Guiding Your Child to Find God
By Frank King
In our last issue I described a syndrome I call Whack-a-Mole parenting, in which we as parents vainly attempt to respond to Satan’s attacks on the family by whacking them as they come.* I suggested it’s better to have a battle attack plan of our own; one based on Biblical truths and strongly tied into our local church’s belief statements. With this as a base, our children will be prepared for any attack that comes our way. I also revealed that Next Generation Ministries (NGM) has patterned its curriculum here at The Door for children age 3-12 using that base.
In this issue I will give you a heads-up as to what NGM will be teaching your children over the next few months. You may also see a copy of our lesson plan topics on the bulletin board outside the nursery, and ask Pat Seaman for a copy of your own.
This will give you an opportunity to discuss each lesson with the children after it is taught; or better yet, include it in your family devotions the week before, so your children can come to children’s church with a good background for the Sunday lesson.
The most important truth is that grounding in the Word of God is the basis for forming a relationship with God; the relationship He desires and the one that our sin hinders.
We just concluded a series on Creation, so your kids should know that God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) created us; that there is strong scientific evidence for creation, and that this evidence is supported by thousands of scientists.
Most importantly, your children learned that we are created for a purpose: that every child has a God-given destiny (yeah, parents, you do too!); and that destiny depends upon us keeping a working relationship with God.
This month, the children will learn that even though God created a perfect world and perfect friends (Adam and Eve), those friends exercised their God-given free will to rebel against God’s rules.
Our memory verse for the five-week series will be Romans 3:23, 24: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
This memory verse will be repeated each week for five weeks, and the lesson plans each week will build “precept upon precept” until the children understand that memory verse.
The weekly lessons are as follows:
God is perfect; we’re not: (Romans 3:10 There is none righteous, no, not one.)
We are all guilty before God. (Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.)
God loves you no matter what: Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)
Jesus wants to forgive you: (Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.)
Jesus wants to be with you forever: (Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.)
In November we build on the Fall theme by presenting the Christmas Story. The children should now understand that God created the earth for us and that we gave away that perfect world to Satan. Now we will present God’s plan for our redemption: Jesus.
Again, for five weeks we will present the same memory verse, Luke 2:11: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Each week we will break down the memory verse, so kids learn the meaning of one of the words or phrases in it.
In the examples below the phrase that is in italics is the one we are defining.
Our sub-topics for the five weeks will be:
God wants to bless you! (Luke 2:10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. – Support scriptures: Jer. 29:11, Jn. 3:16.)
Jesus is God’s answer for our sin. (Luke 2:11 “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” – Support scriptures: Is. 49:6, Is. 53:1-12, Mt. 20:28, I Jn. 1:9.)
Jesus is God’s only chosen way (Luke 2:11 “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Support scriptures: Ps. 2:2, Is. 61:1, Jn. 14:6.)
Jesus is big enough to take care of us (Luke 2:11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. – Support scriptures: Ps. 2:8, Is. 9:6, Rev. 19:16.)
The series will wrap up on December 12th with a special service in which the children will meet the main characters of the Christmas story.
Then on December 19th the children will present the Christmas story to the main congregation in our annual Christmas play.
We will begin the New Year with a theme of New Beginnings, using the memory verse:
Revelations 21:5a: “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
Then we will move on to the topic of the Christian life from John 16:33: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
As you probably have noticed, there is a lot of meat in each lesson; more than we can present in the short hours we have with your children.
But our mission at NGM is to partner with you, the parents, and together shepherd your children to the biblical truth upon which the Church stands.
If you need help with ideas or presentations you can use in the lessons, or devotionals you have with your children that you would like to share, ask me or any leader in NGM. We look forward to a year of partnership in raising the Next Generation Church.