More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
July 15 - July 16, 2025
no one likes to give even a minute of their time for ministry that’s so easy it must be unimportant.
Jesus tells us that the work of proclaiming God’s kingdom is dangerous. It takes courage. It demands earnest prayer. It’s more about faith than giftedness, and it requires no resources other than those God provides.
I’m only a parent and volunteer who works with children and youth, leading lessons and other Christian activities. I’m just a Bible teacher—like you.
What mattered was Christ crucified. Joe determined that his time with the kids would revolve around Jesus, and he pushed other considerations aside. He understood that those kids had school teachers or Sesame Street to tell them how to be good listeners. They needed him to show them something better—how Christ speaks so stunningly that listening will never be the same.
I thought it felt corny. I didn’t want to try too hard to be spiritual when I should be, well, more normal.
News is not what you do—it’s what someone else has done that affects you. The good news means you relate to God based on what Jesus has done for you, not what you’ve done to prove yourself worthy.
Fellow teachers, our challenge is to proclaim the good news of Jesus so clearly and consistently that no kid of ours will ever place him in a category with typical religious leaders. Our calling is to be good-news fanatics.
An eager teacher who puts extra thought into a lesson—and shares what he or she’s learned about Jesus—beats a timid one every time.
Wouldn’t it be better to say we should be God-centered? Aren’t you leaving out whole chunks of teaching about God by focusing only on Jesus? The disciples said the same thing—to Jesus’s face! “‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?’” (John 14:8–10). Although we look to the entire Bible for a full picture of God, the most complete picture we find is Jesus himself.
However, all too often that’s all kids get from a lesson, instead of what they need most. If they get Samuel the good listener without first appreciating God the Great Speaker, they’re liable to end up relating to God only in an anxious, what-I-must-do way.
Grandparents: If you don’t see your grandkids regularly, write each of them a letter. Like Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, make sure it says something about Jesus.
I included all this in my lesson to show the big picture. Luke didn’t write about Jesus the twelve-year-old to give my kids an example they could relate to and follow. Rather, Luke paints a portrait of a Savior who submits so completely to God—both to God’s law and to God’s plan of redemption through the cross—that we can only watch in wonder. The main point is not that we too should obey, but that Jesus did obey.
The good news offends everyone. At some point it will offend you. It might be the gruesomeness of the cross. It might be the absolute freeness of salvation, or how that includes giving up your self-directed life. It may be something else entirely. But if you’re honest, at some point you’ll say, “Wait, I don’t like this.”
Knowing we’re saved is critical. If we somehow think we never were in hellish danger, we might still admire Jesus, but we won’t love him.
Lots of people try to stop being bad. But Christians also stop trying to prove how good they are.”
But with the God Report Card, shouldn’t you include something about how we need to accept Jesus in order to receive those “good grades”?
Every Bible story features a unique way that God cares for his people. If you find it and then teach the good news from that starting point, you’ll constantly give your students new chances for the good news to click with them.
Their true trust is in their own ability to act like good Christians, and your talk about sin exposes them as failures. Kids who trust in being good can’t handle reminders of their sin. It destroys their self-confidence, precisely because it is confidence in self.
Everyone quickly learns that the good news means pressure, and that other topics make for more fun groups and classes. That’s the trap.
If kids are leaving the church, it’s because we’ve failed to give them a view of Jesus and his cross that’s compelling enough to satisfy their spiritual hunger and give them the zeal they crave. They haven’t seen that Jesus himself is better than any “Jesus program.” He’s better than the music used to worship him. He’s better than a missions trip. He’s better than their favorite youth leader. He’s also better than money. Better than video games. Better than romantic teen movies. Better than sex. Better than popularity or power.
We’ve failed too many kids. We’ve fed them things to do. We’ve fed them “worshipful” experiences. But we’ve failed to feed them more than a spoonful of the good news. Now they’re starving and they’ll eat anything. They’re trying to feed their souls with something—maybe even a churchy thing—that feels like it fits them, when what they need is someone utterly better than themselves.
But what’s assumed is quickly forgotten.
Even though I know this, I too often ignore the heart in my own teaching. It seems too much to expect hearts to change, so I go for what’s easy. I fall back on lesser motivations that are proven to bring short-term, external results. After all, I can get a fourth grader to take just three crackers. And because I’m good at persuasion, I might even convince a teenager to do something big—like stop lying to his parents or put off having sex. I can stop the evil act—for a while. So I choose to do that, instead of deal with the evil heart from which those acts come.
I’ve appealed to pride. I’ve told kids that if they obey God, they can feel good about themselves because they’re being good Christians. They can hold their head high knowing they’re pleasing Jesus, their parents, and me. I’ve appealed to self-interest. I’ve told kids that following God’s rules is the only way they can be happy and satisfied in life. God knows best, and they should live his way if they want things to work out. I’ve appealed to fear and reward. I’ve suggested that God will punish bad deeds and dole out blessings for good ones. Kids can’t expect their prayers to be answered if
...more
Self-preservation. Self-advancement. Selfishness dressed up to look Christian. I ought to hate it when I talk kids into such selfish repentance! And I shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t last.
A good-behavior kid is still seeking love and approval. A good-news kid knows he’s already loved forever by his heavenly Father, and actually behaves better. A good-behavior kid… A good-news kid… Divides the world into good people and bad people. Like Peter before he caught the fish, constantly tries to prove himself to be one of the good kids. Sees only bad people and one good person—Jesus. Like Peter after he caught the fish, spends his life trusting and following that one good guy.
You might end up using much of what your teacher’s guide says. Still, the best teaching moments seldom come from following a script someone else has prepared, even a good script. They come from excitedly teaching rich truths you’ve discovered for
Jesus is all over the Balaam story. We don’t need cute tricks to draw him out. It doesn’t require an “aha” moment where we reveal it was all about Jesus. We aren’t trying to look fancy.
Don’t: Look for a moral lesson about a human character. Instead: Look for the worth and work of the main character, God.
It’s an obvious but critical one: a Bible teacher must know the Bible. There’s no getting around this.
I know—that sounds time-consuming. I’m about to make it worse. To connect the Old Testament to Jesus, you have to know all you can about Jesus too. This means knowing the New Testament even more thoroughly than the Old. It means reading through the Gospels and Epistles regularly, even when the passages you’re teaching come from other parts of the Bible.
It does take time—but not that much compared to other things.
Bible, you ought to read the Bible—beyond a few verses. It’s good for your own spiritual growth as well, which is essential if you hope to help kids grow.
Jesus isn’t a side dish.
The subtle message of those gimmicks is that jungles and space stations and carnivals are more exciting than Jesus.
let me point out that none of us is a teacher for just an hour a week or only during organized family devotions. Those may be our planned sessions, but we teach full time. All we do, and every interaction with kids, teaches something.
Students sense the difference between a teacher with integrity and a fake. There’s nothing they demand more than integrity. Not hipness. Not entertainment. Not even solid Bible teaching. They want—and need—for us to be practicing believers in everyday life.
But growth as a Christian is not about getting to a point where we stop sinning so much and do better on our own. It’s more about learning to depend on Jesus constantly, increasing in faith, and trusting him in our weakness.
