Tag Archives: God
Confusing terminolgy and spiritual concepts for kids: Hearing God’s voice
Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Here’s my third post in “calling out” the terminology Children’s Pastors sometimes use when communicating to kids. Just so you know, I’m really not some self-righteous jerk making people feel bad. Every example I’ve written and plan to write, I’ve been guilty of saying at one time or another. Even writing these posts have caused me to even more carefully examine the words I use. We hold a valuable responsibility. We should steward it well.
Here’s another one that bothers me, probably more so because I’ve fumbled this one up with so many kids. It involves explaining how God speaks to us. Now, I don’t want to get into a spiritual debate due to differences in theological viewpoints, that’s not what this is really about. Feel free to disagree, but if we have a discussion, lets keep it to the point about not confusing kids pertaining to how we hear God’s voice.
Too many times when teaching kids how to hear God’s voice (outside what is written in the Bible), we tell kids that God probably won’t speak out loud, so we typically won’t hear what he has to say to us through our ears. Instead, we have to listen with our heart becasue that’s one of the ways he speaks to us, to our heart. You’ll know when he’s talking to you. Maybe I’m just the minority. These words have come out of my mouth before and I’ve heard them come from others. How confusing is this? As a Christian, fully indoctrinated in Christianeese, this makes sense to me or I can get the gist of it. But to a new believer or a child who sees the world through a literal viewpoint, this sounds kinda stupid.
I think we have we have to be very clear about what it looks like to hear God’s voice. Here’s just a sampling.
- God does want to talk to us and he does have something to say. It’s not usually a matter of whether he’s talking, but more a matter of if we’re listening.
- The Bible, God’s word, is his primary message to us. Those who seek his voice should probably spend more time with their nose in this book. God can and will speak to us outside the scripture, but it always comes back to the scripture. Does what God is saying to you line up with his word? If not, it was probably the pizza you ate last night. God will never contradict the scriptures.
- God will speak to us through others. This is why it’s so important to surround yourselves with godly company. It’s funny when people say, “I felt like the pastor had been reading my mail.” No, God’s been reading your mail! When I have difficult decisions to make, I listen to what Godly people are saying to me. When someone calls me out on crap I’ve been doing, I listen. Too many times someone has shared something with me either directly or indirectly and over several days or weeks, God’s used those words to create change in my heart.
- God will speak to us through the Holy Spirit. However, he’s not going to speak to your heart, your heart can’t hear anything silly. What this is going to look like is a thought is going to pop into your head. It could be something the Holy Spirit is saying to you. It could be your own thought. It might just be a good idea. However, it’s up to you to discern what is from God/Holy Spirit or what is from you. (1 Cor. 2:10-16)
I think that when teaching kids who to hear God’s voice, we should probably spend more time teaching kids how to be discerning as opposed to creative ways to hear the voice of God and the best way to be better at discerning is to spend time in God’s word and hiding it in our hearts.
Teaching kids how to heard God’s voice doesn’t have to be weird or mysterious. We can be honest and clear and as kids grow in their faith, knowledge and wisdom, they to will be able to discern what God is speaking to them!
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Confusing terminolgy and spiritual concepts for kids: Salvation, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Wow, that’s a long title. I think it’s a record for me.
So yesterday I started this series by posting about how many kids mix up God with God the Father which may seem like I’m getting picky, but it does create confusion around the relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit with God the Father. Today’s closely ties into this concept of “trinity” confusion.
When I was four years old, I asked Jesus into my heart. I really did. The funny thing is that when I was young, I literally pictured my heart having a little door on it and inside was a little bench that Jesus could sit on. I eventually came to understand that Jesus didn’t really live in my heart just like I came to understand that the tooth fairy doesn’t exist. However, for many years I continued to tell children how they could invite Jesus into their hearts. Habits die hard, don’t they?
Why do we tell children to invite Jesus into their hearts when Jesus doesn’t come to live in their hearts? Kids are so incredibly literal. When explaining this to kids, they have a very hard time seeing beyond the picture of Jesus literally living in their heart. If kids really are so literal, why can’t we be a little more straight forward with kids? They’re not stupid. I just think that we fail to clearly explain what is happening. Maybe we’re too quick just to “get kids saved” that we neglect to give them the full picture of what surrendering their lives to Christ really means.
So, let’s review real quick?
- Where is God the Father? In heaven, right?
- Where is Jesus the son? In heave too, at the father’s right hand.
- Where’s the Holy Spirit? That’s right, the Holy Spirit is with us. When Jesus left, he promised the Holy Spirit would come.
So, I was made to have a relationship with God, but my sin keeps me from him. However, if I recognize my sinfulness and need for saving and believe that Jesus provides a way to have a relationship with God and I let Jesus be in charge of my life and let him guide me from this time forward, I can be restored in relationship with God. As a result, the Holy Spirit comes to live in me, comfort me, guide me and encourage me. Isn’t that the gist of it?
Sure, it takes a little longer to set all of that up and it’s not as easy to say as just inviting Jesus into my heart. I don’t think we should give kids false information just because we think they’ll understand it better. It’s the most important decision they’ll make in their entire lives. Although I don’t expect every kid to fully understand every implication of following Christ (I’m 33 and I haven’t gotten there yet) I do think that every child can see a clear picture and make a personal decision.
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Confusing terminolgy and spiritual concepts for kids: God
Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Here’s the first spiritual concept our kids seem to be really confused about. I’m not sure it’s exactly something we’ve taught wrong, but maybe something we’ve not been clear enough about. It deals with the trinity. Don’t worry, I’m not about to get into various methodologies of teaching the trinity. There are plenty of theories and illustrations on how to best teach that and you’re on your own there. However, a huge number of kids seem to regularly interchange “God” with “God the father.” You may feel that I’m splitting hairs here, but I think it’s more significant that a simple mistake.
I was reading a blog last night where a young girl was explaining the relationship between God and Jesus. God and Jesus? Isn’t that like going to a Mexican restaurant and ordering cheese queso? Jesus is God and God is Jesus, but the young girl intended was God the Father and Jesus. I’ve encountered this more times that I can remember. If there’s a way to poll your kids without “leading” them, you’d probably be surprised how many kids believe the trinity is made up for God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Again, it seems like a really nit-picky detail, but the misunderstanding can have huge ramifications. Continuing to mistake God the Father with God further promotes that Jesus is not the same person as God as neither is the Holy Spirit. Confusing God with God the Father also mistakenly elevates God the Father to position of importance above Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Although God the Father has a role of authority among the other persons of God, he is equally important as Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Explaining the trinity isn’t easy and understanding it isn’t easy either. How you explain it is up to you. However, take note on how you describe and reference the persons of God being careful to name and reference all three equally as God. Each person of the trinity plays an important role in our lives, so it helps immensely to have a proper understanding of all three
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God spoke to me through the internet!
Posted on 04. Apr, 2007 by Kenny.
God spoke to me last night. You’re reading this right now (if anyone is reading this) because God spoke to me last night! It was very late and I was jumping around the web, reading various articles and blogs on Children’s Ministry. Usually I’m surfing the web doing research and looking for fresh ideas, but last night I was more obsessed with finding out who was blogging all things children’s ministry. There were definitely more bloggers than I expected to find, but certainly not enough. I went to be determined that I was going to start blogging right away. [...]
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