Keeping Your Children's Ministry on Mission E-Book

Jared Kennedy

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Practical Strategies for Gospel-Centered Children's Ministry When building a children's ministry at a church, there is so much to consider: Which curriculum should we use? How many volunteers do we need? How do we keep parents in the loop? And that's before we run into stalled check-in computers, missing activity sheets, and floors that need to be vacuumed. While all of the tasks of children's ministry are important, leaders can get easily distracted with the everyday work of doing ministry and lose sight of the main focus—the gospel. Writing from personal ministry experience, Jared Kennedy shares a four-fold approach for gospel-centered, missional children's ministry: hospitality, teaching, discipleship, and mission. This practical resource covers a variety of topics ranging from creating child protection policies to putting together lesson plans to catechism, helpful for children's ministers and volunteers alike as they disciple children with the powerful message of the gospel. - Applicable: Includes questions for reflection and evaluation - Helps Leaders Disciple the Next Generation: Features advice for sending kids and their families on mission  - Ideal for Nursery–5th Grade Teachers and Leaders: A practical and helpful resource for children's ministries - Published in Conjunction with the Gospel Coalition (TGC)

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“For years, when students have asked me, ‘What’s the one children’s ministry book that I should read first?’ I couldn’t recommend just one. Instead, I recommended three: one about organization, one about teaching, and one about keeping children safe. Now I can recommend just one to read first because Jared Kennedy has managed to fit all of those essential elements into a single book!”

Timothy Paul Jones, C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, Family Ministry Field Guide

“Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission delivers as advertised. Kennedy rightly knows that the gospel is the only means by which we will have a lasting impact on the next generation. To this thesis Kennedy adds a wealth of practical help and instruction to guide your ministry. Every senior pastor and children’s ministry director should read this book and get it into the hands of all their teachers, helpers, and parents.”

Marty Machowski, family pastor; author, Build on Jesus, The Ology, and WonderFull

“I can’t think of a ministry in the church more complex than children’s ministry, and I can’t think of a better guide through that complexity than Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission. Whether you’ve worked with kids for days or years, you’ll find this book comprehensive (from abuse policies to age-graded teaching), balanced (holding onto what’s biblically ideal and practically realistic), and immediately helpful. Jared has packed more than a decade of experience and breadth of perspective into ten short chapters. It’s like having your own children’s ministry consultant only a shelf away.”

Champ Thornton, Associate Pastor, Ogletown Baptist Church; author, The Radical Book for Kid and Wonders of His Love: Finding Jesus in Isaiah

“Are you passionate for kids to embrace the good news about Jesus and follow him throughout life? In this outstanding resource, Jared Kennedy offers us an essential biblical vision and engaging strategic plan to pursue Christ-exalting child and youth discipleship at church and home.”

Barbara Reaoch, Former Director of the Children’s Division, Bible Study Fellowship International; author, A Better Than Anything Christmas

“What truly happens when the gospel shapes our goals for children’s ministry? Jared Kennedy knows. As a studied pastor-practitioner, Jared understands how to help leaders and churches connect the gospel to the nuts and bolts—policy-making, recruiting, training, protecting, and reproducing—of children’s ministry. If that’s your mission, you have your manual!”

Dave Harvey, President, Great Commission Collective; author, I Still Do!

“In Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission, Jared Kennedy provides a richly theological, accessible, and practical resource that is not only instructional but intriguing to read. This book written by an experienced family pastor is a sure guide for churches equipping servant leaders to make disciples for the next generation.”

Jamaal Williams, Lead Pastor, Sojourn Church Midtown; President, Harbor Network

“Many Christians groan about the future of the church instead of realizing the future is in their children’s ministries. Kennedy not only reminds us about how foundational children’s ministries can be in building God’s Kingdom, but he also provides a practical guide for everything from how to keep children safe to how to teach gospel-centered lessons. Churches that follow his counsel will not only thrive now as families are strengthened, but will also invest in their own future.”

Brian J. Arnold, President, Phoenix Seminary

“Reading Jared Kennedy’s Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission took me back to all the Sundays I’ve spent on my hands and knees in the nursery, passing out snacks in children’s church, or teaching kids to sing God’s praises. As theologically rich as it is practical, Kennedy guides us from the early church fathers through the roots of the Sunday school movement to contemporary protocols that safeguard the most vulnerable among us. Along the way, he casts a vision for children’s ministry that welcomes children to their Savior and helps them find their place in God’s family. As both a mother and a children’s ministry worker for almost three decades, I heartily recommend it.”

