Bible Study – Page 3

Bible Skills, Bible Study, Kids Devotions, Kids Ministry

November 7, 2018

Foundations for Kids: New Testament

Kayla Stevens is the Content Editor for LifeWay Kids Discipleship. She is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and William Carey University. Kayla lives in Nashville, Tennessee and has served in Kids ministry for over 10 years.

“Look, Ms. Kayla!” I often heard as little feet darted down the hallways. “I brought my Bible today!” As a KidMin leader, these were words I loved to hear each Sunday. “I am so glad,” I smiled in return, “because today we are going to open it and use it!”

As parents and ministry leaders, we long for the Word of God to be treasured and transformative in the lives and hearts of our kids. We pray for their salvation. We work to disciple not only spiritually healthy kids but healthy adults who continue to grow and make more disciples of King Jesus. Yet, where do we start in this huge task of disciple-making? I think the answer may be simpler than we sometimes imagine.

We start by opening the Bible.

According to LifeWay Research and Nothing Less, the single greatest spiritual influencer of healthy Christian adults is that they read their Bibles as children. Yet, regular Bible reading is one of the lowest spiritual activities kids are engaging in today (28-29%). If we want to engage kids and families with healthy habits of discipleship, we must begin by leading our kids to open their Bibles regularly.

That is why I am so excited about the release of a new resource to help your kids do just that. Foundations for Kids: New Testament is a one-year—260-day Bible reading plan that engages the hearts and minds of kids in God’s Word. This plan highlights 260 foundational passages of the New Testament to encourage kids to read and understand their Bibles in a way that is interactive, accessible, and fun!

Here are 4 ways this resource implements healthy spiritual habits to help kids and families on their discipleship journey.

#1- Kids open their Bibles. This resource encourages kids to regularly read the truths found in God’s Word. They reflect on how it changes their hearts to look more like Jesus. It provides daily Scripture references that are age-appropriate and accessible to both younger and older kids. Through this plan, kids develop the habit of opening their Bibles on their own and discovering more about who God is and who He created them to be.

#2- Kids interact with what they read. They learn what the Bible verses they study mean within its given context. Foundations for Kids: New Testament follows the H.E.A.R. method to help kids interact with and apply the truths of God’s Word. The acronym H.E.A.R. stands for Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond. Each day, kids read a New Testament passage and interact with what they read through explanations, fun activities, discussion questions, and prayer.

#3- Kids apply God’s Word to their lives. The daily devotionals found within these pages encourage kids to act on what they read and study. Kids learn to live out their faith in tangible ways. They learn how the Word of God changes them to grow in their faith, acting on the truths of God’s Word in active obedience to Him.

#4- Kids engage with the whole family. Discipleship doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Both the church and the family link together to invest in the spiritual health of kids. Robby and Kandi Gallaty get this. That is why this Bible reading plan expands beyond kids to students and adults as well. The whole family can join the discipleship journey together, walking through the same passages of scripture all year long. This resource also includes a church plan that provides ideas and opportunities for your entire church family to walk through the New Testament together.

Foundations for Kids: New Testament is a great tool for helping you to champion discipleship in your ministry to kids and families this coming year. Lead them to open their Bibles together and discover the transforming power of their Savior through His Word.

Bible Study, Resources, Sunday School, Teaching Kids

October 31, 2018

Packed with Value

By William Summey

I have learned so much working with the Bible Studies for Life: Kids team this year and had such joy helping produce this ongoing curriculum for preschoolers and children. One of the most valuable resources we produce for teachers may be the least known — the leader pack. Of the many questions I receive from teachers new to our Bible study curriculum, I often hear these two: “What is a leader pack? Is it worth the extra cost each quarter?”

My answer is always a resounding yes — Leader packs are so valuable for teachers in the classroom! The challenge we face is to engage today’s visual learners and spark their imaginations with art and other engaging visuals that capture the attention and engages preschoolers and children to go deeper into understanding Bible Stories and how they apply to them. The leader pack helps us engage the visual learner.

Leader packs also make teaching easy. They are designed to go hand in hand with the leader guide, providing colorful pictures, posters, and other visuals that support teaching as well as games and materials that are connected to activities teachers will lead each week as part of their Bible teaching. Here are some details that show how valuable this resource is.

Teaching Pictures: The leader pack contains a teaching picture for every Sunday of that quarter. Teaching pictures bring alive the Bible story for children with an engaging visual of biblical art. Pictures are suitable for hanging on your focal wall and holding as you tell or review the Bible story. Our philosophy is that teaching pictures are not something just to be gazed upon (although they should be intriguing, beautiful pieces of art) as if kids will learn all that need to know on their own simply by looking, but they are to be engaged with interaction between teacher and learner (what are they thinking? what are they feeling? at what point of the story do you think this happened? what happened next?) so that kids understand on a deeper level what is happening in a Bible Story.

