Ten Tools to Teach Theology and Doctrine

Kids need to be taught theology and doctrine, not a watered-down version of the Bible. In this episode, Amber goes over 10 tools you can use to help teach theology and doctrine to the kids in your ministry, helping to give them a firm faith. 

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Mavalus Tape: https://amzn.to/4arWeZm

Pointer Hand: https://amzn.to/4bV2E5R

Hula Hoops: https://amzn.to/4qEIh0k

Posters: https://amberpike.org/shop/ols/categories/teaching-aids

Predicting Crayon trick: https://youtu.be/um4pOHO9BtM?si=R-3fKRpeqtiCHx4u

RenewaNation Curriculum: https://familyministry.org/

The Family Ministry Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/familyministrycommunity

Transcript

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Welcome to the Kidman Huddle of Amber Pipe, where children as ministributors get equipped, encouraged, and empower to disciple with intentionality. Growing God's kingdom one child at a time.

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Welcome back to the Kid Men Huddle. We are talking today about tools to teach theology and doctrine. Now on social media, I've got like a cute little toolbox, but some of you are listening to this, so it is on YouTube. There are going to be some visuals, but a lot of it's really self-explanatory. So, first of all, the what and the why. Like, why are we doing this? What is it? Well, let's make sure that we we know what we're talking about. So, theology is the study of who God is. We need to teach that to our kids. Doctrine, it is the authoritative, systematic, foundational teachings of the Bible. So we need to teach children who God is and what God's Word says. Why? Because children's ministry is not just teaching them some stories of the Bible. Children's ministry is not just entertaining while mom and dad are in worship. Children's ministry is not just teaching them to be good little boys and girls. We need them to teach the truth of who God's is. Hmm, I got all jumbled. We need to teach them the truth of who God is. We need to point kids to Jesus through their need for the Savior. We need them to know the scripture is God breathes, 2 Timothy 3.16, that it is truth, John 17, 17. We need to teach this to our kids. Um, we want them to become lifelong disciples of Christ. We don't want them to have a limited faith. We want them to have a deep, rich, vibrant faith. And we need to teach, and quite frankly, we need to give them a little bit more. I think a lot of curricula out there, uh, a lot of children's ministries, they're not doing a good job on teaching kids. They're telling them some stories. They're giving out a craft and a coloring page and a snack and calling it children's ministry. We can do more. What does God's word say? And how do we know that it's true? What does the Bible teach us about the character of God? What do we know about God? How do we know that it's true? So this episode is super practical. Um, there's a quick flyover on the why, but um, I'm gonna give you 10 tools that you can teach some of these truths, either about scripture, about God, to add depth and all that. So 10 things. Number one, we're gonna start with, and this is kind of a no-brainer, but we're starting with the Bible. I know, like you're like, I was hoping for good stuff, Amber, and you're, but I gotta say it. Um, we need to teach God's word to our kids, and we don't need to water it down. We don't need to pick and choose. Obviously, we're gonna be appropriate. Um, you know, every every kidman leader loves teaching about David and Bathsheba, right? Um, talking about circumcision, right? But we need to teach the truth of God's word, the whole of God's word, not watering it down. So, with this, there's some really big concepts in the Bible. The word I've been reading through Leviticus in my year-long reading. I'm in the Liticus, woo. Um, I don't I don't love Leviticus, but that's I love God's word. So I'm reading it. Um, and the word atonement is in there a ton. But how many of us are using that word with our children? We need to. We need to use the words that scripture uses. We need to explain them. We don't need to just water it down so much. Um, same thing with your curriculum. So I'm gonna I'm gonna count both the Bible and the curriculum as number one because I do have other practical tips for you. But the curriculum you use needs to be teaching straight from God's word. Obviously, there are times when we are going to summarize and paraphrase. You know, you can't maybe necessarily read like eight chapters in one lesson for sure, but there are times where we need to be in God's word. We need to teach the truths of God's word using the language that it uses. Um, our curriculum needs to be deep and meaty, but it's based on the Bible, not moralistic