Hannah Anderson, author; Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul and Turning of Days: Lessons from Nature, Season, and Spirit

“Jared has labored in the trenches of children’s ministry for years. You can tell by the wisdom that’s dripping off of every page. If you work with children, do yourself a favor and read Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission from cover to cover. You’ll be encouraged, challenged, and reoriented around the gospel of God’s marvelous grace.”

Deepak Reju, Pastor of Biblical Counseling and Family Ministry, Capitol Hill Baptist Church; coauthor, Build on Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide to Gospel-Based Children’s Ministry

“What a treasure this book is! It’s jam-packed with biblical wisdom and relies richly on church history, which makes it a deeply edifying read for anyone concerned with the nurture of the next generation for Christ. It is immensely practical, with helpful illustrations to illuminate how the theory translates practically into ministry among children and families. It’s clear that Jared is a seasoned practitioner with the critical ability to think theologically about ministry methodology. That’s exactly the kind of person I want to train others for ministry and why I’ll be recommending this book to all those striving to develop and direct Christ-centered, robust children’s ministries.”

Melanie Lacy, Executive Director, Growing Young Disciples

Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission

Practical Strategies for Discipling the Next Generation

Jared Kennedy

Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission

Copyright © 2022 by Jared Kennedy

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studios

Cover image: Shutterstock, Getty Images

First printing 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-7687-4 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7690-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7688-1 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7689-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kennedy, Jared, 1978– author. 

Title: Keeping your children’s ministry on mission: practical strategies for discipling the next generation / Jared Kennedy.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2022. | Series: The gospel coalition | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021015134 (print) | LCCN 2021015135 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433576874 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433576881 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433576898 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433576904 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Church work with children. | Christian education of children. | Discipling (Christianity)

Classification: LCC BV639.C4 K46 2022 (print) | LCC BV639.C4 (ebook) | DDC 259/.2–dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015134

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021015135

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-01-31 03:01:02 PM

For the children’s ministry leaders and volunteers of the Harbor Network churches.

“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all [the Savior’s] delight.”

Psalm 16:3

Contents

Introduction

Part 1

A Gospel-Centered Vision for Children’s Ministry

1  Stop! Believe! Christ Sent Me.

Our Both-And Mission to the Next Generation

2  Knowing What We Shouldn’t Do

Warnings from the History of Family Ministry

Reflection on Part 1

Part 2

Create Welcoming Environments

3  Meeting Jesus at the Front Door

Welcoming and Including Kids and Families

4  Safety and Security in a Corrupted World

Our Responsibility to Protect Kids from Abuse

Reflection on Part 2

Part 3

Connect Kids to Christ

5  Three Ways to Tell a Bible Story

The Priority of Gospel-Centered Teaching

6  The Proud King’s Nightmare

Putting Gospel-Centered Interpretation into Practice

7  Hands-On, Real-Life, Engaging Discovery

Teaching Kids with Excellence

Reflection on Part 3

Part 4

Grow with Kids and Families

8  Step-by-Step, Stage-by-Stage

Helping Kids Embrace the Gospel as They Grow

9  Catechizing the YouTube Generation

An Ancient Path toward a Gospel-Formed Life

Reflection on Part 4

Part 5

Go! Send Kids and Families on Mission

10  Graceless Parents, Overly Spiritual Ministry, and Sticky Notes

Empowering Families with a Gospel-Fueled Witness

Reflection on Part 5

Conclusion: Courage for the Harvest

Acknowledgments

Notes

General Index

Scripture Index

Introduction

Years ago, I attended a family-ministry conference. At the end of the event, the keynote speakers sat on a panel to discuss the state of family ministry. There was one moment during that discussion I’ll never forget. The moderator looked at one of the panelists, a pastor named Steve Wright, and asked, “How can we make our children’s and youth ministries more family centered?”

Steve sat quietly for a moment and then answered, “We shouldn’t.”

Everyone was stunned. This conference was designed to help leaders equip parents to disciple their kids. We all assumed—at least I did—that the goal was to orient our ministries around the family.

