How to share the gospel with children, a GQkidz.org spotlight - GotQuestions.org Podcast Episode 59

Welcome to the Got Questions podcast. On today's episode, we're actually starting a series where we're going to spotlight each of the different websites that we run.

So on today's episode, we're going to be spotlighting GQKids .org, which is our site for kids targeted primarily at the third grade level.

So if you can get the third graders, you can go down a little bit to younger and go up a little bit to older and hopefully communicate answers to biblical questions that kids of all ages can understand and relate to.

So with that in mind, we have two guests on the show today. First is my wife, Melissa, the co -founder of Got Questions Ministry, and she's also the administrator of GQKids .org.

That's one of her primary responsibilities here in the ministry. And also we have Hannah Sims, who runs a ministry designed to train

Christian leaders how to better minister to children. And that's what we'll be talking about. How do we answer questions for kids and how do we evangelize kids?

That's going to be our topic of conversation today. But as a quick intro, so GQKids .org,

the concept is, if you could go to the site. So Melissa, my wife, actually grew up at a

Bible camp where each summer kids would come to the camp for a week and would have an intensive week of being trained, being taught the

Bible, being taught how to live the Christian life, and so forth. So GQKids .org is actually built on the theme of a

Christian camp where all the questions are asked by the campers and answered by the counselor.

And there's comic strips, there's games, different things we can do for GQKids. And God has really equipped

Melissa to be excellent with kids, and so this is the perfect spot for her in the ministry as an excellent writer and editor.

So Melissa, tell us a little bit more about GQKids .org and why you're so passionate about it.

Well, Shay, as you know, I absolutely love children. And I think, as we're going to talk about later in this podcast, if we can help kids develop a worldview where God is part of that worldview, it bodes well later in life for them.

And I enjoy Camp 1 and Answer. Do you get it?

Camp 1 and Answer is our GQKids camp where the kids come and ask questions. And while it's primarily for children,

I would say that probably about one -third of the questions that are submitted at GQKids are actually from adults.

And it's usually something like, well, I'd like to explain salvation or the Trinity or creation to my son or my grandson or this kid in my

Sunday school class. So what's the best way to do that? And I am just so thrilled that they would come to Got Questions to GQKids and let us have the honor of helping explain these very important concepts to a child.

So Hannah, I have a question for you because I think that people get nervous that sometimes we aren't going to explain some concept correctly or in a way that a child will understand.

So can you give us a couple principles to keep in mind when we're answering kids' questions?

I would love to do that. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. One thing that I thought of was that when answering kids' questions, you might actually need to ask some clarifying questions to get at the heart of what kids are really asking.

So an example of this is when I was teaching a group of kids about the Christmas story, and I was explaining that Jesus is

God's Son and He came to Earth. One little girl raised her hand and she said, Does God have a girlfriend?

And I was kind of, you know, taken aback by that question. It's kind of a strange one. And I was like, No. And then the little girl said,

Well, then how could God have a baby? Because you said Jesus is God's Son. So the little girl wasn't really asking about God's marital status.

She was really wanting to know more about Jesus and how Jesus came to Earth and the Trinity and, you know, things like that that really surround the doctrine of who

Jesus is. That was really the heart of her question. And so for me, I was really glad that she followed up with that question because that really showed me what her true question was.

And it also taught me a valuable lesson that in answering kids' questions, maybe we first need to ask them investigative questions just to make sure that we are answering the heart of what they're really wanting to know.

And the second thing I would say is making sure that you show them the answer from the Bible.

We want the children to know that it's not us. We are not the authority when answering their questions.

We are showing them from God's Word. He is the authority. And so we're showing them from the Bible what he says.

I remember a child who came to Bible Club and she told me that she had asked her phone a question based on what we had been talking about.

And, you know, we know that kids love asking Surrey or different things to, you know, answer their questions and they always laugh at the funny answers.

But this girl was really confused because the answer she got from her phone was either completely different from what we were telling her at Bible Club or they said like the answer didn't exist or something like that.

I can't remember exactly. But the point was that the little girl didn't know who to believe. She didn't know whether she should believe her phone and the answer her phone gave or whether she should believe the

Bible and what we were showing her from the Bible. So I think it's really important in this day and age that when we're answering kids that we help them to know that the authority doesn't come from us or what we say, but it's coming from the authoritative

Word of God. Oh, absolutely. That's great, Hannah.

I think sometimes we worry too much about maybe explaining it exactly right.

And sometimes we just need to tell them what the Bible says, right? We make it too hard sometimes.