lessons. Be brave like like Daniel was brave, be obedient like Noah. No, we are pointing to God. All of the Bible is it's God, and we need to do that, make sure that we are teaching that, and our curriculum is doing that. So, man, go back and listen to all the episodes on curriculum. If you've got some questions, reach out to me. That's number one. The first thing when we are teaching theology and doctrine, we are helping children understand the Christian faith and choose to follow it and their to follow Christ in their own. We need to start with the Bible, plain and simple. Okay, number two tool that I use is actually my classroom. And maybe not the way that you're thinking of this. So I have my classroom decorated with posters, which are theology and doctrine teaching tools. So I've been very intentional with what is on my walls, and I have a couple of verse posters, the ones that we kind of go back to over and over. First one, Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Second one, John 3.16. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And then poster number three, 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is God breathed, is useful for reproof, correction, training in righteousness, uh, rebuking, so that the man of God will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So I had those three verse posters. Why did I pick those? You know how many times I reference those? We talk about creation a lot because sin isn't a big deal unless we understand the perfect word God created. We gotta have both. Um, John 3.16. Man, Jesus, kind of a big deal in what we're teaching. And then the fact that scripture is God breathed, it is God's word. Even that crazy story about the donkey who was talking, the woman who turned into salt, all of this, it is from God, not man's thought. So we know and we trust that it is true. So I have those three posters in my room, use them all the time. I also have a timeline. It is a simple timeline that I made. You've heard me, if you've listened to my podcast before, you've heard about it. I use my timeline legit every single lesson. So I will give us the context of when we are, um, when we're studying, where we're talking about, and I go and I take my fun little pointer finger and I hit on the timeline, this is where we're at. Great for our visual learners, great for our logic kids, our math kids. Um, and honestly, it's just helpful to see that visual of this is where we are in God's story because it is one story. So I use my timeline all the time. I also have a okay, so I've been doing a theology word wall. I have this big dry erase board that's honestly kind of clunky and I don't love it, but it's there. And I've been printing out and taping on these words in the wall, but I'm like, I'm out of dry erase board. So I recently just took all of those um the keywords and I made it into a poster. Now all of my posters match because matchy matchy. So I've got this, um, it's it's almost like the blue in my earrings, this cayenne blue. I don't know if I'm saying that right. I'm not a color person, but they all match. So I've got my theology poster, my word walls. Now I've got my board. I'm gonna take all that stuff down and I can free up my dry erase board. Again, I take my handy dandy pointer finger and I tap on the word that I'm using all the time. And then I've also just started kind of spilling into other parts of the room. I have a reel that you'll see on social media soon. I've got propitiation in the definition typed out, and atonement in the definition, and I've got the word Bible on my window because we were doing it for something. And just this past Sunday, we were learning that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. So one of the activities is they had to figure out the word before we read the verse. What does God think of us? And I used the back of my door because that seemed like a good space, and I had all the letters and they were jumbled up, and the kids had to help me put it in order and figure it out. So now we have the word wonderful. Your classroom can be a tool to teach theology. Whether you are putting stuff up as you're teaching it, um, you've got these standards like I do, my theology word wall, my timeline. Use it. If there is a verse or a word that you are using all the time as you teach, post it up in your room. I highly recommend a timeline. I highly recommend these words. Why? Well, kids are visual learners, a lot of them. Um, being able to see it is very, very helpful as we are hearing it. Um, so yeah, okay, two things with this. One, you should get you a pointer finger. They're super fun. You can sometimes get them at Dollar Tree, you can get them at Amazon, five below. They make all shapes, kinds. Um, it's fun to let the kids go do this. They can go and tap on something