lan Warner
You may be raising children, teaching children, or preparing to be around them more. As a Christian, you play a role in disciplining the children of God. Many adults struggle with sharing the Gospel with other adults. I think that same fear of sharing the Gospel is present in kids because they will ask you a million questions. You need some creative ways to share the Gospel with kids that will engage them and leave them excited to enter into the grace of God.
One of the challenges with sharing the Gospel today is that people don’t want to share the bad news. There is no good news without bad news, and this applies to little souls as well. One of the things you learn quickly as a parent is the idea of total depravity. We don’t need to be taught to be selfish or to sin. Most kids figure out how to sin on their own. Their parents don’t teach them to lie; they just figure it out.
When getting creative with sharing the Gospel, don’t skip the sin part. It will be an incomplete Gospel presentation. When kids don’t understand that we are sinners, the Gospel is more of an addition or a cherry on top of life. It’s nice to have, but you don’t need it. But when you present our true need for Jesus, then the Gospel becomes the entire pie instead of the cherry.
The Three Little Pig
The three little pigs are one I personally use with my kids a lot, and they love it. The three little pigs take three different pigs who all want a safe and secure home to live in.
Pig 1 – Builds house out of straw
Pig 2 – Builds house out of the stick
Pig 3 – Build a house out of brick
The big bad wolf comes and blows the first two houses down, and then the third house remains stable because it was built with the right foundation. A lot of people focus this story on hard work, which fits very well in the western world. But it’s a creative way to point to the Gospel.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Encourage your kids to be like the wise pig who builds his house on the right foundation. The third pig was concerned with honoring God before playing. He took time to pray before he did anything. When God told him to act, he moved and built his house with the right foundation. It would not easily be knocked down by some simple rain or wind.
The Gospel
The reality is that we tend to be like the first two pigs. We are not the hero of the story. Jesus is the only one who trusts the father completely and lives with no sin. We don’t need to try and build our house, but we need to repent and run to his house for safety. We can’t accomplish what Jesus did in our strength.
Use Colors
Using colors is a great way to share the Gospel with kids. You can allow each color to represent something different to make it easier to understand.
- Red = The blood of Christ.
- White = Being cleansed and made new
- Black = Sin
- Gold – God
- Green – Growth in Christ
You can tell the story using colors in so many different ways. Start with God and his perfection and teach kids about the attributes of God.
Then go to black to talk about sin and how it separates us from the perfection and beauty of God. This sets up tension and a huge problem. What can be done to make this problem right? Only a loving God could fix this problem. From there, you can easily go to the blood of Christ and how the red washes us new.
Put your creative juices to the test when using color as a creative way to share the Gospel with kids.
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s ark is a story that kids tend to gravitate towards. It has water, a storm, animals, and all the makings of an easy story for a child to remember. Here is the problem, it can easily be told as this story that makes Noah sounds like he is so good that God chose to save him. When in reality, Noah did not deserve anything but death, but God chose him.
In the story of Noah’s Ark, there are many parallels to the Gospel. God saw wickednesses in the world and decided to do something about it. He wanted to wash the evil away from the world and decided that he would save Noah and his family through the water.
He told Noah to build an ark, and he spent many years of his life doing this. He was faithful to the commands of God and was saved as a result of it. God saved Noah and the rest of the world.
The story mirrors the Gospel.
- Today God looks at us as sees us living in sin.
- The punishment for sin is death.
- Noah had the Ark, but we have Jesus, and instead of a flood, we have the water of Baptism.
- You have to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that he beat death to be saved.
Noah’s Ark is a great story, but it’s not this Disney fairy tale. The whole point of the story is it points to the coming savior who would eventually save the world. Kids should not read into the story and think they are Noah. Instead, they are the people being washed away by the flood who need Jesus.
Use Moments Where Kids Know They Messed Up
One creative way to share the Gospel with kids that are often missed is when kids mess up. It’s really easy to get a kid in trouble and then leave them in the shame of their sin. When they are continually feeling bad for what they have done, it’s the perfect place to insert the Gospel. Let them know that they don’t have to carry it and that Jesus came not for the healthy but for the sinner.
These moments are wonderful opportunities to help kids to recognize that they are sinners in need of Jesus Christ. It’s easy for kids to think they are perfect little angels or, on the other end of the spectrum, to think they are not worthy of any love. It’s important that kids understand that they are sinners, but Jesus loves them anyway, and he adopts them into the family of God.
When we grasp sin and the love of Jesus, we can repent. We can give our sins to Jesus since he died for them and walk as a new creation in him.
Break Down The Gospel
I break this down in more detail here.
- Who is God?
- Who are we?
- What did God do?
- How do we respond to what God did?
Answer these questions for kids. Point to God in everything you do so that they understand that it’s not by works that they will be saved. God is perfection, and his qualities of love, grace, majesty, peace, and so many other things can be matched by no one other than Jesus.
The problem is that we are sinners, and it separates us from God because he can’t mix with sin.
What did God do? God came down to earth and died on the cross for us. He took the punishment that we all deserved, and for us to be saved, we just need faith to believe that.
Passover
In Exodus 12, we get introduced to Passover. God’s people are given specific instructions for a final plague that will hit Egypt. The firstborn sons are going to be killed. For God’s people to not have their firstborn killed, they needed to spread the blood of an innocent lamb on their door. The spirit of God would know that God’s people reside there and skip over that house. People would be shown God’s mercy because of their blood.
The story parallels what happens because of the blood of Christ. The people of this world can do nothing to save themselves. They need God to show up and do something. Jesus lived the perfect life and was killed and raised three days later, providing he is God and that he beat death itself. When you believe in Jesus, God’s wrath passes over your sins because your sins are covered.
This is a great story to share with kids. It will help them to see that we may have consequences here on earth for our sins, but ultimately, because of Jesus, our sins will be passed over. We can continue to share this story with kids over and over because it’s so foundational to the word of God.
Use Moments Where Kids Are Proud
One creative way to share the Gospel with kids that are also missed is when kids feel proud. In the western world, we believe in hard work too much. Kids grow up thinking they can do their way to whatever they want in life, and when they are proud, they rarely boast in Christ. In reality, they think God is only present during hard times s, but when things go well, it’s because of how awesome they are.
When kids are proud, it’s a good opportunity to remind them of the Gospel. Remind them that Jesus died for their sins and that we are 100% dependent on God not just for salvation but for everything in life because all good gifts come from him. Don’t let these moments go because when we shine, it’s only because God has allowed us to.
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