was little but it made no impression…’. The story then unfolds that at some later time, they heard God’s call and responded. But where did they get their understanding of who God is and what Jesus did? All that groundwork was done in Sunday School. Make no mistake: this is gospel work.