with the pointer finger, and then they're like, I get to hang on to the pointer finger. Pointer fingers are fun. Um, posters, here's my secret sauce that someone, it was a teacher, told me about this about close to 17, 20 years ago. The tape that you need is called marvelous tape. So think I'm saying like marvelous without the R, Marvelous. Um, the link will be in the show notes. This tape is gonna rock your socks off. If you, like many of us, have limitations on what you can put on walls to hold up things because we don't want to destroy the paint job. This tape does not rip off paint. Every once in a while it will. Um, that's typically when you have like teens taking down posters, not carefully. This stuff is legit. I'm talking four little tape loops on the four corners of your poster and it's hanging on the wall. Um, VBS stuff, you're not going in every day rehanging big old posters. It's expensive, but it's worth it. Movelous tape and pointer fingers makes these classroom posters a win. Okay, next thing. Um, tip number three. I have my very own qubit. This is something I bought at Answers in Genesis forever ago. Um, but when we are talking about complex things in the Bible that we don't really have anymore, you know, we've got tape measures now. Um, what was a qubit? This is a visual that kids get to see. A qubit, by definition, is the length of a man's from his fingertip to his elbow. So, ooh, they can look and see. Look, mine's not different, and then you can compare them. Like my son is man size, and his is, I think, longer than this because he's all arms. So I have a cubit, a visual representation of something in God's word. I also was able to snag a piece of gopher wood. I know, Noah's Ark was built out of gopher's wood, and I have my own gopher's wood. And the kids are like, what? Because we don't have any gopher trees. Um, and this is just a piece of flooring from when we built our house and we had extra flooring, and I used my silhouette machine and I put vinyl letters that say gopher and it's gopher wood. But this is a tool that I use to talk about the truths of God's word. So anytime there's something complex that doesn't make a lot of sense, something that we don't see in our world today, if you can make a visual, it's gonna help. It's gonna help them understand something that's a little more complex, and then we're always pointing it back to the truths of God's word. Um, whenever we're talking about God and his character or the Bible, it's so helpful to point back to the fact that it is true because it is from God. The world is constantly giving lies to our kids, and we need to repetitively reinforce that God's word is truth. God doesn't lie, he is truth. Yes, reinforce it. Um, next thing I have is this one is one of my favorite things that I own uh because it's so applicable and just so fun. So, this, if you're looking at the video, this is my tubular coral. You can see the little coral decor. I was very excited many, many, many years ago when my brother found this in um on our road in the middle of Kentucky. Actually, we're like towards the top of Kentucky, uh, and I thought it was a dinosaur claw, and I was really excited because I love dinosaurs. It's not, it wasn't a dinosaur, but it is tubular coral. So this is one of my many fossils. I've got like eight of these. And when I use these, when we are talking about the flood, I will bring out the coral and sometimes I'll pull up a map of the world and we point out how close Kentucky is to the ocean where coral lives. Oh, wait. But there's a worldwide flood in the Bible in which everything was covered in water, so it absolutely makes sense that in the middle of Topish of Kentucky, not surrounded by the ocean, that we would find a tubular coral fossil. Again, we're pointing to the truths of God's word. Anytime you can bring in fossils, archaeological records, any of that stuff, it's a confirmation of what happened in the Bible legit happened. We know, hey, God told us so, but then look, the world confirms it. I love bringing in stuff like that. Okay, number five. Um, magic tricks. Love magic tricks. So, my absolute favorite magic trick is one that my my daughter is like, you've done this before, mom, because I think it's so fun. Um, definitely go check it out on my YouTube. It's the crayon trick. So, this one I use when I want to talk about the fact that God is omniscient, He knows everything. So, real quick, how you do it. I didn't do it here because I need more people, so it would make sense. You need four crayons of different colors. Make sure your colors are kind of different. So I'll do like a pink, a purple, a green, and a red. You pick a volunteer and you really like get this going by talking about how, guys, Miss Amber, Miss Amber knows everything. Like, did you know? I know everything.

