DELVING DEEPER

WITH CHILDREN’S BIBLE ENGAGEMENT

ANDREW RAMSBOTTOM | SUNZ Children & Families Consultant

Imagine you have been read or told a story. An exciting story, with lots of action and twists and turns. The main character in the story appears to be a little hard done by, but eventually comes out on top. However, five years later, on reading the story for yourself, you discover that the original story that you heard (and have retold and love), was actually only half the story. Two chapters in a four-chapter story were left out. As a result of this, the main characters and some of the reasons for the story being told have been misrepresented. When this happens to an adult, they usually adapt and move on. However, when this happens to children, it can have a detrimental impact on their faith development. A case in point is the book of Jonah. The Bible Project had this to say about the story of Jonah in one of their recent podcasts1: ‘religious media, specifically Christian media

1 https://bibleproject.com/podcast/our-assumptionsabout-jonah/ has already reached the world over with the story of Jonah in creative and sometimes unfortunate ways… the book of Jonah exists in the popular imagination, before the actual story that comes from the Bible has ever connected with people.’ The same is also true of a lot of the Bible. So, how do we engage children with the Bible with integrity for their faith development? We need to raise our expectations of what children are able to deal with when it comes to Scripture, God’s Word. Children’s minds work like sponges, so we need to get it right the first time. Tell children as much of the story as we can so that, as they grow in faith, they don’t have to have the story adjusted. Certainly, there are some sexual and violent incidents in Scripture that would not be appropriate to share with children. But we need to think very, very carefully about those we would leave out and why we would leave them out. We should stay as close to the full text of the Bible narrative as we possibly can because faith is lived out in the real world and the real world is not always kind.

WE NEED TO RAISE OUR EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT CHILDREN ARE ABLE TO DEAL WITH WHEN IT COMES TO SCRIPTURE, GOD’S WORD.

Each Bible story is part of God’s big story, so providing context is very important when exploring Scripture with children. How do we do this? •Show them where the story fits in the timeline of Scripture. •Connect the story or characters in the story to other stories or characters in the Bible. •Use a map and show where the story takes place and some of the journeys between places. •Help children to explore the culture of the time by using visual aids to explain how our culture is different to the culture of the Bible. •Have some books that children can look at as well as hands-on items that they can explore — dress ups are great for this. We need to resist feeling we always have to have a teaching point when we explore the Bible narrative with children. The Bible story or narrative stands on its own. Children don’t have to understand or know why the story was written when they hear it for the first time. They should be allowed, with careful guidance, to explore that for themselves as they grow in faith. One of the easiest ways to do this is to encourage children to ask questions about the stories or to have questions to help them think about what is happening in the story. What do they think characters, including God, were experiencing in the story and why that might be important? If this sort of Bible engagement can be done in an intergenerational context, then Bible engagement with children can be an even richer experience for both the children and the other generations involved. As you work with children, remember that you are on a journey with them. Most times you do not need to teach them. They just need you to be there with them and prepare them for knowing God better and living out faith in the world they inhabit.