So that leads us to a question that kids have asked many times at GQ Kids.

I'm a kid. Can God save me? And that's the most exciting question a kid can ask, isn't it?

We found that kids are very receptive of the gospel message and they understand that they're sinners and they need a

Savior. I don't know very many kids who think they have never done anything wrong. And so it's a nice segue into the gospel.

So, Hannah, can you give us some basic principles for how to share the gospel with a child?

Absolutely. So there are five main categories when sharing the gospel, and this really applies to anyone, but they are

God, sin, Jesus, believing, and growth. So those are kind of the five main categories there.

And I'll go through each one of the categories and kind of share some points that I use when sharing the gospel as well as some scriptures.

And one thing that I like to tell adults is that when you're learning to share the gospel with children, you're actually learning a new language.

And it's called childrenese, the language of children. And it's a language that is theologically accurate, but it's also a vocabulary that kids can understand.

So when sharing the gospel with kids, you can start out with talking about God and a often used as John 3, 16, especially the beginning part, for God so loved the world.

And I like to put the kid's name in the verse. So in this instance, I would say, for God so loved

Melissa, helping them to know that the world is, you know, not just like trees and plants and stuff, but actually them.

And then telling them that God is holy, which means that He's perfect. He's 100 % good 100 % of the time.

That because He's holy, He is also just, that He must punish sin in a verse that could be used as like Deuteronomy 32, 4.

And when explaining God's justice to kids, this is important. So they don't just think that God is like a meanie that just is like punishing people, but that He's doing it because He's good, because of His justice.

An example that I give with kids is that maybe their teacher is punishing a student in the class that is doing wrong.

Maybe that kid has to stay inside for recess or go to the principal's office. And when that teacher does that, the teacher is being good and just.

And normally kids will understand that concept. So when later on you get to talking about sin, that helps the kids to see that God is just when

He punishes them for their sin. So those are some things that you can talk about in regards to God.

And then when you move on to sin, some verses that you can talk about there is Romans 3 .23 or Romans 6 .23.

And normally it's good to start out with the definition of what sin is. Some kids just don't know what sin is, whether it's good or bad.

And so a simple definition I like to give kids is sin is anything that you think or that you say or that you do that breaks

God's law or maybe doesn't please Him or for younger children makes God sad. And that just helps kids to know what sin is.

And you could talk about some examples of sin with kids. And you want to eventually get to the punishment of sin.

And Romans 6 .23 says that the wages of sin is death. So there's death in three different ways.

There's physical death. There's spiritual death, being spiritually separated from God in our friendship with Him.

We can't be friends with Him while we're here on earth. And then ultimately eternal death, being forever separated from God in a very terrible place of punishment.

We want kids to understand the seriousness of sin and also that they personally have sinned.

It's not just like my sister is sinned and, you know, my friend is sinned. But we want them to take ownership for their personal sin.

And so often in talking about sin, I'll ask kids, you know, have you sinned in making sure that they take that personal responsibility and that sin is not just something that is like fun because everyone does it.

Sometimes that's what kids will think, like, oh, everyone sins, so this is all great. But to know that no, sin is something that's very serious and that there's a serious punishment for sin and that they cannot get rid of their sin problem on their own.

So part of sharing the gospel and the good news with kids is convicting them of that sin because they can't embrace the solution.

They can't get the good news if they first don't receive and accept the bad news. And that's if they're sinners. So after you go to the bad news, then you go to the good news, and that brings us to Jesus.

And there's lots of different verses you could share about Jesus, but one that I like to share is 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 that just kind of outlines that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Here it's important to talk about that Jesus is perfect because of His perfection. That is why

He was able to die on the cross and take the punishment for our sin. And then also that He is fully

God and fully man. So Jesus wasn't 50 -50. He wasn't like a demagogue. He was 100 %

God and 100 % man. He wasn't a prophet or an angel or a good moral teacher. He was the

God -man. And during this time, it's important to tell children that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

It's not Jesus plus good works or Jesus plus other religions, but it's Jesus alone. And He alone is the one who died and rose again for their sin.

And if necessary, depending on the type of environment that kids have been raised in, you may want to spend some time talking about how we know

Jesus is real. You know, this isn't once upon a time in some fairy tale story or some myth, but Jesus actually is the true risen

Savior. And then you get into the part of how to actually lead a child to salvation.

So those first three truths are kind of just general gospel truths. And then this is actually how you would lead a child in praying to receive

Christ. So there's a couple of verses you can use. John 1 .12 is a popular one, as well as John 3 .16.