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Yeah.

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I am going to be able to tell which crayon you picked. So you give your volunteer the crayons, you turn around, put your hand behind your back, and they pick a crayon and put it in your hands. The other crayons they put behind their back. So your eyes are closed as you're turning around and you're giving these instructions. While you're doing that, let's pretend this is my crayon behind my back. I'm scratching it with my fingernail really hardcore. This does work with short nails, not just long nails. So you're scratching it and you're like, okay, you know, it's in my hand, your your crayons are hidden, right? I'm gonna open my eyes. So you keep the crayon behind your back, both hands are behind your back, switch hands. The hand that you just scratched the crayon with, you start talking with in front of you, and you just make a quick glance at your nails, and you're gonna see that color under your under your nails. So you just, you know, you're you're aggonate on like, do you think I'm gonna know? Do you think that I know which color you picked? Because I actually know that you picked red. And then they're all like, and then you do it like one or two more times to know that it wasn't just a lucky guess. And then you're like, Miss Amber doesn't know everything. This is just a trick. But do you know what? God does know everything, and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you lead into your teaching time. Magic tricks are really fun because it kind of stops them and ushers them into the topic that we're gonna talk about, and it's that wow factor that they love. So definitely magic tricks. That one's my favorite. I have a new one that I'm doing for my Easter series, I'll share about later, but I'm gonna make a cup float, right? God's not the only one who can defy the laws of nature. I can too. It's really fun. You guys are gonna love it. Number six, you need a good gift box. I am looking for a bigger one with a reusable lid, but right now we just have this small one. It's fine. A gift box. I use this frequently. Why? Because Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 tells us about the gift of grace that God gives to us. Look, it's a gift box. This is a great tangible thing, especially when explaining to church kids how there is something they must do to become a Christian. This is not something mom and dad can do for us. There's a choice we have to make. Like Romans um 9 10 says, if we confess with if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved. There's some action words in there. We need to believe and confess, something we must do. So this gift that God has, that we can have our sins forgiven, it's a gift. And so I'll use my gift box and I'll pick a volunteer and I'm like, I have this gift for you. And I'm talking about how great this gift is. I'm like, do you love it? But I'm still holding it because there's something they have to do, they have to take the gift. So, gift box, very tangible, pull it out all the time. Number seven, another concept that is important to talk about a lot because the Bible mentions it a lot, is mercy and grace. And these kind of get a little backwards. If I'm being completely honest, sometimes I need to go and make sure I'm got them right in my head. But I have a picture. Um, I've updated my picture because the first time that I did the picture, it wasn't broken. So my new picture has a little boy and he is mad and he broke something on purpose. Now, what does he deserve? Does he deserve to be in trouble for breaking mom's absolute favorite gift? Or does he deserve a treat? This is mercy and grace. Because mercy is not giving him what he deserves, he deserves to be punished because he did that on purpose. But mercy is he doesn't get what he he deserves. Now, grace is he gets what he doesn't deserve. So he does not deserve ice cream, but we're giving him ice cream. Um, you can make this even more tangible by you know bringing them all in a candy bar or a special treat and you know, pretend they did something wrong, whatever. But visually, I've just explained it in a very concrete, applicable way. Those are big concepts, mercy and grace. They're important concepts we need to know because that's what God has for us. Number eight, hula hoops. Yes, I love hula hoops, so I'm gonna put in the links. I it was not hula hoop season when I needed some hula hoops for my new church. Um, you guys know Dollar Tree is sometimes seasonal in the fun things that it has. That's like a spring summer thing. There were none. So I ordered some from Amazon and they're really sturdy. They were a pop together. Like the box came and it was maybe like two shoeboxes size, and I'm thinking, um, this is not hula hoops, and they you have to assemble them, but they're very, very sturdy, so I very much so enjoy them. Um, so that link's gonna be in the show notes for you if you want some really sturdy hula hoops. They're not overly large, but that's fine because we're not using them to hula. So, what do I do with hula hoops? Um, they make great for sorting games. You pop a hoop down and maybe you put a paper in the middle. This is um, yes, this is no. That hoop is no, or you put this is old testament and this is new testament and anything you have the kids sort and they can run to it and put the thing in there. I do lots of sorting games where I will print out things and they have to put them in there. I have this with my books of the Bible. I've done um like attributes of God, you put it in there. You can make this even more interactive where you have like a digging game where they have to dig for the right piece of paper and then go run it and put it in the hoop that it matches. So this is a logic thing where they are thinking through and they are figuring out things. Um, but those hula hoops make a very fun stick it in there. Anything that you want to do, you could have them stick their bodies in there, stick in the hoop that represents this is a person in the Bible or this is a true event of the Bible. Hula hoops are really, really versatile and it's drawing them into the lesson and helping them think these things out. When we are teaching theology and doctrine, some of these big concepts, sometimes they need time to process. Well, not sometimes they do, they need some time to process. Okay, what do I think about this? So this is taking it from being able to regurgitate what you just said to okay, what do I think? So let's take attributes of God if we are learning about who God is. Okay, is this an attribute of God? Is he mean? No, put it in the no hoop. Is God kind? Yes, put it in the kind hoop. Boom. Super easy. All right, two more. Number nine, paper wads. Now I was telling this in a podcast that I was on uh yesterday at my last church because I used paper wads so frequently and I didn't want to one be wasteful and a bad steward of our things and money. Um, but two, because I use them so frequently, I had a storage tub of just paper wads. It was my paperwad tub. Now, what can you use for paper wads to teach