Memory Verse and Visual Posters: Each quarter kids’ packs will have three unit verse posters, one for each unit verse, making it easier to post on your focal wall for that month to help kids memorize it. Many age groups also have other unit posters that can be added to the focal wall to engage learners.

Teaching Aids: The leader pack contains many of the go-to teaching aids each week that connect back directly with activities in the leader guide and make teachers’ preparation easier. These colorful, creative items engage kids with that week’s Bible story and real life application.

Ultimately leader packs, through engaging visuals and teacher aids, help us reach our goal in Bible Studies for Life — for kids to receive the gospel message and to apply what they are learning to their lives each day.

William Summey is the Publishing Team Leader for Bible Studies for Life: Kids. He is a graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt University. William lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Christy, and their two sons.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Leadership

October 24, 2018

Experiencing the fun and foods of Bible-times

By Tim Pollard

Many times as we teach, it is hard to get across that the people of Bible-times were real people just like you and me. Part of that is that the Bible sheds little light on what life was like for people during the time when Jesus lived. Help your kids experience the Bible by introducing them to some of the fun and foods of Bible-times.

Fun Times

What did kids do for fun during Bible-times? You might be surprised to know that many of the games boys and girls enjoy today had some of their roots in ancient times. As a matter of fact, some of these games had been popular for hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Hopscotch, jacks, and tops have all been around since before Jesus lived on the earth. It is possible that Jesus may have played catch with His brothers and sisters with a small leather seed filled ball about the size of a baseball. Many kids during Jesus’ day also played games with whistles, hoops, and rattles. While we don’t know specifics about some of these games, you can incorporate these items into games you play and let kids decide how they need to be used. If you have a checkerboard, you might want to let kids know that kids from Bible-times were playing a game very similar to what modern day checkers looks like.

Fun Foods

Not surprising, since games have changed very little since Jesus’ day it goes without saying that food is not different at all. Bible-times people have also eaten many of the foods that your kids love today. While ancient people did not have some of the candy confections we enjoy today they did have many of the common vegetables that we still eat. One thing your kids might enjoy knowing is that it was unclean for Jewish kids and their moms and dads, to not eat any pork products so … no ham, bacon, or pork chops. For fun, bring in some of the foods more commonly mentioned in Scripture and let your kids try some of those. Those foods include leeks, garlic, onions, bread, dates, dried fruit, fish, and even insects such as locust. While I wouldn’t recommend letting kids sample a locust it might be fun to show them a picture and let them imagine what that would have been like.

Enhance your teaching by introducing kids to the fun and food of Bible-times and help them see that people during Bible-times were not much different from today.

Tim Pollard teaches 3rd graders at Tulip Grove Baptist Church. He’s passionate about helping kids dig deep into Scripture, which he pursues through his daily work as leader of the Explore the Bible: Kids team. Tim lives with his wife and daughters in Mount Juliet, TN.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Worship

October 12, 2018

3 Tips for an Awesome KidMin Large Group

By Micheal Walley

As a kid, I connected best and “got it” when all the kids at church would gather in the gym to sing, play interactive games, and learn from God’s Word during our weekly large group worship. I loved being with more kids than just those in my small group Bible Study class, and I loved that I got to see kids, both younger and older than me, in the same room worshipping.

As an adult and volunteer, I still love large group worship experiences and believe that a weekly large group experience for kids can be extremely impactful in the spiritual life of a kid. Whether your large group time is simply gathering in a classroom or a full-scale media production, consider these three tips as you make the message of Jesus clear to kids through worship.

Make a plan and recruit the right volunteers.

Like anything in ministry, a good plan is vital for success. Start by enlisting people who are passionate about the things you want to incorporate in your large group experience. Look for people who are good at communicating to a large group of kids, people who lead songs and motions well, folks who enjoy performing skits, or running media. These people may or may not already be serving in your ministry so intentionally cast the ministry vision wide. Share where you see your large group worship experience going then Invite these volunteers to plan alongside you. Equip and empower them to lead. Having a solid gameplan, schedule, and prepared volunteers are key to any successful large group time.

Make it kid-friendly and engaging.

A kids ministry large group experience is a great chance to create worship specifically geared for kids. As you plan, be sure to select curriculum, worship songs, and games that are age appropriate and engaging for the kids you plan to reach. If you’re unsure, do some research. Seek help from seasoned leaders. Take the time to notice what songs and activities get kids “pumped up” and which ones make them groan. No one likes to be bored and leading kids in a boring worship experience is just wrong.