And I would start out by explaining what these words mean in these verses. So read the verse to the child and then explain what does it mean to receive or believe or become a child of God, or what does it mean to perish or have eternal life.

And then once those concepts have been explained, then I would ask a child, do you believe in Jesus as your only

Savior from sin? And this is important because this is the time where the child gets to articulate what's going on in their mind.

So if a child would say no, that they don't believe in Jesus, then I would, you know, want to ask follow -up questions with them.

You know, why not? Do you have any questions? But I wouldn't want to force them or make them pray if the

Lord is not working in their heart at this time. But if they say that they are ready, that they do believe in Jesus, then

I want to follow up with them with some review questions. Just reviewing the main points that we've already talked about.

Questions like, have you sinned? What is the punishment for sin? Can you get to heaven by being good?

What did Jesus do for you so that your sin can be forgiven? And other questions like that.

These questions help them to know and articulate the information, and also for you as the person guiding them to help you know that they do indeed understand what they're doing.

Now, if a child is unsure about any of the answers to these questions, then you may need to work with them further before moving on so they do have a correct understanding of the

Gospel. But, after you go through these questions and you do see that they do have a basic knowledge of the

Gospel, then I would encourage them to pray three things. I would encourage them to admit that they have sinned, to believe

Jesus died on the cross for them and rose again to forgive them of their sin, and then to choose or call, ask, forever receive

Jesus as their Savior. A lot of times that third one is different, people have different ways of communicating that, but basically it's just trying to say that we want the child to ask

Jesus to forgive them and communicate that to the Lord. So, we know that it's not the prayer that saves them.

We know that it's not the words that they say that are going to save them. It's the belief that takes place in their heart. And so, when we encourage the child to pray, it's not the prayer that saves them, but the

Lord has given us prayer as an opportunity to communicate what belief has already taken place in our heart, and so that's why we encourage the children to pray to receive the

Lord Jesus as their Savior. And then the last one is following up with steps for growing to get to know

God better, and a verse that's often used is 2 Peter 3 .18. And a lot of times people will give like kids like five different things that they can do to grow to get to know

Jesus better, which all of those are really helpful, but sometimes I feel like it's kind of like a fire hydrant, you know, like, okay, you believe in Jesus, now do all these things, and it's like, you know, kind of overwhelming.

So, if I'm able to follow up with kids, maybe in Sunday school hour, or maybe it's my own child,

I might just give them one thing to do, like read their Bible and show them how to do that, or pray and begin to pray with them, or learn about a hero of faith, or something like that, that's going to continue and disciple them along their lifelong journey of getting to know

God better. So, those are just kind of some basic points that I use in sharing the gospel that children can understand, and that the

Lord has worked in their heart to believe and receive Him as their Savior. Isn't that just amazing that the gospel is the same for you and me and everyone listening to this podcast as it is for a child?

I just think that is so amazing, and God is so good in that. You know, oftentimes it's easy to go through those points and also just share your story about how you accepted

Christ as well through those points, and I just think that's great. Now, Hannah, I've sensed that some adults are hesitant to share the gospel with children.

You know, maybe they think the child is too young to understand, or not capable of understanding until they're older.

So, how would you respond to that? Mm -hmm, yes. I've experienced that as well, and for those people,

I would encourage them to look in the Scriptures and see what the Scripture says about believing in Jesus.

You know, the Bible does not put a minimum age on receiving Christ. The Bible makes it clear that all have sinned, like Romans 3 .23

says, but that all can receive Him and become a child of God, like John 1 .12

says, and all definitely includes children. I think there are two precedences that can help us know whether or not children can be saved, and that's the biblical precedent as well as testimonial precedent.

So, for the biblical side, in Matthew 18, Jesus' disciples wanted to know who was the greatest in the

Kingdom of Heaven, and in answer to their question, Jesus takes a little child, and this is probably a child seven years old or younger, based on the

Greek word that's used here for child, and Jesus told them, Jesus goes on to say that whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea, and so that it is not the will of My Father who is in Heaven that any of these little ones should perish.

So these two words here, believe and perish, are used in relation to children, and these two words are also used throughout

Scripture to communicate salvation in general, like John 3 .16, whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life.

So this is a hint that children, like adults, can equally believe in Jesus as their

Savior. So a passage like this helps to inform our understanding of God's desire for child evangelism.

Another example of children being saved is from the epistles. So Paul, when he opens his letters, a lot of times he will address them to saints, and then he'll give specific instructions to the saints.

