Teaching Children about Salvation.

[sally.b]

Hi everyone!. J

ust a quick question that has me wondering.... Can I get some practical feedback on how children are taught about salvation in Sunday school?

I have never been involved in childrens ministry or been to sunday school and was saved later in life but recently when I was talking to an eight year old (who goes to sunday school occasionally).. about heaven and when you die etc (because she was talking about things along those lines)... she had no idea of how you get to heaven!

I was stunned as I know she has had a fair bit of christian teaching so I assumed she knew about it, which now prompts my question as I am not familiar with what is appropriate to teach a child?... I guess i assumed the message of the gospel was simple and so would be taught as such, but now i am left to wonder as it seems to me that most of the stories told in sunday school are about the old testament.

Any informative feedback or views appreciated thanks !

 

[stoonboy]

Hey

We do use a fairly simply, but regular approach. 3-4 times per ministry season, all of our children hear the Gospel message. We're not concerned about children making multiple "decisions" because we feel that as children mature, there will be different and new aspects of the Gospel that will connect with them. The approach we take is to clearly describe the reason for Jesus coming to earth (IE to restore our relationship with God by taking the punishment for our sins), we describe his perfect life and sacrifice, and then we describe his resurrection as the defeat of sin and death. The decision we call children to make is as simple as ABC. A=Admit you are a sinner (IE have done things wrong and not measured up to God's standard. B=Believe that Jesus is who He said He is and did what the Bible says He did. C=Choose to be in a relationship with Jesus forever. Hope this helps!

 

[tinkerbell]

One thing that helps is finding good materials to use to help you. Find some materials so that the kids can be learning stuff at home the rest of the week. I have one question for you though - what age group are you working with, because that does make a difference?

 

[fuzzyh]

I use wordless books to teach salvation, you could probably google that. It is easy and works well for kids of all ages. It was also taught to me VERY early on, so I've been doing it for a while.

I do notice that most kids in our Children's Ministry have no clue what it takes to be saved. Many children assume that you are born into a Christian family. We've had to talk about this many times that even "Christians" need salvations.

 

[sally.b]

Great replies..thanks!

 

[indagroove]

I am going to bump this thread because it is important, and I am stuck.

My wife and I started our Family Night Ministry for our girls.

I have three girls ages 8,9,& 9. And one 16. The 16 yo is a more mature Christian, so were are creating our lessons for the younger three.

They have been thought about faith, and God, They know how to pray to God. We have gone from blind faith, to real faith in our creator as evidenced by everything around us. They believe Jesus is son of God, and Jesus loves and forgives.

I want the next lesson to be "WHY WE NEED JESUS"

I know I need him becasue I am broken, lost, and can do nothing on my own except crash-n-burn

My daughters however, think they are all perfect, and do no wrong, and are justified when they do something to their sibling. I know there are other issues in there, we are working on the boundries thing too

But I am trying to come up with something thay can understand in the Good news of Jesus.

I'll start with the Greatest commend of Jesus, in Love your fellow man.

* Give to others
* Jesus Forgives because we are still mean to each other, lie, and touch other peoples stuff.


Can anyone help me in this?

Thanks and God Bless !

 

[Robinsegg]

The official approach of the Southern Baptist Convention seems to be the ABC method:
Admit
Believe
Confess.

Another time-honored method is the Roman Road. I like this one, because it uses Scripture to specifically tell kids (or anyone) who needs Jesus and why.

One other picture is a piece of plate glass. With a marker, you divide the glass into 10 sections. What happens if you break one section? The whole thing is broken. Thus, if we break one law (ie we don't honor our parents, or we take someone's pencil), we've broken the entire law. This is what we need Jesus for: to take the punishment for breaking the law.

One other approach is to read through the story of Adam and Eve. Explain that because of them we all have a sin nature. Thus, we are sinful in our thoughts, even if not in our deeds. Our hearts and minds are what God looks at, not only our deeds, and He judges them. Have we never had an evil thought? Can we stand before a righteous God and say we are completely innocent? Who can? Jesus.

