- Is Jesus a myth?
- Did Jesus really perform miracles?
- How can Jesus be both God and human?
- What evidence is there for Jesus’ resurrection?
I’m sure you’ll agree these are big questions. They’re also questions we might struggle to answer. It’s one thing to believe certain truths about Jesus, but another to explain why in a way that sounds clear and reasonable, especially to someone who is not convinced.
And it can be tempting to think it’s not something we need to bother about – to say, “apologetics is not my gift,” and to leave it to others, but, more and more, I’ve come to realise it is something we need to address.
It’s also something we need to equip our children to deal with.
I’m not a parent, but, over the years, I have worked with hundreds of children, and I’ve been dismayed by the number who are enthusiastic about the idea of faith and who seem to have a personal faith as children, but who drift away from that as teenagers.
It made me wonder why this is the case and what we can do to change that.
I’m definitely not claiming to have all the answers here, but I’ve had quite a few conversations around this with various people over the last couple of years and there are two main things we identified. (Bear in mind that I am in Scotland and this is based on my experience. It may or may not be similar in other countries.)
We need to teach children how the Bible fits together. Children’s work can sometimes involve individual Bible stories plucked out in a random and haphazard way with teaching that is quite moralistic. Instead we need to give children a sense of the big picture – how it all ties together and points to Jesus.
We need to equip them to deal with the difficult questions about Christianity. It can be tempting just to teach nice stories and to make it fun, but as they grow up they are going to be faced with these questions from others who want to challenge their faith. Surely it makes sense to preempt that and to make sure they are grounded in their faith by helping them think through these questions in advance.
Having recently completed a Bible overview resource for children’s groups, I turned my attention to questions of faith, and quickly realised just how hard a task it is to help children explore these questions in a way that is thorough but age-appropriate. A necessary task, but a massive challenge!
And then I discovered Natasha Crain!
If you have children or grandchildren, or work with children in a church group or other Christian group, I highly encourage you to check out her writing. You can find links to her most popular blog posts here.
She has devoted a huge amount of time and effort to thinking through how to address matters of faith with children and how to equip them to deal with the questions they will face, and she has written three books on the subject:
Keeping Your Kids On God’s Side
Talking With Your Kids About God
and her latest book, which releases on March 31st:
Talking With Your Kids About Jesus
This new book covers thirty key questions about Jesus, including those listed at the start of this post.
It is divided into five sections:
- The Identity Of Jesus
- The Teachings Of Jesus
- The Death Of Jesus
- The Resurrection Of Jesus
- The Difference Jesus Makes
Each question is dealt with in a short chapter, which includes both biblical and non-biblical evidence for the Christian point-of-view as well as looking at some of the key objections raised by others and identifying some ways to respond.
There is a lot of information, but it is presented in a clear and understandable way. The idea is not necessarily to unload all of the information in the book to children at once, but to build up a habit of discussing matters of faith and to have regular conversations that are age-appropriate, taking it deeper over time.
I loved the practical advice on how to open up conversation with children on each of the topics, as well as how to take it deeper. There are some great questions to get them thinking and spark discussion, and I appreciated the clear way each topic is presented. I certainly learned new things myself!
I’ll share a few images with quotes to give you a taste, but I’d highly recommend you check out this book. You can find out more and pre-order the book on Amazon at these links: UK, US.
I’m grateful to Baker Books for access to a complementary digital copy of this book. I only share books here that I genuinely believe will be beneficial to my readers.
Amazon links are not affiliate links, but simply provided for your convenience.
Thanks so much for this recommendation and review, Lesley. I was thinking about this very topic a couple of days ago. I remember singing lots of lovely songs, and doing the actions, at Sunday School, but the stories behind them were never explained to us. Whilst I loved Sunday School, it was only later on in life that I found out those songs were all about Jesus.
This book will be a great resource.
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Thanks, Lesley! It is a great book – hope you find it helpful!
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Thanks for sharing this resource, Lesley. Talking to children about Jesus is so critical to giving them a good foundation for faith.
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Thanks, Lisa! Yes, this is a really helpful guide to having those conversations.
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Parents need the work and the heart of teachers like you, who come alongside our kids and speak the same truth we are busy giving to them so they can hear it in another voice.
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Thanks, Michele! Yes, it definitely helps if kids hear the same message from different people.
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Lesley, I think you’re spot on. Thanks for sharing about this author and these resources/quotes! Tabbing for reference!!
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Thanks, Bethany! Glad you found it helpful!
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Thank you for sharing this very good information, Lesley. My kids are all grown and out of the house, but my grandchildren ask pointed questions sometimes. I hope I am giving them good answers. I want to be consistent with what their parents tell them.
I love the verse from Romans you quoted here.
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I love the questions children ask – though they can be challenging! And it’s definitely helpful if parents, grandparents, church leaders etc are all giving them a similar message!
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Lesley, hi! I love the opportunities that the Lord is giving you to be a spiritual mother to so many of the next generation. He has you in this place for such a time as this. Thanks for sharing resources that you’re finding helpful.
Bless you as you continue to serve with such enthusiasm and wisdom.
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Thanks, Linda! I appreciate your encouragement!
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I absolutely LOVED this book too! You’re so right, Natasha has done the hard work for us so we can make it easy for our children to learn about Jesus.
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I absolutely loved this book as well. You’re so right, Natasha has spent years studying and learning so that we can teach our kids from what she has learned. I think every Christian, parent or not should read this book.
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Thanks, Jennifer! Yes, you can tell that so much work has gone into the book. It’s definitely not easy to explain such complex concepts in a way that children can understand.
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Lesley, thank you so much for this wonderful resource!!!
Pinned.
Thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements!
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Thanks, Patsy!
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I ditto what Linda says here, Lesley. I love your passion for the souls of children! Has the coronavirus kept you from your work with the children? I hope the best for you! Love and blessings to you!
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Thanks, Trudy! Yes, schools have closed which means a lot of the opportunities we had to teach about Easter there can’t go ahead. I am using the time to work on this new resource looking at children’s questions though so hopefully that will be helpful when we can get started again. I hope you are doing ok. Love and blessings to you too!
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That looks like a fantastic resource! Thanks for sharing. One of the things we do is bring Jesus into as many conversations as possible. Just normalize talking about Him. I get my fair share of eye rolls from my teen and tween, but I’m praying it will pay off in the long run! Blessings!
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Having regular conversations and incorporating it into daily life is the approach Natasha recommends in her books. I’m sure it is having an impact! Blessings to you too!
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This sounds like a great book, Lesley. I totally agree about presenting the Bible as a whole … I love books that work toward that end. 🙂
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Thanks, Lois! Yes, it makes such a difference to understanding the Bible when we can grasp the big picture!
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I so agree with you about the need to teach children the overall Bible, not just individual stories, and to discuss the difficult questions and issues. This looks like a great resource.
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Thanks, Barbara! Yes, it’s a really helpful book.
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This sounds like a wonderful book. My sons are older but I do have a grandson now. This is a book that is needed as we try to grow the faith of the next generation.
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Thanks, Mary! Yes, I think it will be really helpful to anyone who wants to help children grow in faith.
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