Discipling Our Kids
Last evening Ruby and I tucked the kids in bed a little early. We said we wanted them to get rest, but in reality we wanted a little down time, too. Mixed motives! Not too long after, our oldest came down because he couldn’t sleep. We sent him back upstairs to read – his choice…the Bible, a devotional, or the first of the Hunger Games books that he’s halfway through.
He came down a short time later and said he was freaked out. I thought he was reading the Hunger Games (great books, by the way). Nope. He was reading a devotional.
The line he was freaked out by…”Tomorrow it might be too late.”
This devotional written for young people exemplifies a trend in discipleship, especially among discipleship for kids, that greatly disturbs me. It is the trend that uses fear and emphasizes all the sin parts of the bible to get them to make a decision for Jesus. This is not just prevelant among kids – it’s the emphasis of much preaching, too. It is what prompted Scot McKnight to write his corrective to this trend in his (outstanding) book, The King Jesus Gospel.
There is so much wrong building our discipleship around the sin issue. The bible does not begin with Genesis 3 and humanity rebelling against God. It starts with the creativity of God in Genesis chapter 1 and bringing life out of nothingness. When we begin our discipleship in Genesis 3 the driving theme in our spirituality and our discipleship is death.
I would suggest we begin in the beginning – with our kids and in our churches – with Genesis 1 and the life God brings to all of creation. Framed that way, the narrative begins and ends with life – and the middle is filled with God’s work to return us to life in him. And this does ultimately happen in Christ – as he dies to defeat sin – and welcomes us into life.
Our kids are to precious to use fear to manipulate them into decisions for Jesus. I would encourage us to go back to the instructions given to us in Deuteronomy 6 that instruct us, as parents, to live out our faith. The thing that will impact our children most is how we are present with them – how we show them Jesus through living a life of grace and truth grounded in the life and love of God.
**As an aside, for those looking for an excellent resource for kids, check out The Jesus Storybook Bible.