And so, in these letters, he'll address wives, husbands, masters, slaves, but sometimes he addresses children.

For example, he'll say, children, obey your parents and the Lord. So, since we know that Paul is talking to Christian wives or husbands, then we also know that since he's addressing children, he must also be addressing saved children.

So, when we think about who are the saints and the Lord, children can be saints and the

Lord too. As we move on to the second category of testimonial, maybe you've been in a group of people and you've asked them, you know, when did you believe in Jesus as your

Savior? A large majority of those people will probably indicate that they were saved before the age of 14.

In fact, some studies show that even 85 % of Christians were saved between that 4 and 14 window.

And we can also see the continued fruit in other people's lives who became Christians at a young age and continued to bear fruit for Him.

Maybe it's your personal testimony or someone you know, or maybe a well -known Christian like Corrie Ten Boom or Focus on the

Family founder James Dobson. We know that children are not just the church of tomorrow, but that they are the church of today.

George Barna, who is a Christian statistician, has discovered through his research that a child's worldview is set by the age of 13.

So the worldview is the set of lenses through which you view the world around you. And if we want children to have a

Christian worldview and to grow up into strong Christian leaders, that starts by teaching them when they are young.

And not just teaching them to have good biblical knowledge, but to actually be disciples of Christ.

And of course, the first step to being a disciple of Christ is salvation. Because without salvation, children won't have a new nature to follow

Him and to do what is right. They won't have the Holy Spirit to understand and live for God. So we want children not just have knowledge, but to be disciples and to know

Him as their Savior. We know that the Lord loves kids and wants kids to follow

Him and believe in Him as the Savior. And so we as their guardians and influencers of kids can do our best to share the gospel with them.

I often think of three different candles. One tall, one medium, and one short. And I think about that, you know, if my electricity went off at my house, that I would want to choose the candle that best would, you know, get me through the night.

And so I would want to choose the tallest candle. And in the same way, children, Lord willing, have the longest time to burn for the

Lord in their life. To live their whole life for the Lord. And so that's one reason why child evangelism is really important.

Because that will set them on the right course for their whole life, both temporarily and eternally.

Thank you, Hannah. Those are all excellent points and excellent guidance for how to minister to kids and the importance of ministering to kids.

When we first launched GQ Kids, the very first article that we wrote was The Path, which is the gospel presentation presenting that Jesus is the only way.

One question I have, I'd like both of you to answer, because I think it's probably the question I'm asked most frequently about our kids site.

And that is, how are questions that kids ask different from the questions that adults ask?

So, Melissa and Hannah, in your experience, how are kids' questions different from adult questions?

Well, kids' questions are sometimes really fun and sometimes really funny. And oftentimes they're just very straightforward.

You know, they don't beat around the bush about it. They're like, instead of saying, does God exist? Or, you know, it may be, is

God true? Or instead of, is the Bible real? It might be, is the Bible a fairy tale?

You know, they might just phrase the questions a little differently. But oftentimes, kids' questions are very difficult.

You know, kids in our society face a lot of things that maybe you or I did not face at the age that they are currently at.

And so there's a lot of counseling. There's a lot of counseling that goes into a GK Kids answer.

And I'm so thankful for our team of volunteers who take the time to answer them. The other thing is, kids are often very concrete thinkers.

And so they often just understand and accept what we tell them.

And Hannah, I think you could probably speak into this a little bit. But the other day, someone asked about our answer on the

Trinity. And I was able to tell them, I'm like, well, in the many, many years, a decade or so GK Kids has been around, no child has ever asked about the

Trinity. It's always adults trying to figure out how to explain the Trinity to kids. But in reality, kids almost always just accept it for what it is.

And so that's a little bit different. Hannah, do you have anything to say about that? I love your answer,

Melissa. I think that all those things are very true. Like you mentioned, kids really ask the same questions that adults do just in different ways.

And so I know that you guys have had different people representing apologetic ministries on the podcast.

And I think that's really great because kids have those questions too. And so to be able to answer that at their age will prepare them for their whole lifelong journey.

Yeah, that's great. You know, there's been a lot of chatter in the last maybe decade or so about people accepting

Christ as a child, maybe in church or in VBS or at summer camp, but later realizing that they didn't really understand and maybe it gave them like some sort of false hope or something.

So, you know, maybe they said a prayer, but later they realized that they were just going through the motions.

Well, I think there's a lot of validity to that chatter. And I think it's important to listen to that. But I feel like it has made a lot of adults hesitant to even share the gospel with a child.

