Monthly Archives: April 2017

• Pray early during planning and preparation.
  • Pray for God’s wisdom in the details, from which curriculum to choose to the dates and times to have the club(s).
  • Pray that your volunteers would have a passion for serving and a heart for children to hear about our Great Savior.
• Pray often both individually and corporately.
  • Incorporate prayer for the Backyard Bible Club into your personal devotions.
  • Pray as a team during preparation and training, as well as for all aspects of the club.
• Pray before and during the club.
  • Gather as a team before the children arrive to pray that God would direct the time together and for God to work in each heart.
  • Pray for each child who would come, and for anything of concern that came to light the previous day.
  • Have the people running snack time pray for the children during snack time.
• Pray as you and your team follow up with families after the club, inviting them to a program or meal after the club, and even to church.
  • Pray for hearts to see God and faith to grow.
  • Pray for families to be welcomed and loved by those putting on the club.

• developing a carefully designed scope and sequence of teaching content that progressively moves children and youth toward greater spiritual growth.
• using a relational, interactive teaching style in which the evidences of Christian discipleship are clearly communicated, visibly demonstrated, and faithfully encouraged.
• intentionally providing resources and training for the home that promote and equip parents for their responsibility in discipling their children.

Family devotions, Sunday school classes, catechism, Bible study, corporate worship services, mission projects—all important and helpful tools and means of instructing our children and students in the Christian faith. But there is a really crucial aspect we often don’t think about as much as we should. Consider the former list in light of these words:

Discipleship is the process whereby we seek to teach others the Word of God. Notice that the Great Commission is not only to teach people God’s commands, but to teach them to “observe” or “obey” all that He commanded. There is a world of difference between teaching someone everything the Lord commanded and teaching them to obey everything He commanded. One is through words, the other through a way of life. Teaching someone to obey God’s commands requires intentionality in the context of relationship throughout the span of a lifetime.  

• Glorify God and increase joy in Him by planning events that:
  • …will display the glory of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior (1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 4:6).
  • …will cause His Word to dwell richly in His people by His Spirit (Colossians 3:16-17).
  • …deepen the relationship between Christ and His church, and build relationships within the believer’s household (Psalm 25:4, 14; Philippians 3:10).
  • …make disciples of Christ and work to bring them to maturity in Him (Colossians 1:28-29; Titus 2:3-8).

Watch as Sally Michael uses the example of doing laundry to illustrate different perspectives of what it means to be a mother.

As parents, our greatest goal and joy for our children should be that they come to faith in Christ and live as His faithful disciples, for the glory of God. Therefore, clearly presenting and explaining the essential truths of the Gospel and demonstrating what it means to follow Jesus in daily life is our greatest duty and privilege as we teach and train our children. But trying to discern whether or not a child has truly understood and grasped the meaning of the Gospel is sometimes harder to assess. Here are two pastors who offer some wise counsel for parents and teachers:

Children can memorize and repeat what they have heard their parents and teachers say, but that doesn’t mean that they understand it all. Neither does it mean that they are personally committed to those truths.

A few questions can determine where a child is spiritually.

• a robust doctrine of God.
• who we are in relation to God.
• the nature and problem of sin.

Jesus saves.

There can be no agreement as to what salvation is unless there is agreement as to that from which salvation rescues us. The problem and the solution hang together: the one explicates the other. It is impossible to gain a deep grasp of what the cross achieves without plunging into a deep grasp of what sin is; conversely, to augment one’s understanding of the cross is to augment one’s understanding of sin. To put the matter another way, sin establishes the plotline of the Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (ESV)

• There is only one God.
• God is eternal and unchanging.
• God is the Creator of everything.
• God rules over everything and everyone.
• God chooses a special people for Himself.
• God makes special promises to His people.
• God is faithful and always keeps His promises.
• God is holy and righteous.
• God is jealous and deserves all honor, love, trust, obedience, and worship.
• God knows everything.
• God is all-powerful.
• God is everywhere all the time.
• God is wrathful toward sin.
• God is just.
• God is loving, compassionate, patient, and merciful.
• God is the Savior of His people.

For in him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,—Colossians 1:19