How Deep is Too Deep When Teaching Theology to Kids?

Do kids need to be taught doctrine and theology, or just told some Bible stories until they are older? In this episode, Amber gives 5 practical ways to deepen your lessons to children, giving them a deep foundation of faith. 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Top 50 Bible Lessons Book - https://amzn.to/4c8GKLN
Exploring the Bible Through History - https://amzn.to/3SP7xGm
Intentional Children's Ministry - https://amzn.to/4gRQI6Q
RenewaNation Curriculum - https://familyministry.org/curriculum/

Transcript

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Amber Pike (00:00.936)
Welcome back to the Kidmin Huddle. Have you ever said or maybe heard someone say, no, that is just too deep for my kids? My kids can't understand that. They are just preschoolers or elementary or middle school. No, that's just too deep. Well, when I hear or most often see these things on social media, I have to control my face a little bit. Because I don't think you can go too deep with kids.

That's what we're talking about today. How deep is too deep when it comes to teaching our kids theology? And personally, I don't think you can go too deep on them. Now, I'm not talking about appropriateness, right? no kids leader wants to explain to the children who don't know what Virgin Mary means, right? We don't, we don't enjoy that part. there are things that maybe given your age, we need to let parents take the lead on explaining. I'm not talking about that.

But just the concepts in God's Word. God's Word is for everyone. And so really it's how we teach it. And we need to be teaching deep and meaty doctrine and theology. Our goal as ministry leaders, it's to disciple these boys and girls to give them a lifelong faith in Jesus. And quite frankly, if we have this Bible light, this story approach or this

entertainment education mentality, we are not growing deep faith in these kids. We are not making resilient disciples. It's a surface, superficial understanding. And we need to do better.

There are concepts and words in the Bible. Why are we not explaining them to kids thinking that they can't understand? Josh Mobilehill, Dr. Josh Mobilehill, explains it like this. we teach kids math, and math is really hard. And I say this as someone who says, yes, math is really hard. Math is complex concepts, and we assume they can do that. Why would we think that they can't understand the Bible? It's on like a fifth grade level. They can understand.

Amber Pike (02:15.49)
Doctrine and theology, and we need to teach it. We need to teach God's word to them, not a watered-down version. We see, you know, the example of Timothy from infancy. You have known the scriptures. We see when we look at the Israelites, the children were there hearing the word of God read out loud. But we think we just need to teach about Noah and play some games. No, my friends, let's give them more. Now.

When I teach a complex theological concept to my three-year-old niece sitting in my classroom, is she going to remember it and be able to completely articulate it back to me? Probably not. However, if I am consistently and repeatedly laying a foundation of theology and faith in her life, is she going to be growing and building this deep and vibrant faith? Yes. We

We need to think of it not as a a single teaching is going to make them so so wise and and understand it. No, we're laying foundations. Kids learn through repetition. I mean, it's the same thing with reading. If you've ever taught a child to read, they don't just get it with that first thing. You continue and you work on it. Well, theology is the same thing. We are teaching them, we are giving it to them. We're sometimes saying the same thing in a million different ways, 70,000 different times.

That we're laying that foundation, we're giving them more. We're giving them the bar to reach to. And then we see, we see the light bulb moments, we see them get it, we see their faith growing. We need to give them more. Let's put this on another, on another way. If if you not in a church situation because you all would not be doing this or you would not be working with kids and you should do this as a parent either, but when you have a parent who's just a stinky parent and they tell their kid that they're dumb, what does that kid do?

That kid rises to the occasion. Well, I'm dumb. All I ever do is dumb things. And since I'm dumb, I don't have to try any harder. Now let's flip this and put this in the in the church world. If we tell a child, not verbally, verbatim, but but we are telling them by the way that we teach our lessons and the curriculum we're choosing and the way we structure programs, if we tell them that all they're capable of is knowing some stories to come for games and a snack, they're they're gonna rise to that occasion.

Amber Pike (04:40.364)
So let's set the bar higher. Let's set the bar higher with these kids because we want to see them become lifelong disciples of Christ with a deep and vibrant faith, not some watered down fluff that isn't really theirs. So practically, there's there's the spiel of the why. It matters. Practically, then how do we do this? Because kids are kids. They're at

Different developmental levels, even in the same, same grade. So, you know, if you've listened to me before, I'm multi-age classroom. So I have three all the way on up. My last church, I would have four through 18 in my classroom. That's a wide age range. but even if you are separate classrooms, the difference from a five-year-old in kindergarten to a six-year-old in kindergarten is night and day different sometimes. those little ages.

