The Why and How of Teaching the Biblical Narrative

Do kids really need to know the narrative of the Bible? (Spoiler: yes!!!) And how do we teach it? This episode of The Kidmin Huddle will give you practical tools and foundations for teaching the biblical narrative to kids. 

Resources:

Bible Timeline

One Story Lesson

Exploring the Bible Through History

Big Story Series by RenewaNation

Pick and Choose Object Lesson Video

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to the Kidman Huddle with Amber Pike, where children as ministry leaders get equipped, encouraged, and empowered to disciple with intentionality, growing God's kingdom one child at a time.

SPEAKER_01: 0:13

Welcome back to the Kidman Huddle. So I was teaching a lesson at a church in Iowa. I was getting to train the Kidman leaders, also some parents, and I'm like, hey, I'm here. Want me to teach the kids too, because I just can't help myself. And as I'm writing this lesson, it takes a turn that I wasn't planning on going, but I'm not surprised because one of the things I'm most passionate about that I keep coming back to is the biblical narrative. So my lesson was on how to study the Bible and I deviated and the whole first half of my lesson was on the biblical narrative. Why? Why? Well, I don't know these kids. I don't know where they're at. So I'm like, I'm going to make sure that they know the narrative. Before we talk about how we can study scripture, let's learn about the narrative. The biblical narrative is so important for boys and girls. It's important for grownups too, but you know, hey, this is about children's ministry. We need to teach them the biblical narrative. When we do, when they understand this, when we're over and over teaching them the narrative, it helps them understand God. This is his story, right? The Bible is God's story of his redemptive love for creation. And we need kids to see the big picture. We don't want them to see little disjointed stories. We want them to see the one big narrative, the meta narrative of scripture. When we are teaching them this narrative, it shows them that the Bible is true because it's all connected. And if we just jump in and we hop around, they don't get that. Then sometimes those crazy happenings in the Bible seem more like fiction or fables. I mean, I've watched a movie about a talking donkey, haven't you? But it's in the Bible, too. There's a talking donkey. There's some crazy, amazing things that happen. They're all testament to God's power. But when we're showing it in the context of the narrative, kids can better see that the Bible is true. When we're teaching the narrative, it lays a foundation for them. We want to create resilient disciples like the parable of the wise and foolish builder in Matthew 7. We want that strong foundation to where when the world starts spitting its craziness at them, they can stand strong. The narrative is helping them stand strong because they're getting the complete picture. It's crucial for gospel understanding. Think of the narrative in, you can honestly think of it in four words. I love to teach it. This is the framework. I'm going to go ahead and jump into the how portion of this. When we are viewing the Bible, one big picture, it's creation, rebellion, redemption, restoration. This is the gospel message, basically. So if we are summing this up for kids, we need to give them this framework that When we are teaching them how to study God's word, they need this framework because everything points to, flows out of Jesus. It is all about him and they need to see that. With the perfect world God created, the sin that broke that, the promise of the Savior, the fulfillment of that promise, the way we can have our sins forgiven and all things made new once again. They need that framework to understand the gospel. Why do they believe in Jesus if they don't understand sin? They need to understand why sin was such a big deal to point to the need for Jesus and how we can have eternal life through him and him alone. If we want them to understand the gospel, they need to know the narrative. They don't need to just know about the story of Noah and the ark and how David fought Goliath and Daniel survived the lion's den. We don't want to teach moralistic things. theology. We don't want them just to know some stories from the Bible. I don't even like to use the word story. I try to really watch myself. Now I do call it the one big story of the Bible because sometimes narrative is not as easy to understand for kids, but I don't like to call them stories. We're not reading the story of Noah. This is a true event that happens. So we're going to read the account of Noah. I want kids to understand that the Bible is true. I want them to understand the big narrative of scripture. So one of the ways I did this in my lesson that I just wrote in Iowa is I had them draw a picture. If you're listening to this, you might want to go watch the YouTube video if you're visual. I had them fold their paper in half. hot dog and then half hot dog again. So they're dividing it into four sections. Then they could draw a line down their sections. And each of these is going to be one of those four words, creation. So then they could draw a picture that represented creation and write the word creation. And then the fall. So they're going to draw a picture. Maybe it's Adam and Eve eating the fruit. Maybe it was a sneaky serpent, whatever. Then I kind of explain what happens in that middle time when we get to redemption. So Jesus is All of the lead up to why we need Jesus, Jesus come, and then restoration when God makes all things new again in heaven, where the believers get to have eternal life with him because of our faith in Jesus. Super simple way to kind of give that narrative framework for them. If you use Answers in Genesis, this is their seven C's of creation. I know last year our... 2024 is VBS. The Great Jungle Journey was this. The seven C's of history. Creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, consummation. However you're laying this framework, lay it, be consistent. They need to see this framework. When they're in their lessons, when they're studying their Bible at home, every event, every verse, every account in the Bible they're reading, they need to put it in this framework. Because it's important. Context is important. We don't want to take scripture out of context. We then get in that slippery slope of making it say what we want it to say instead of what God's wanting it to say. But we need to see where we're at. How's it pointing us to Jesus? What's it teaching us? First, we're asking, where is it at? So easy idea. Highly recommend you do it. Another way that I teach the narrative is with a timeline. I am a visual learner. I do best if I'm seeing it myself. A lot of kids are. This also is great for your math kids, for your logic kids. Make a timeline. I have a poster that I have created. It is on my wall. I use it literally every Sunday. I've got the little Dollar Tree pointer finger, and I will sometimes let the kids do it. I'll let them, but it's a super simple framework. It has these four words, creation, rebellion, redemption, restoration, but then it's got some kind of markers for us. So We've got the flood. We've got the exodus, the period of the kings. We've got the 400 years of silence because I like talking about that. We've got Jesus's birth, Jesus on the cross, the early church beginning now. And then, you know, down in the future, heaven, simple framework. Then you can go and point. Here's where we are. Now, Rose Publishing makes a big 10-foot long timeline. Maybe you have space for a bigger timeline. My first book, Exploring the Bible Through History, has your own coloring sheet timeline. Maybe you're making your own. I've done several lesson series over the years where my kids are making the story of the Bible, the narrative of the Bible. I've had them work on it in a kind of group project thing where I assign them different things. markers from the bible to draw out i've had them do their own paper with like little boxes where they're doing a timeline the timeline is important kids need to know it now how detailed am i talking i'm not saying that they have to okay when did ehud live it doesn't have to be that complex but they do need that kind of general framework which means you also need that general framework you need to understand the narrative of scripture If you are not sure, maybe you're newer at this, you haven't gone too in-depth, I really highly recommend the 10-Minute Bible Journey by Dale Mason. This is an Answers in Genesis product. It is super short, and it literally is the framework of the Bible in order. You've got a little backstory, but it's putting it in order, going a little in-depth. Also, crazy idea, read your Bible. Easier said than done. Sometimes I know it's kind of lengthy, not completely written chronologically because of You know, different books are covering the same periods of time. But it is still important for you to have an understanding of this, especially that biblical framework, the narrative framework, creation, rebellion, redemption, restoration. Make sure you have the framework. Make sure when you are prepping your lessons, you can put the lesson in that framework. When is it happening? Highly recommend a timeline, whether you're heading to my website and grabbing that timeline poster, whether you're making your own, maybe the kids are coloring their own, and then it's that, ooh, they got to be part of it and it's exciting. Whatever you do, I love timelines. It's also important to stress to the kids how we cannot pick and choose which parts of the Bible we believe as truth. When we are talking about the narrative of scripture, we need to show that all of the Bible is true. because it is from God. 2 Timothy 3.16, the Bible is God breathed. John 17.17, all your words are true. The Bible is true, and we don't get to pick and choose which parts we believe. If we want to create resilient disciples, we need to have boys and girls standing on the authority of the word that it is all true. So if you go to my YouTube channel, there's a video on there. I have a little cup illustration on what happens when we pick and choose. So I wrote... different things on some cups, different parts of the Bible. They're all, these cups are all out of order, but you know, creation. And then I used Adam and Eve as my illustration because that is a common, I don't know. What's the word I'm looking for? Not complaint, but issue that people don't accept as truth. They say, no, there was no first two people. We didn't all come from Adam and Eve. God made lots of different people groups. Well, my Bible clearly says on day six, God made Adam and Eve. They were the first two people from them came everybody. But what if we remove that and we say, no, that part's not true. So if I'm making a cup tower with this and I remove Adam and Eve from the bottom, because it's down in the foundation, right? The first three chapters of Genesis are really important they're all important but those especially what happens to my cup tower it all falls down because if there was no literal adam and eve there was no sin Sin entered through Adam and Eve, but if there wasn't an actual Adam and Eve, there wasn't sin. So then how did sin get into the world? And if Adam was the first Adam and Jesus is called the last Adam, why did Jesus need to come? Because there is no sin, because there was no literal first Adam. So sin's not a big deal. So Jesus didn't need to come and he's not the last Adam. He's not gonna defeat sin and the death and resurrection, heaven, none of that matters because that didn't happen. And you see how that is just a avalanche. When we pick and choose which parts of the Bible we accept as truth, we have to discount the rest of it. Something as simple as a person. If we take that out, say, no, that