All curriculum from “Big Truth Bible Lessons for Kids” is heavy on the gospel. In fact being gospel centered is one of our core tenants.
One of the most common questions I receive here at Big Truths is.... what does gospel centered mean?
There are two ways to look at gospel teaching in children's ministry. One is to be gospel centered and the other is gospel adjacent. Gospel adjacent means that you teach your lesson and then tack on the gospel at the end. Gospel centered on the other hand is when the lesson is taught through the lens of the gospel.
This is what we do hear at Big Truth Bible Lessons for Kids. Each lesson we publish explains clearly how the text points to the cross and helps children to see that the whole Bible points to Jesus' death on the cross in our place. Each lesson provides ample ideas of how to share the Gospel with the kids in your class. Our prayer is that weekly you will have many opportunities to talk with children about the good news of Jesus Christ.
When talking of the gospel, Charles Spurgeon once said,
“The things that are essential to salvation are so exceedingly simple that no child need sit down in despair of understanding the things which make for his peace. Christ crucified is not a riddle for sages, but a plain truth for plain people. True it is meat for men, but it is also milk for babes.”
Every time you are with children at church, make sure that you take the time to present the plain truth of the gospel and to pray for the children in your care that they would have hears ready to hear and receive the good news.
This should be the norm in teaching the gospel to children. But, there are also times when it is helpful to have an additional tool on hand to present the gospel, especially at special events.
Here are some helpful tools to use when sharing the gospel:
- Use a tract such as Who will be King? from Matthias Media. This simple presentation shows God as the rightful king and sin causing us to crown ourselves. It ends by reminding kids that there can only be one king and asks them if they will be their king or if God will be their king.
- Draw an illustration like The Bridge to Life, like the one from Navigators. In this illustration, man and God are seen separated with no way to bridge the gap. As the gospel is presented, the cross is drawn in the gap to show that the only way back to God is through Jesus' atoning work on the cross. The bridge illustration can also easily be done "life size" with kids trying to jump across a 6 foot gap and then having a male teacher lay on the floor in the gap and have kids walk across his back.
- Use a life preserver and draw symbols while sharing the good news. When I've done this in the past I've used the following symbols - infinity (God is eternal), world (God made the world), thumbs up (everything was perfect), snake (fall), down arrow (Jesus came to earth), cross (cross), tomb & up arrow (rose again). You could think of other symbols to expound further. I've done this two ways; drawing while telling or just showing the symbols already drawn and having kids guess/ explain what they mean.
- Use a tool like the Wordless Book where the gospel is explained using colors. Some of the many ways you can use this tool are; these tracts, make bracelets, these pre-made bracelets, or even use the colors of the olympic flag. In all of these methods, the colors represent the gospel [black- sin, red - Jesus' blood, gold - eternity with Jesus, etc.].
- Simply talk through the storyline of the Bible using the words - God, man, Jesus, response. God created a perfect world and man to be in a perfect relationship with Him. Man disobeyed the one rule that God gave him, and this was the first sin. The Bible tells is that the right punishment for sin is death. Jesus, the son of God, came to earth as a baby and lived a perfect sinless life. He died on the cross in our place to pay the price for our sin. Three days later, Jesus came back to life so that we can live forever with Him. Now that you've heard this good news you have to decide how you will respond. Will you believe this truth and follow Jesus, or will you choose to ignore this good news?