We are starting a new series in our church on the book of Galatians. We will be talking about Galatians for 6 weeks in “Big Church” and 3 weeks using XP3 for our 5&6th graders. I also had the privilege of interviewing Sally Lloyd-Jones for the next edition of K! one of the things Sally said about the Gospel has gotten me thinking the past few weeks. What I took from her response to my questions is that we teach the Bible to kids as a list of do’s and don’t and we communicate to kids that the Bible is full of superheros that achieve things we never will. We don’t explain the Gospel to kids.
I am a fan of orange thinking but personally I think the kidmin community is thinking so much about the red (family) side of things that we are neglecting the Yellow (church) side of things. I am willing to be wrong but what kids need more than a milestones alone is a clear understanding of the gospel. Parents need to understand and communicate to their kids that virtues, milestones are great but being a good kid doesn’t save you. Doing things even good things doesn’t bring favor on your life. The gospel is Jesus Christ + nothing else = our assurance.
In all our talk about partnering with families we need to be clear that our goal is not modified behavior but gospel centered life transformation. So for those of us involved with teaching kids we need to ask ourselves before we think orange am I thinking yellow. Because when it’s all said and done it’s the power of the holy spirit at work in our lives that really transforms us and really transforms our families. It’s not virtues, milestones, spiritual disciplines alone that does that work it’s the power of the gospel thorough the work of the holy spirit we must never forget, minimize or neglect that!
[thanks to Tony Kummer for helping with my blog title today.]