Rachel

 

[mrscplus]

We actually have an 8 year plan for our kids. We begin by teaching them just how much God loves them - through creation, Ps 119, and why he sent Jesus.
We move through the bible stories, and how they help us to see the part He has for us in His story. We also work with the parents to encourage and re-inforce this at home.
We teach the kids how to read their bible, what parts it's divided into, and that it's just not enough to have it in thier head, but that it must go into the heart too.
Then as they mature, we teach them how to apply God's truths to thier every day life - if the have the tools, they will be able to survive what Society will throw at them.

Each age level learns why we need to trust in Jesus, and that He did everything to have a relationship with Him. Each year ends with the teachers giving an opportunity to have the kids make a decision to follow Him.

 

[sally.b]

That sounds fantastic Mrsplus.!

Is there a shorter message or plan you have for the odd child that is perhaps a one off?... Or short term comers or goers?

You know???... like the visitor child, or one that comes a few times a term or something?

 

[SiyoNqoba]

Oh, I know. Last year, one of my lessons included what I thought would be a "re-cap" about why we need salvation, for a group of 7 - 10 year old girls I taught dance to as part of our children's ministry. One of these girls was my youth pastor's daughter, and another was a prominent children's ministries worker's daughter. The others came to church semi-regularly. They all knew what sin was, and they all knew that Jesus died to save us. But they didn't know the connection, and they didn't know that sin seperated us from God. So it turned into a full lesson.

I now try to include a "salvation message" in my curriculum (5 - 10 year olds) as often as possible, usually once every five weeks. That way, the kids get so many chances to learn more about it and discuss their thoughts surrounding it.

 

[mrscplus]

our thought on our visitor's is rather like the pastor's approach to the sermons...if Jesus isn't preached, we have missed the point.

All the lessons will have the element of "and this is why we need to trust in what God did through Jesus."

 

[Rossi]

The official approach of the Southern Baptist Convention seems to be the ABC method:
Admit
Believe
Confess.

Another time-honored method is the Roman Road. I like this one, because it uses Scripture to specifically tell kids (or anyone) who needs Jesus and why.

One other picture is a piece of plate glass. With a marker, you divide the glass into 10 sections. What happens if you break one section? The whole thing is broken. Thus, if we break one law (ie we don't honor our parents, or we take someone's pencil), we've broken the entire law. This is what we need Jesus for: to take the punishment for breaking the law.

One other approach is to read through the story of Adam and Eve. Explain that because of them we all have a sin nature. Thus, we are sinful in our thoughts, even if not in our deeds. Our hearts and minds are what God looks at, not only our deeds, and He judges them. Have we never had an evil thought? Can we stand before a righteous God and say we are completely innocent? Who can? Jesus.

Rachel

Whats the Roman Road?

 

[Robinsegg]

The Roman Road is a set of passages that explain why we need a Savior, and how to go about it. Most of the verses are in Romans. The first couple are:
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23

Rachel

 

[Rossi]

Cool thanks.

 

[shout2thelord]

while we have a regular teaching plan for all topics throughout the year we also have an altar call every service for children 3 years and above. We werent doing this at one point at the kids program at the womens meeting and 2 for year olds came up because they hard heard something from a older sister and asked if they could ask Jesus into their heart and why they didnt ask everyone in the meeting. so now we do have an altar call.

 

[sally.b]

Hi Shout2the Lord
Do you find that this prompts children to get up repeatedly just because others are getting up?
I could picture this naturally happening (not that there'd be any harm in that I suppose) but it if this was not the case then it is an interesting thought to picture such little ones making such a decisive response to the call.

I only ask as the older children in our church of 13 or so, were often baptised just because there peers did.
So I was wondering how different it may be with younger ones when responding to something such as an alter call. ?

 

[nahtanojmal]

Way of the master have good resources for teaching the salvation message. Here's one of their kid gospel tracts

rest of gospel tract here
http://wayofthemaster.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=27_34&products_id=141

can't put in any more images but you can find more on their websites. Just search for Way of the Master

 

[kittn1]

Romans 3:10
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Romans 5:8
Romans 10:9
Romans 10:13

These verses are the way I was taught the Romans Road. I find it easiest to stay in one book to present the Gospel because at this stage of the game I'm still not comfortable giving the invitation!