So Hannah, can you speak into that for a moment? And then I think Shea will wrap up the podcast.

Yes, and I definitely agree with you that that is definitely a concern. And we want to make sure that the kids that are trusting in Jesus as their

Savior, that it is we are communicating the true gospel to them and that they are having the correct response.

Personally, I would say that a greater amount of false conversions among kids is not because a child couldn't believe in Jesus as their

Savior or that that child should have waited until they were older, but it was perhaps the adult talking with them that didn't know how to counsel that child for salvation and so gave them an incomplete message.

Now, certainly most do not do this intentionally, but we as parents and influencers of kids need to make sure that we do our due diligence to be able to give an accurate and clear gospel message so that kids are able to respond correctly.

So in order to avoid this fear of, you know, just praying the prayer or giving a wrong message, having false conversion,

I would really encourage parents and influencers of kids to take training and prepare themselves to share a clear gospel message.

So maybe your church has a training. I know that Child Evangelism Fellowship has training online as well as sometimes in person.

I do live and online trainings for how to share the gospel with kids. And then after taking the training, practice by yourself.

So maybe that's just practicing out loud and seeing, you know, what phrase would work well here or how could

I explain this verse to a kid. Maybe that's recording yourself and then listening back and seeing, you know, was there anything that I needed to explain in more details.

And you can maybe try for a 10 or 15 minute presentation and that should be enough time to give a clear gospel message there.

You could write out the key points of the gospel on sticky notes or on a bookmark and put that in your Bible so that you would always kind of have that as a go -to resource.

On my website, I have a gospel chart that can just be printed out and cut into bookmarks that you can put there in your

Bible. And then you can also practice with a friend or family member for feedback. On my website,

I have a list of key gospel points to include in a gospel presentation and you could give that to someone and they could check them off as you present the gospel and then give you additional feedback to help you practice in that way.

So that's one way to make sure that you have a clear presentation. And then also just being sensitive to the

Lord's leading with the kids that you're working. You don't want to force kids to pray or to kind of, you know, make them pray to believe in Jesus if they're not ready.

So just being sensitive to how the Lord is leading them. And then when you're following up with them, just watch the language that you're using with kids because anytime a person prays to believe in Jesus, whether it's a kid or a teenager or an adult, we on the outside can't be 100 % sure that that person is born again because we don't know what's going on in their heart.

Only God and that person know that. But we can do things to help the child be able to know that they are saved and to be able to follow up with them as their

Christian leader. So for me, I like to say to a child, if you have believed in Jesus as your

Savior, then and then share a promise with them. So maybe if Melissa, I was talking to you, I would say,

Melissa, if you've truly received and believed in Jesus as your Savior, then this promise in the

Scripture applies to you. So it allows you to still talk with the child from the perspective of being saved and show them promises that apply to a saved person.

But it also keeps you from being that definite authority of salvation because the assurance of salvation doesn't come from you.

It comes from the Lord and Scripture. Yeah, that's that's amazing.

And I, you know, I think it's important to remember when you work with kids is that you're developing an understanding over time.

So they may not understand everything the first time you explain it. But, you know, through the years, you should be able to see that understanding continue to grow and mature.

And the same is true with us as adults, right? The same thing is true. So we gradually gain our understanding.

So Shea, I'll pass it over to you. I just want to personally thank Hannah for being on the podcast today.

And I know I learned something, and I hope that all of our listeners did as well. And so,

Hannah, before we log off, we'll include links to people can learn more about you, about your ministry in the show notes on the

YouTube description for this episode and also at podcast .gotquestions .org. But could you share briefly what is the ministry that God has given you?

Yes, and thank you again for having me on the podcast. I really enjoyed being here today. The name of my ministry is called

Networkers Tech. And tech stands for the three things that I do, teach, equip, connect.

And so the purpose of my ministry is to provide the body of Christ with a network of resources and to assist them in their ministry to the next generation.

So whether that's teaching kids or equipping those that influence kids or connecting people with children's ministry resources,

I want to be available to help you with any children's ministry resource needs that you guys might have. Awesome.

So again, there'll be links to where you can learn more about Hannah and her ministry and connect with the services she might be able to help you with.

So, Hannah, thank you again for being on the show. And of course, Melissa, I always love having you on. This has been the

Got Questions podcast. It's a special focus on GQKids .org and how to both answer questions for kids and also share the gospel with kids.

So I hope this episode has been encouraging to you. I hope you've learned something from it. I know we have.

This is the Got Questions podcast. The Bible has answers, and we'll help you find them.