Developmentally, kids are at different spots and they are growing rapidly. So, how do you teach theology to where it's not over their heads? Because we don't want a kid to feel really confused, to feel like, I'm really dumb. I'm not getting it. I don't know enough, right? That's not that's not our goal, not what we want to see happen. So we don't want to come in and go so over their heads that they can't get it. But

This comes to how we're teaching it. So you can teach theology in ways that we are continually laying that foundation while not going over their heads, but we're exposing them to things, words, concepts that are actually in the Bible and things they need to know. Because doom and gloom picture here. Let's say we don't. We don't teach them deep theology. We have a story-light, Bible-light mentality where fun is our emphasis.

And we're teaching this to kids and they graduate children's ministry. They're moving up into youth ministry. There's no more children church. So now they're sitting through the sermon and they're real confused. What do you mean? Atonement? I don't know what this means. Repent. I don't know what this means. I don't understand these words. I don't know how to follow along in my Bible because I've never done it. So then what you see is happen is that middle schooler who's now sitting in a church service for the first time, they are disengaged. They don't know what's going on. So, I I need to go to the bathroom three times during a service or mom, I don't want to go.

Amber Pike (07:01.496)
I'm not going. And they mentally check out and then sometimes physically check out and boom, they're gone. We don't want that to happen. We don't want there to be a disconnect from when they're leaving children's ministry to youth ministry, adult service. We want them engaged in the church. And part of that is how we are preparing them. So, theology, teaching theology to kids, it matters. And it can be done. I've got a lot of really practical ways here.

Because I do this. I do this every week with my kids. It matters. So, number one, use big words. I love using big words with my kids. A lot of these words, like atonement, they're actually in scripture. So they are going to encounter these words. Let's start giving them some familiarity with these words. So, how do I teach them? Well, I use them.

I use the attributes of God. So I've actually had people in editing processes try to correct my writings when I put that God is omnipotent. And they're like, well, let's just use that God is all powerful. I'm like, no, let's use omnipotent. Now I will explain it to them often in my writing as well, but I want those big words. Not to make me look smarter, but because these kids should know these big words. They're going to hear them. They're going to encounter them. So let's use them. Here's how I do it.

I had this big dry erase board. I've got videos on this and social media on this. Go back if you're like super curious, you can see footage of this huge dry erase board. And I started in the lesson series that I was doing. I would pick out the big words, the big concepts that our kids need to know, but maybe are unfamiliar, and I would print it out. And when we would get to it in the lesson, we would put it up on the board. So by the end, I had a very full board. I had no more space left. I've got some Hebrew and Greek words on there, words that we're gonna use, and I would take my

Handy dandy pointer finger. And when we would run into this word, or we would be explaining something. Well, how did God do this? God did this because He's, and then I would go and I would tap on it and they would say the word. It got to where I had no more room on my board. I couldn't illustrate anything on my board because I just had all these words. So I took those words, the most popular ones that I'm referencing the most, repetition, and I made a poster on it. So now I have a poster. If I'm talking to you like I'm talking my classes on this wall over here, and every week,

Amber Pike (09:23.574)
I kid you not, every single week I'm pulling out something and I'm pointing it on there. Now, sometimes they'll get the word wrong. They're trying to guess and they'll be like, because he's holy. No, he is, but in this where it's because he's sovereign. God is in control of all. And I'm pointing to it. Now, I have younger kids. Eventually, it will get to where my kids will be able to go and do that for me because that theology will have been.

ingrained in them and they will have these definitions and be able to apply them to what we are learning and I will be able to pass off the pointer finger, which they will love, and they will get to go point to it on the wall. Trust me, it will happen. I'm going to show you why in another point, but I don't want to, I don't want to steal my own thunder there. Another thing that I do with these big words is I will assign motions to them. So whenever I talk about God being omnipotent, he is all powerful. That one's really easy.

This one we did actually yesterday, no, Sunday on church repent. we were talking about the the Hebrew of it, because I did not take Greek or Hebrew, but I will still Google it and teach it to the kids sometimes. So the Hebrew word for repent is shou. I could be saying that wrong. If you speak Hebrew and Greek and I am doing it wrong, please let me know. I learned like four years ago that I've been saying the Shema wrong. I always thought it was the Shema.

It's Shema, but I'm from Kentucky, so makes sense, right? But the Hebrew word for repent, shov, is to turn back. And it gave the picture of a person going down a road windway and then turning around and going the other way, down the right path. So to repent, we are going to turn away from sin. And I make them do the motion with me. Add motions, add the visual. So we're engaging multiple senses and we're doing it repeatedly. Boom. Use those big words.

But I didn't just use the big word and go on, leaving a kid going, I don't know what she means. I'm explaining it all the time. And then I'm putting things in place to help their brains process it, remember it. Number two, object lessons and visuals are really, really good to help kids understand these more complex phrases, concepts. They need a little something to help them. Honestly, our grown-ups probably do too.

