By Meredith Miller
If you’ve ever felt nervous to talk with a kid about the Bible, here’s a question for you: can you name what, specifically, you worried about? The answer might provide a clue for how you can try something fresh with the kids in your life.
Here are 3 responses I often hear, and if any of them hit home for you, I have an idea for a Bible skill that might help you the next time you get to explore a Bible story with a kid.
1. “I don’t know enough about it to teach it how I’d like OR to respond if they ask questions.”
I think it makes a lot of sense to feel daunted by the Bible. (And I say this as a pastor with a shed/office full of nerdy Bible books.) But hear me: you don’t need to be an expert; you’re this kiddo’s companion. You’re a guide, not a guru. In particular, you are guiding young people to notice what’s happening in the story or passage and to activate their curiosity and critical thinking about it. Growing curiosity and wonder is a Bible skill.
The Bible Skill of Curiosity and Wonder
These are the questions with no right or wrong answer that invite young people in. They don’t require you to be a Bible expert at all. They are focused on exploring the story to see what really resonated with, confused or captivated them.
- What did you notice, wonder about or think was weird in this story?
- What stood out to you?
- If you had been there, what might you have thought or felt?
2. “Our kids’ Bible seems to harp on being obedient and it crowds out God.”
You know the time Jesus asked a child to stand by him so he could tell the adults, “If you receive this child in my name, you receive me”? (Luke 9:48, NTFE) I will never forget the kid’s Bible that added a margin box telling young readers how, when Jesus asked the boy to come, the boy did not hesitate or question Jesus. He obeyed Jesus right away (and you can too!)
I think I missed that part in Luke’s story.
But it’s pretty common for Bible resources for young people to focus on how they should behave. That approach misses something critical kids need as they begin to interact with scripture: to notice the story it tells us about who God is.
The Bible Skill of God-Centered Storytelling
The Bible is not just about the humans and whether they obeyed or not. It’s about getting to know God. My favorite question to grow this skill is:
“Every Bible story tells us something about who God is and what God’s like (often many ‘somethings’) and so I’d love to hear: what did you notice about what God is like this time?”
‘This time’ is an important phrase, because it subtly communicates that there will be a next time, when something different may strike them because they have grown, or because new detail stood out to them. Most of all, the Holy Spirit might bring something fresh to their mind as they hear a passage in the future. This question helps kids come back to the same text repeatedly expecting it to still reveal God to us.
3. “So many parts of the Bible are hard, sad, violent, or just out of sync with the world we live in now.”
We cannot pretend the Bible is all child-friendly and oh-so-easy to pass along. So what do we do with the hard parts of Scripture when it comes to kids?
One thing that helps is teaching kids that the storytellers (and later, the writers) of the Bible lived in a different time, place and culture than we do. There’s a cultural distance between us and them, and so we can use the Bible skill of Time Hopping to help us cover that distance.
The Bible skill of Time Hopping
Time hopping is the skill of trying to understand and imagine how a person from “Bible times” would really see the world. As we do, it helps us at least try to allow for some of the harder parts of the Bible that we wish were different. It’s the skill of asking questions like:
- Why did this story matter to the original group who told it?
- What was important to them that maybe isn’t to me?
- What is the same and different about their world then and ours today?
Wait! you say, You just said I didn’t need to be an expert! That’s still true!
But sometimes there’s something about the history, context, or culture that speaks to this question: If something in the Bible seems bad to me, is there some reason it might have seemed good to them?
So guess together based on what you do know about the world of the Bible. Later, do some digging, then circle back later on.
Remember, the best conversation about the Bible with a kid is the one that actually happens. So tell them a story about God, listen to what they think about it, try to help with the tricky parts, and know that your presence is the most important thing you can give.
About Meredith Miller: Meredith is Lead Pastor of Pomona Valley Church, a parent, and writer who helps grownups, and the kids they love, engage with the Bible and faith in ways that are life-giving, fun, and a fit for their real lives.
Her 20+ years in family ministry for local churches, curriculum development and faith formation research inform the resources she currently creates, including her books: Wonder: 52 Conversations to Help Kids Fall In Love with Scripture and Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have To Heal From.
Meredith serves Youthfront as its theological advisor for children’s ministry.