Make it different.

Effective large group time can take what kids have learned in small group Bible study to the next level, so intentionally make it different. If your small group takes place in chairs around tables, consider moving to a different room and sitting on the floor. If your small group time is mostly focused on learning the facts of the Bible content, then focus large group on worship that results from those learned Bible truths with songs and a life application challenge or message.

Ultimately, effective large group worship roots everything in Scripture, seeks guidance and direction from the Holy Spirit, and then works hard to engage kids and help them grow closer to through the experience.

Micheal Walley serves as the LifeWay Kids Event Producer. He is a graduate of Mississippi College and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Micheal has been serving in Kids Ministry from the moment he was “promoted” out of kids ministry himself. He loves coffee, leadership, all things creative, and his wife, Anne Marie.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Preschoolers

October 9, 2018

Help! What Do I Do with Preschoolers in Large Group?

By Landry Holmes

Chaos. Pandemonium. Loud. Hectic. Anxiety-inducing. Do these words surface like an enemy submarine when you think about leading preschoolers in a large-group experience? If so, keep reading. If not, go drink some hot tea or coffee and pray for the rest of us.

Most of us experience some level of anxiety, at least occasionally, when faced with the prospect of teaching preschoolers in a setting that requires squirming little bodies to “sit and listen” as a group. Perhaps armed with a better understanding of our purpose and recognizing how preschoolers learn best, we can thrive the next time we’re in front of eager faces.

Before reading further, recall your favorite Bible verse or passage on the subject of worship. Do you have one in mind? Moses often reminded the obstinate Israelites to worship God: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?” (Deuteronomy 10:12)

God doesn’t just want us to worship Him. God requires us to worship Him. Moreover, as believers, our desire to worship God comes not from obligation but from a natural response to what Jesus has done for us through His life, death, burial, and resurrection. Think about that. You and I are invited to worship the Creator of all there is. And, we are expected to teach children to love and worship God.

So, what does that look like with a group of preschoolers? Let’s start with what to avoid:

Expecting preschoolers to act like miniature adults
Being too rigid
Being too random
Forcing preschoolers to do activities beyond their abilities
Creating a miniature adult worship service
Ignoring the opportunity to prepare preschoolers for intergenerational worship experiences
Preventing yourself from worshiping with the preschoolers

Instead of attempting to lead preschoolers to worship the One True God like teenagers and adults, try doing this:

Building in predictability and structure, and allowing for flexibility of that structure
Providing for a variety of learning approaches
Alternating sedentary activities with activities that incorporate gross motor skills
Listening to background music
Singing
Praying
Listening to a Bible story
Giving an offering
Learning a Bible verse
Learning a Bible truth
Learning about missions
Playing games
Alternating small-group activities with large-group activities

Now, you may be asking how a preschooler who is not a Christian can worship God. I don’t know the complete answer, but this I do know: God has “prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies.” (Matt 21:16) So, the next time you dread leading preschoolers in a large-group environment, give thanks to God that He allows you to help facilitate “praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies.”

Landry Holmes is the Manager of LifeWay Kids Ministry Publishing, Nashville, TN. A graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Landry served on church staffs before coming to LifeWay. He is a church leader, writer, workshop facilitator, and publisher. Landry also teaches children at his church in Middle Tennessee. He and his wife Janetta are the grandparents of thee adorable grandbabies.

Bible Skills, Bible Study, Bibles, Kids Ministry, Leadership

September 12, 2018

Don’t Take My Word for It

By Landry Holmes

Ironic, isn’t it? We have access to more information than the generations that came before us, yet we distrust that information with increasing cynicism. There was a time when we believed what we read or heard until the information was proven false. Now, we assume most of the things we read on the Internet are suspect until authenticated.

This is the world in which our kids are living. However, there is one source of information that is absolutely true all the time—God’s Word. Our challenge is to teach kids the Bible is authoritative. It’s the one book we can trust and not question. Congruous to that challenge, is the need to guide children to accept as truth only that which they can verify for themselves in Scripture. Such was the case for people from Josiah to Timothy.