Amber Pike (11:45.199)
So I've said it a couple times in this episode alone so far. Atonement is in the Bible. The word atonement is in the Bible, but like that's a that's a bit of a tough, tough word, right? So substitutionary atonement, man, what is that? That is a phrase that our kids are going to hear in the church world. How do we do this? Well, this is when a visual is going to come in wonderfully. So I have some super cool shirts.

And if you're listening to this, you're gonna have to use your imagination. If you're watching, I'm gonna try to show the best that I can on on camera. So I have two really big shirts. These are 3XL. Here's my side knowledge. When you're having things that go on kids, please be considerate and think of the kid who's not kid-sized. Over the years, I've had some larger children, some adult sized children. I was a larger kid.

I was 5'10 in sixth grade. Kid size stuff didn't always fit me. my daughter is the same way. She's tall, she's leggy. we're struggling to find clothes because like some of those dresses in the kids section, her bottom's hanging out. Please keep this in mind when you're doing things. Make it extra large. Not extra large, but like super extra large. So for this, I needed two t-shirts and I bought a 3XL. Will it swallow up my little five-year-old?

Yeah. But I would rather it be massively big on a smaller kid than one of my older kids who is built bigger feel the disappointment of it didn't fit me. Trust me on this. So I've got these t-shirts and I made one super pretty. I took my Sharpies and I took paint and it says sin. I wrote sin on it and I made it all yucky and I put this on one kid.

And then I put this other shirt, this nice, it's white, it's clean, on another kid. And I then have them switch. And the child with the dirty shirt that says sin, they get that shirt taken off and it gets put on the person who had on the white one, and then the white one goes on the other person. And I'm walking them through. This is what Jesus did for us. He gave us his righteousness and took on our sin to make us right.

Amber Pike (14:08.204)
Visuals, object lessons, these are so helpful for kids because these phrases, these concepts, they're big, and some of them kind of defy human understanding, like the Trinity. How can God be three persons but one God? Now, there are a lot of wrong ways to explain it, all of them fall short.

an apple, you've got the the peel, the meaty part, you've got the core, you've got water, can exist, and ice and steam and liquid. All of these are are wrong. There's a really funny, there's a really funny video I found last year. It's like a Lutheran satire video. St. Patrick explains the Trinity. If you want to chuckle, go watch it. It's really funny. And a year later, my family is still going, Patrick. Just trust me.

But how do we explain the Trinity? Because it is a concept that quite frankly our little human brains just cannot get. Well, a visual is super helpful. I have used at two churches, my last two churches, I use Answers Bible curriculum for my Sunday school curriculum. I did this for like 12 years, and they had an illustration that taught the Trinity. And a little something like this. This is a the poster version that I made and have it up as a poster in my classroom.

Because I use my walls as a teaching tool. And so you've got God in the middle, and God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Spirit, but the Spirit is not the Father. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit. Now, I use this illustration. We had like coloring sheets and all the things with it in my Sunday school curriculum. But I would get the question of the Trinity a lot. So I would go to the board and I would draw it out.

Now, my older kids who had been through my class for a long time, it got to the point when someone would be like, Miss Amber, how is Jesus God? But Jesus is separate. And I'm like, and then to go, no, no, no, Miss Amber, let me do it. And my kids would go to the board and they would start drawing how and explaining correctly the Trinity. Guys, that's really impressive. That's that's complicated theology because it's one that our brains just

Amber Pike (16:27.444)
Doesn't make sense because nothing else in our world is this way. But a simple visual helps. It it's what it is, friends. Like here you go. But this visual helped to the point where my kids would then draw it and teach the class. Guys, this is our goal, right? They are getting theology. So object lessons, visuals, anytime you can incorporate those things, I'll do magic tricks. I think I am a fabulous magician.

the kids never boo me. I'm not as cool as like Matt Adams, for example. I don't know if you're listening to this, but he's super cool. lots of cool magician friends. the knights. I know I have more. I just can't think of them right now. I'm not that cool. But I can do some really cool gospel illusions. Check out my YouTube channel. I do them during VBS wearing my wig and two two, and it's super fun. I had a fun one with colored pencils making them disappear. Man, it's fun. It draws them in, but it also creates that.

Kind of grounded in reality thing that can help make a little sense. Now, if they see my my object lesson, are they instantly like, yes, I understand this? Maybe not, but again, we are laying that foundation. We need to keep this in mind. We're laying that foundation. So we're using the big words, we're adding in object lessons, visuals. Number three, we want to add in those connections. Sometimes our curriculum does a really bad job of making those connection pieces, and we need to be doing it.

I think the narrative of scripture is one of those. Theology, studying God's word, it's all of God's word, right? Some pieces, some things are so much more when we understand the past. For example, do you know without sin, there's really no reason reason for Jesus to have came and died on the cross? So if we fail to teach sin to kids, there's no point for Jesus. We need to teach.