theology and doctrine? So one of my favorites is a game. Games can absolutely teach, introduce, reinforce these big concepts. But I would use it to talk about sin and salvation. And the game is called getting rid of sin. I divide the room in half, divide the kids in half, dump out my bucket of paperwads in the middle, and their job is to make sure that none of the paperwads are on their side, to tell them that, you know, this represents sin. Each paperwad is sin. And we want to make sure we are getting all that sin out of our side of the room. And then boom, the game plays, they can't do it. There's always gonna be some paper wads. Can we get rid of our sinner on our own? No, we need Jesus. Boom, pick whichever concept that you're you're focusing on, atonement, substitutionary atonement, you know, whatever, salvation, fun, interactive, but that visual, oh, I can't, I can't get rid of it on my own. Um, and then they're also great tossing things. I did one recently. Sometimes we move spots in our room just because we need to readjust. And so we went out into our hallway. Um, there's kind of like a little area, like a little coffee area. So we it's a wider hallway. And I put two papers on the wall. I don't remember what they were for, honestly. Um, maybe it was like heaven or not. I don't remember. But two papers of opposite sides, and the kids had to throw, I would say a question, and they had to throw their paperwad at which one they thought was the answer. So, like, yes, this is the thing that's in heaven, throw it at the yes side. No, this is not in heaven, throw it at that. Applicable for so many things. Um, so I saved my paperwats. There you go. Lots of versatile paperwod options. All right, last one, number 10, the 10th tool that I use to teach theology and doctrine. Um, this one's not very exciting, but it's next to the Bible, probably the most impactful. And it's repetition. I know. You're just like, wow, I waited the whole podcast for that, Amber. Thanks. But repetition is absolutely key. If you are working with younger children, developmentally repetition is that's where it's at. Yes. But you know, actually, for older children, repetition is great as well. So let's take one of my favorite words, that fun fact I struggle to spell, and I spell it wrong frequently, including on the poster that I just paid for, and I didn't double triple check my spelling. Sovereign. God is sovereign. So, if I teach little Jimmy when he is six that God is sovereign, just that one lesson, and I never touch on it again, do you think he's gonna know that God is sovereign? Nope. However, if I'm pretty frequently teaching that God is sovereign, and I'm pointing to my theology word wall and I'm relating it to my lessons, and let's say little Jimmy in the course of two years hears it about 70 times. Do you think little Jimmy is going to understand that God is sovereign? Yes. Repetition is great for kids, and we need to be doing it. Um prime example on Sunday, my Sunday school lesson was on our identity and who we are. And I was teaching the kids that we are made in the image of God. That was part of the lesson. There's a lot. Um, so then in our Sunday school lesson, I had my niece teaching, and we got to that part, and I'm like, I'd forgotten that it was in that part. And I'm like, wait, what did we learn today? We are made in God's, and then they all shout out image repetition. So you get them to say it in the class. On those weird words like omnipotent, when you got a three or four-year-old or older kids, I have them say it. All right, say it with me. Omnipotent. I will point to it with my handy-dandy pointer on the theology word wall. I will um have it maybe posted on the wall like atonement. I bring it up in lesson after lesson, reinforcing it, repeating it, having them repeat it, ask them questions. So over the course of their life in children's ministry, let's say they're at your church in your ministry for like six years. Man, do you know how many times they're going to hear these deep and meaty things? We are not expecting three and four-year-olds to be able to perfectly recite the definition of substitutionary atonement. But they should not be in high school when they are first introduced to that concept or a grown-up. We need to introduce them to these deep theological concepts, to doctrine, to the word of God deeply when they are young. Do it frequently, do it often, explain it, make it interactive and visual and engaging and explain it in different ways and using different techniques to do it over and over and over. Why? Because our goal is to give them a deep and vibrant faith. We want them to have, like Matthew 7 tells us, that firm foundation on the Word of God. And my Bible has a lot of amazing things. Some of them are a little hard to understand. Um, however, the Bible is um, I mean, it's like written at a fifth grade level. So we don't have to water it down. We might need to change the way that we teach so that we can reach younger ages, all ages, um, learning preferences, all that. But God gave it. We see example after example of the Bible being read to children. Timothy has known them the scriptures from infancy. We see in the Old Testament the babies were there when the holy scriptures were being read. So let's do the same. Here it's so these are a couple of tools that you can use. I've got tons more. Man, if you're not following me on social media, if you've not checked out my YouTube channel, as I create them, because guys, I am serving in the trenches with you guys. I'm not just someone out there um who served back in the day and now I'm just trying to make the stuff to sell. Man, I'm doing it. I am creating this stuff. I am living it out. I'm discipling my kids. I'm um with my nieces in my class. You know, I've got my church kids. We want to ground our kids in the truths of the word. Um, so make sure you're sorry, I lost my train of thought there for a minute. I was like, yes, so passionate. Wait, what was I saying? Um, I was telling you to follow me because I'm I'm living it out. I'm testing it. I have some flops. Uh, I will make some good wins, sometimes out of necessity, because kids are kids and they're squirrely. Uh follow me on social media, Instagram, Facebook, I've got a YouTube channel where I'm pushing stuff. Um, make sure you're, if you're not, you're in our Facebook group at Runonation, the Family Ministry Academy. I do a live monthly training each month with Dr. Josh Mulvahill. Our curriculum that we write is super deep and meaty, Bible-centered tip tool number one. Make sure you follow along. Um, if you take nothing else away from this episode, and I hope you took some really fun stuff, make sure you check out the show notes. I'm gonna drop some links, but take away the thought that we want to teach our kids the word of God so that it can dwell in their hearts, that they can choose to follow God. So let's bring it, let's teach them theology and doctrine, let's ground them in the word so that they can become lifelong disciples of God, of Christ, with a deep and vibrant faith. And hey, remember, kid men leaders, what you do matters.