wasn't true. That didn't happen. We don't even need Jesus. We have to teach that the Bible is true 100% of it. And we need to show this to our kids. We're not adding to, we're not taking away from God's word. Straight scripture. Another way that I like to teach the narrative of scripture is chronological curriculums. You may or may not have a choice in what curriculum you're using. If you do, I highly recommend you look at some chronological ones. It is great for the kids just to learn that. Even the really in-depth ones. If you're looking at an in-depth one, it's going to be a three to four year commitment. I have used Answers Bible curriculum. I think I've done close to 20 years of it. It's good. It's in-depth. I would have to add a little bit of the fun element because I very much so want my lessons fun and engaging, but it is meaty and it is solid. There's some other chronological curriculums out there. There are places you can pick and choose from. um my exploring the bible through history book does have it it doesn't have all of the things because in a perfect wonderful world where that book was released pre-covered it was supposed to be a series of two but then covet happened and you know so far it's just the one but it has that timeline it's got that narrative um Choose a chronological curriculum that is going to give kids that picture, that narrative. But what if that's not what you're doing? What if you don't want a narrative or a chronological curriculum? What if you like what you have? How then do you teach the narrative? You add it in. This can be as little as 45 seconds of your lesson time. So let's say whatever lesson you're on, you're talking about Joseph. Well, you need to do your homework. If you don't already know, and you need to figure out how we got to Joseph and what Joseph means in terms of Jesus and connect those dots. I have done this with my beautiful drawing. I hope you heard the sarcasm because children make fun of my drawings. They're very bad. So I would go on my whiteboard because I always have a whiteboard, whether it's a separate kind of on an easel thing on the wall whatever i like to be able to draw write things so i would draw out joseph's family and how that's the 12 children of israel you know the promise start with the promise from abraham then we get down to joseph and his brothers and israel and god's people which gets us to jesus take 30 40 seconds to go over this narrative framework where are we at who are we learning about how is it related to jesus It's as simple as that. This is where, again, a timeline helps. Visuals help. Maybe you want to do like a hall of a wall of fame with pictures of the people that we're learning about. The important thing is that you're connecting all the people, places, events together. And most importantly, how is this pointing to Jesus? Because that's the purpose of the Bible is we're learning about Jesus and his saving grace for us. So we need to be connecting that back. Really easy to do on your own. But again, there are lots of great curriculums out there that do this. Answers Bible Curriculum is one, My Exploring the Bible Through History. We at Renew a Nation have a five lesson series called The Big Story. It is just that framework. I think it is great to go in periodically and make sure you're reviewing this narrative. Think too, you've got new kids coming out. Kids are growing and developmentally, they are increasing in wisdom and understanding. So I think this is a great piece that you should cover at least yearly, whether it's a single lesson. I have a single lesson on my website, One Big Story, where they're making their own timeline. Whether it's a five-lesson series like this big story curriculum that we have at Renew Nation, maybe you're going to do– every couple of years go through a longer chronological curriculum. It's important to add that in to make sure we're getting that full framework, that full picture every once in a while, but then always, always reinforcing. Here's where we are in the narrative. Here's that context. I had a interim pastor when I was growing up and he was all about context, context. We need that. And we need to teach kids that, that we're not just pulling pieces out, making them say what we want them to say. We need them to understand the Bible in its narrative form. So again, It's important. We want kids to understand God. We want them to understand his story. We want them to understand sin and our need for the Savior. We need all of those pieces in place so that they can have a deep and vibrant faith. Teaching the narrative is a crucial piece of that. And I hope you're doing that. If you have questions, please reach out to me. Just a couple of resources for you. I have an article on this at church.renewanation.org. I've got a blog. It's got a little downloadable page that's got some resource ideas. My timeline poster is on both my website, amberpike.org and church.renewanation.org. Go to my YouTube, see that object lesson with the cups. Super easy for you to do. Very fun to involve the kids. I've got a like family Devo video of it and a how-to for you Again, check out the 10-Minute Bible Journey by Dale Mason. It is just a really good resource for that overview of scripture. It is important to teach God's story, his story of his redemptive love for his creation, how he made the perfect world for us and sin messed it up. But even there in the beginning, Genesis 3.15, he had the promise of the Savior. All of the Old Testament is pointing towards Jesus. The New Testament, we see the fulfillment of that and the promise of eternity for those who believe. We want kids not just hearing Bible stories, but walking with Jesus as disciples. The narrative is an important piece of that. So go think about how are you teaching this? What tweaks do you need to make? What can you add in to make sure that kids are getting an understanding of the narrative? And remember, what you do matters.