Kids need their own copy of the Bible. During a dark period of church history, common people were denied access to the Scriptures. What they knew of God’s Word was limited to whatever the professional clergy chose to tell them. People were not allowed to question what they heard, and they had no personal access to the Bible. This, however, was never God’s plan, as illustrated by both Josiah and Ezra’s public reading of the Scriptures. (See 2 Kings 23 and Nehemiah 8.) God intends for kids to hear and read the actual words of the Bible for themselves.
Kids can trust the historicity of the Bible. If you are like I am, you often may skip over the introductory matter of some Bible books. Doing so when reading the gospel of Luke can cause you to miss an important insight. God inspired Luke to write his gospel based on “carefully investigated” truth, in order for Theophilus to “know the certainty of the things about which” he had “been instructed.” (Luke 1:3-4) Every historical fact in the Bible is true, and many are based on eyewitness accounts.
Kids should learn Bible skills. One of my favorite, obscure Bible stories is the one of the Bereans in Acts 17. These synagogue-goers did not accept at face value what Paul and his companions taught. They refused to be gullible. Instead, the Bereans “examined the Scriptures daily” to make sure Paul’s teachings were true. (Acts 17:11) When we provide kids with practical Bible skills, they will be equipped for the rest of their lives to test what they hear against the truth of God’s Word.
We must teach kids the Bible. Paul gives a clear, yet indirect, mandate to teach kids the Bible while they are still young. What a gracious reminder Paul provides Timothy when he says, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:14-15) Don’t miss that last part. God’s Word points us to Jesus. The same Jesus who wants to rescue the kids you teach.

Ultimately, the reason you and I are called to guide kids to explore the Bible and understand the truths of God’s Word for themselves is so that they can meet and know the God of the Bible through His Son Jesus. We can and must accept this challenge. But, as in the closing words of that children’s television program, Reading Rainbow, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”

Bible Study, Kids Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Kids Ministry Curriculum

August 28, 2018

Getting Take-Home Resources Home

By William Summey

We all know that it is disheartening to send home take-home pages, devotionals, letters, or announcements with kids after class on Sunday—only to find them in the pews or even trash cans soon afterwards. So the question is, how do we actually get the take-home pages home?

Unfortunately, this is the wrong question! The better question is, how do we connect with parents and equip them to lead their kids deeper into the Bible, life application, and theological discussion during the week? After all, just getting that take-home piece home isn’t a magic formula for success. Parents need to see the value of conversations that follow up with what you are learning on Sunday.

While many teachers report increased success by also using tactics to keep the kids on task with reading materials sent home, most kids need a gentle nudge—or more—to lead them into the Bible. Try the following to speed up success:

Invite parents for a Parent Sunday in your class—where they attend for the whole time or for a smaller time frame toward the end of class. Show parents and kids at the same time the resource you will be sending home each week and explain how to use it. Take it a step further and demonstrate how to use the resource together.
Mail the resource home when a child is absent to let families know the child was missed and explain that you will be sending one home with the child each week.
For younger kids, hand directly to parents as they pick up their child with artwork completed that week and point out a feature of the resource to the parent.
Send potions of the content via email, text, or social media.

No matter how you connect with parents, it will be worth it to get resources in their hands to help them grow their kids during the week!

William Summey is the team leader for Bible Studies for Life: Kids. Each week Bible Studies for Life: Kids not only provides a take home-page on the back of Kids Activity Pages but also provides social media and other digital resources HERE.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Leadership

July 30, 2018

I Don’t Want To: How to Deal with Obstinate Children

By Tim Pollard

We’ve probably all heard this statement whether from our own kids at home, or from the kids we teach in Bible study. As a third grade Bible study teacher this is a common statement I hear quite often. Kids this age sometimes just don’t feel like they are engaged in the learning and when we ask them to participate we often get the response, “I don’t want to.” Sometimes our inclination is to answer with a quick retort that likely won’t solve the situation and in reality might just make it worse. Here are a few things that you might consider the next time you are faced with an “I don’t want to” kind of day.

Offer choices. One thing we have learned to do in our classroom is to offer choices. Now that doesn’t mean that we are constantly offering choices because some of the activities we do have to be done by everyone. Our kids know that sometimes there is an opportunity to choose and sometimes there isn’t. I think that having them know that there are times they can choose helps them to navigate the times they don’t have a choice. Simple statements such as, “Now is the time we will all participate together. Later you will have a chance to choose something you like to do.”
Be consistent. Offering choices isn’t always going to work with a child who might not want to participate so to make the choices more effective you need to consistently enforce the rules. Consistent classroom management is always the easiest way to gain buy-in from the kids in your classroom. Consistency also gives kids a sense of belonging and security. If they know you aren’t going to waver then they are more apt to follow along.
Make sure the rules apply to everyone. This really goes hand in hand with the statement above, but evaluate your session each week and make sure that the rules you have in your classroom were applied across the board. If we overlook a discretion by one who typically doesn’t cause issues, the other kids notice this oversight and might tend to push back more.
Be flexible. Every now and then I run into an “I don’t want to” situation and an activity that just isn’t engaging anyone. If that happens, be flexible, and end the activity even if you have to fill that time with something else. There are always plenty of options so be aware of how your kids are engaging and if they aren’t learning shift to something that will get their attention.

