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One of the most popular teaching methods used in Children’s Ministry today for presenting the Gospel to kids is the ABC’s of becoming a Christian. It associates the Gospel with the alphabet, Admit, Believe and Confess, seams simple enough! While there is truth in this, each step must be properly explained. Quickly and carelessly leading a kid through the ABCs of Becoming a Christian will produce nothing more than another confused lost child.

Admit you’re a sinner. To help a child understand that they have sinned we tell them to admit they have messed up. Which is not hard to do at all, as a matter of fact it is really easy to get a kid to admit they have messed up. They get moved from the green light to the yellow light school, or they pull a clothespin, or any other visual teaching tools that teachers use as part of their discipline procedures. At home they may have had their favorite toy taken away. Regardless of the consequence and regardless of the consistency, all children realize they mess up. They may not agree that their behavior is out of line, but they do realize their behavior does not always meet the expectation of an authority figure.

And have you noticed what entertains our society today? Boys today play video games that glorify a thief! The point of the game is to steal a car and drive it around, the character even looks cool. Our society puts athletes high on a pedestal, and when they mess up, they seem to only elevate higher. Have you ever heard the phrase, “bad publicity is still publicity”? An athlete messes up, says he’s sorry and continues to make millions. Girls look up to teenage stars that wear next to nothing, just turn the TV on tonight. Channels that play music videos I would be embarrassed to watch if my mother was in the room during the commercial break of a cartoon intended for a 6 year old.

That is what we are facing as Children’s Ministry Leaders and as Parents. Kids ask, “What’s so bad about being bad?” They see immorality glorified all throughout society. Again, just turn the TV on tonight. Go to iTunes and see what music is popular. It’s cool to be a sinner!

So our goal cannot be to get a child to Admit they are a sinner, they know. We have to get our children to realize what their sin does to them. They have to become Aware that their sin keeps them from having a special and intimate relationship with God. Teach them Genesis 3! 

3 Questions

There are three questions that you ask yourself every day, multiple times a day, over and over again. Question number one, where am I? Question number two, where do I need to be? Question number three, how do I get there?

Where are you? You woke up this morning and you immediately realized where you were. Well hopefully you immediately realized that, if not you need to address some things! But more than likely you woke up opened your eyes and you were in your bedroom. Call it an awareness of your location.

Where do you need to be? Take a typical weekday for example. If you’re like most you work during the week. So you wake up, become aware of your location and at some point your mind then switches to the awareness of where you need to be, at work. You do whatever you do to get ready for work, because you have an awareness of your need to be at work.

How do you get there? So you woke up, realized where you were and you have realized where you need to be. So now you are faced with the third question, how do you get there? Or you may ask yourself what is going to get you there?  You need to get from point A to point B. Most of the people I know, including myself, use a car. Some may use a bus or a cab and a few might walk. But most of us will rely on getting in something to get us to where we need to be.

This is a concept we can all get our minds around. Where are we? Where do we need to be? How do we get there? Even young children can understand this. School is getting ready to start back soon. My kids are going to wake up and realize where they are. With my help by the way, “wake up get out of bed”! They are going to realize where they need to be. With my help by the way, “get ready you have to go to school”! They are going to realize how to get there. With my help by the way, “let’s go, get IN the car”! If you have kids they may ride the bus and you say, “come on you have to catch the bus”! For the kids that ride a bus to school, they have an understanding that they must get IN the bus in order for it to take them to school.

The Gospel. Where are we? We are separated from an intimate and personal relationship with God because of our sin. Where do we need to be? We need to be in an intimate and personal relationship with God. How do we get there? We get there by getting IN Jesus Christ our Savior; 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” NIV.