The whole of scripture. And often we need to be the ones, because a lot of curriculum doesn't do a good job of doing this, making those connection pieces. I use a timeline. Here's where we're at in scripture. Connect the families together, like the line of David. Sometimes we need to do that. Sometimes we need to make those connection pieces. Who is this? How are they related? What do they matter in God's story? And especially how does this connect us to Christ?

Amber Pike (18:52.886)
We need to make those connection pieces because it's the whole of scripture and it's it's key. they need to understand the one story of God's redemptive love for his creation, all of scripture, not just disjointed stories. That is a key factor in a deep and vibrant faith. Number five, we need to go further than just giving them some Bible stories, right? Often, if we're doing more of a moralistic theology, which we should not be doing, we are teaching them that they should be brave, like.

Like David and obedient like Noah. And to be like Queen Esther. No. Let's show them the God who did these things. So I am constantly pointing to the attributes of God in all that I do. This is where my poster, you like how I talk with my hands and show you, because you can see my classroom wall here. I am using the attributes of God, those words, and I'm pointing it out in the story of what we're what we're learning on. Attributes of God are huge because kids need to understand who God is.

So I'm adding those in. If my curriculum's not doing it, I am doing it. By the way, I'm gonna have a podcast episode coming up soon on some of my favorite ways to teach that and favorite attributes of God and why it matters. But so here it is for now. add it in. Add it in. So, example, in our VBS this year, I do Answers in Genesis VBS, and we were doing Emerald Crossing and one of the songs, because God the Good Shepherd, He is our provider.

Taught had the phrase Jehovah Jireh. So I could have just had them sing it. There's oftentimes we don't explain the theology of songs to kids, but hey, you guys need to know. Does anybody know what Jehovah Jire means? It's Lord provider. And we talked about this over and over through the week. Let's add it in. If we're talking on a thing, our lesson is about God providing, hey, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. Add it in. Add in

more than Bible stories teach deep things about God because it's about Him after all. and then last tip that is just kind of kind of a no-brainer brainer, but it bears repeating, repetition, over and over. We are not just telling them one time. You wouldn't just give the child the children the gospel one time, right? And well they got it right. No, we're giving the gospel imitation over and over.

Amber Pike (21:18.178)
Well, the same thing for theology. If the theology, the study of God, if the study of God's word is the understanding foundation for the gospel, we need to be giving it over and over. We have to remember the goal. We don't want just little boys and girls who obey and make good choices. We want boys and girls who are radically in love with Christ, who are lifelong disciples with a deep and vibrant faith.

And we need to give them more. the old school mentality of we'll read a Bible story from our storybook Bible, and we'll have a coloring page and a cookie, and that is church, is not going to cut it. I have stickers that say more than cookies and coloring sheets because we can do better and we should do better. Every lesson we teach should be chocked full of doctrine, theology, apologetics. We need to be giving kids more, teaching them.

The truths of God's word and amazing things about our amazing God. We have to give them more. And quite frankly, we can't give them too much. Now, I could take the exact same lesson with my deep and meatiness, and I could bore them to tears. Right? I could make it where it's so over their heads, but I don't want to do that. It's how I present it. Right? I could get up there and I could completely read the lesson to them and they're not going to understand a thing.

Or be engaged, they're going to zone out. But I can make a lesson where I'm teaching some deep stuff and I'm adding some big words, but I've made it fun. I've visually, I've I've drawn them in, I've helped explain things, I'm helping them experience things, I'm laying that foundation by giving them more. My friends, we've got to give them more. So if you are struggling with, am I

i isn't is what I'm using. Is it too little? I don't know how to teach more. Please reach out. I've got resources. My YouTube channel has tons of stuff because remember I'm doing it. I'm in the trenches. So on Sundays I'm I'm doing it. Like the other day I was teaching Song of Solomon to my children. I'm doing an overview of the Bible. I'm figuring out what's working and what's not working in new and creative ways because I don't want to do the same illusion every time. I wanna

Amber Pike (23:39.534)
I want keep them thinking and figuring out. So follow along. If you're not following me on social media, follow, check past episodes of the podcast, check out my book, Intentional Children's Ministry. If you're also looking for lessons that are deep and meaty, check out my lesson books, the top 50 Bible lessons about ordinary people and God's extraordinary plan, also exploring the Bible through history. And then with Renewanation, I have lessons that we write and it's doctrine, theology, apologetics. The first year is systematic theology.

they're deep, they're meaty, they're intentional. Friends, reach out if you're stuck. but take away from this, you can't get too deep with kids. Explain it, draw them in, do it over and over because we are laying a foundation so that we can see boys and girls choose to follow Christ for life. And with that, remember, friends, what you do matters.