Where can we get good resources to help children answer difficult questions about faith?
It is a good question. The challenge to defend and confirm the Christian faith begins in childhood.
Figures in the UK and the USA indicate that we lose a significant number of our young people beyond the teenage years. Research led by Britt Beemer for America’s Research Group surveyed the views of over 1,000 20-somethings who no longer attend the Bible-believing churches of their childhood. They also provided statistics that suggest 61% of teens in church would no longer attend church in adulthood. One of the clearest reasons for this adult rejection of a childhood faith is that they no longer thought the message to be objectively true.
Don’t leave it too late
What these figures suggest, whether in Britain or abroad, is that the need for a biblical, faithful and accurate defence of the faith is needed earlier and earlier in life. It may be too late for many if we leave it to university and college Christian Unions.
This becomes clear in school. Children are already being exposed to objections and alternatives to Christianity from an ever-earlier age. Many Christian families rely on a 30minute Sunday School to prepare their children to face a daily barrage of alternative views at school and through television. Worse still, they may think the purpose of youth ministry is to keep their children entertained while the world is left to do the educating. I have had parents tell me that they don’t think their children can sit through a 30-minute sermon. Don’t they realise what their children are sitting through, at length, every day, outside of the church community? Might it not be that children grow up thinking that school handles the facts while religion handles only feelings?
Helpful principles
Obviously we need to tailor material to the appropriate age level. But we should not lose sight of the opportunities for apologetics and helping our young people gain confidence in the Bible. Here are a few principles for any adult who has responsibility for children.
First, set aside discussion time as a parent to ask what your children have learned at school or heard in the playground.
Secondly, encourage an atmosphere of curiosity. John Calvin wrote, ‘All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God.’ Children should enjoy finding truth. Our confidence in God’s common grace leads us to expect it to be found even where Christ is not known. Whether they are studying the biology of bats or the sociology of Shakespeare, our children should have no fear in following Paul’s words that ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things’ (Philippians 4.8).
Thirdly, sometimes asking the right questions is more useful than having the right answers. Help your children to question what they are learning. How does an expert know something is true? What are the consequences if a particular belief is true? Why do Christians believe what we do? Asking questions helps a child to test and approve what is God’s will (Romans 12.2). Sometimes we can be better at telling a child what they should believe than explaining why it should be believed. Armed with good questions, a child may unmask the errors of the objections they encounter.
As we teach the Bible to young people we need to continually demonstrate that we are not dealing in myths and fairy tales. There are lots of resources to help us in our task and I can only mention a few as examples.
Resources
For very young children you might use one of the many short books produced by William Lane Craig, What is God Like?, concerning an animal family. For the 7–14 age range try Catherine MacKenzie Jesus Rose from the Dead – the Evidence and Carine Mackenzie The Jesus Files (Christian Focus). Lee Strobel’s Case for Christ for Kids is one of a helpful series of modified versions of his famous apologetic books. You might also use Robert is God? Willoughby So, Who (Scripture Union) and Joel R. Beeke Tough Questions (Christian Focus). For teenagers, Clive Anderson and Brian Edwards Evidence for the Bible (Day One) provides an impressive, visual display of the historical basis of the Bible?
There are good resources out there, but none better than parents, youth workers and ministers who care about building strong minds and hearts.