Know the kids you teach and make sure you have consistent rules that apply to everyone. Having effective classroom techniques will go a long way to help you get out of the “I don’t want to” rut.

Bible Study, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Sunday School

July 11, 2018

Impacting Visual Learners with the Gospel

By Jeremy Carroll

If you haven’t read William Summey’s part 1 of this post, you can find it HERE.

Having great visuals seems to be critical to effective teaching today. Some kids may be more prone to be engaged visually than others, but well-designed visuals, as William describes, can be an incredible way to engage kids of all ages as they consider the people, places, and events of the story each picture represents. In addition to using teaching picture visuals to help connect kids with Bible stories, many resources also include larger visuals. Sometimes these are large posters to place in a foyer or hallway, or maybe they are smaller posters that can be placed side-by-side almost like puzzle pieces. Whatever format these larger visuals take, they can be a major asset in helping kids connect to Bible stories.

Large visuals can provide a larger-scale wow factor. When space permits, using large versions of curriculum visuals can really make a space pop. Because of their size and bright colors, large-scale visuals will draw the attention of both kids and parents. They can be great discussion starters for parents to connect with their kids. If you don’t have space for the largest versions of available visuals, you can often use a piece of a poster set in your space to give extra cohesiveness between your space and what your kids are learning.

Large visuals often attempt to give a broader understanding of the content being studied. Like connecting pieces of a puzzle, large-scale visuals often try to tell a bigger story than what their classroom-size counterpart is able to do. Large visuals can tie together sessions into a bigger picture.

With the Fall 2018 release of The Gospel Project for Kids Volume 1, we are excited to include two brand new large visuals: (1) Giant Timeline and Genealogy of Christ and (2) our Small Group Timeline and Map Set. Each of these resources is beautifully colored, graphical poster sets to help remind kids (and adults) that the stories we are learning are about real people who lived in real places at a real time in history.

With The Gospel Project for Kids’ Giant Timeline, children can begin to see God’s one big story as it unfolds from session to session and volume to volume. Children can track the progress from Genesis to Exodus and all the way to Revelation. Each volume is on its own poster so if space does not permit displaying all 12 posters, a single volume’s poster can be used in a common space. Our new Genealogy of Christ four-poster set is included with the purchase of our Giant Timeline. This poster set graphically depicts Jesus’ family line from Adam and Eve down to Joseph and Mary. It’s a large four-poster set that shows both Matthew and Luke’s accounts of Jesus’ family line.

With The Gospel Project for Kids’ Small Group Timeline and Map Set churches can equip classrooms with 36 11-by-17-inch posters to display in classrooms. With each unit on a page, leaders could use one page at a time if space is limited or display all the posters side-by-side for large-scale impact. Our brand new oversized Map Set comes with four different maps: two for the Old Testament and two for the New Testament. In addition, a sheet of pin drop icons is provided to be able to place on a map and track the real places events occurred.

Most people, and it seems kids in particular, are drawn in by things they see, and there is so much information fighting for their attention. When we can make use of large-scale visuals to bring focus and cohesiveness to our teaching sessions and kids ministry space, we are able to help drown out the noise with a more singular focus, even if only for an hour or two.

Jeremy Carroll is the team leader for The Gospel Project for Kids. Before coming to LifeWay, he has been active in local church ministry for nearly 20 years in Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama. Jeremy earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. A Middle Tennessee native, he and his family live in Murfreesboro, TN.

Bible Study, Discipleship, Gospel-Centered, Kids Ministry, Kids Ministry Curriculum, Podcasts, Resources

June 21, 2018

The Gospel Project: When you get it, it changes everything

By Chuck Peters

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The Gospel Project is a Christ-centered chronological Bible study for babies-adults. On today’s podcast, Brian Dembowczyk, managing editor of The Gospel Project, shares the vision of The Gospel Project and why sharing the gospel with children is of the utmost importance.

Brian Dembowczyk is the Managing Editor of The Gospel Project, a Bible study curriculum used by over one million people each week, and the author of Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry: How the Gospel Will Transform Your Kids, Your Church, Your Community, and the World and Cornerstones: 200 Questions and Answers to Learn Truth. Prior to being the managing editor, he served as the Publishing Team Leader for The Gospel Project for Kids. Before coming to LifeWay Christian Resources, Brian served in local church ministry for seventeen years, primarily in family ministry and discipleship ministry. Brian earned a D.Min. from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He, his wife Tara, and their three children live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.