Steve allowed his answer to sink in before continuing, “We should be concerned about centering our children’s and youth ministries around Jesus. That’s what will aim our families in the right direction.”

The Bible is clear about the responsibility that both parents and the believing community have to pass on our faith to the next generation (Deut. 6:6–9; Ps. 78:1–8). But in spite of that clarity, there are many different approaches to family discipleship. Some church leaders, like those of us who were shocked by Steve’s response at the conference, have put their hope in parents as the primary faith trainers for the next generation. Others have been more jaded about parents’ willingness to take up this mantle without help. As a result, they’ve put an emphasis upon the church’s educational ministry, whether that’s through schools, parachurch ministries, Sunday schools, or youth and children’s ministries within the church.

But whatever our philosophy, Steve’s comment points to an even bigger problem: a temptation to let the trappings of doing ministry with excellence keep us from seeing where the real glory is.

When leading local church children’s ministry, I’ve experienced this temptation practically. I’ve let the un-mopped floor, the stalled check-in computer, and the missing activity sheet stress me out. While it’s not a bad thing to want to welcome families to our church with warm hospitality, there are times when my worry over doing children’s ministry well has revealed a misplaced faith. The level of anxiety I feel reveals that I’m trusting my hard work or the glitz and glam of attractional programming instead of trusting in Christ and the gospel. That’s where our strategy for children’s ministry must be centered.

Knowing Nothing Except Jesus

The apostle Paul stands in stark contrast to the way we tend to operate. In his letters to the Corinthian church, Paul gives us his vision for courageous, gospel-centered ministry—the kind of ministry that finds strength even in the midst of weakness. We find one of the best summaries of this theme in 1 Corinthians 1:31–2:5:

It is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Today, we admire the apostle for his missionary focus and the way he suffered for the sake of Christ. But Paul found it necessary to defend his apostleship against the charges of some vocal opponents. I love how Jack Klumpenhower describes the difference between Paul and his detractors in the Corinthian church:

Corinth was a stopping point for traveling sages who spouted wisdom about personal success and religious insight. But Paul would not be one of them. His message about the cross of Christ was so superior that he spoke it plainly—weakly, he says, with trembling. He let the cross itself do the talking.1

While many of his hearers would have been tempted to think he lacked wisdom and had flunked out of Communications 101, Paul was confident that he had enough for ministry because he had the message of the cross.

I believe there are at least four ways the simple gospel message shapes our goals for children’s ministry, and we can see each of them present in Paul’s affirmation in 1 Corinthians 1:31–2:5. First, the gospel seasons our hospitality with humility; we don’t come to children with lofty speech but with humble and full hearts, boasting only in the Lord. Second, the gospel centers our teaching on Jesus Christ and him crucified. All else pales in comparison to the central place of this message. Third, the gospel forms our discipleship; we’re intentional about training children, and we have confidence that the Spirit’s goal is to grow kids in conformity with Christ’s story. Finally, the gospel fuels our mission so that the next generation’s faith does not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Chart 0.1

How the Gospel Shapes Our Goals for Children’s Ministry2

Hospitality

Teaching

Discipleship

Mission

Gospel-Seasoned

Presence

Gospel-Centered Message

Gospel-Formed Identity

Gospel-Fueled Witness

We welcome children in Jesus’s name.

The content of the message matters; it must be about Jesus.

The cross of Christ shapes the entire Christian life.

Risk-taking, courageous faith comes from God.

Keeping Your Children’s Ministry on Mission unpacks this four-fold strategy for gospel-centered, missional children’s ministry—a ministry that equips parents, ministry leaders, and volunteers to engage children, point them to Christ and the larger church community, and then send them on mission. In chapter 1, we’ll unpack the gospel and its implications for kids and explore how this good news moves both parents and the church community to pursue the next generation. In chapter 2, we’ll view the history of children’s and family ministry and directly address the temptation to let cultural assumptions and ministry ideals eclipse the glory of the gospel. Then over this book’s final eight chapters, I’ll encourage you to do the following:

Create welcoming environments for building relationships with kids and families. Welcoming environments are the front door of children’s ministry. We show Jesus to kids through the way we practice hospitality. We want facilities that are kid-friendly and safe. We want to season our environments with humility, prayer, and dependence on the Lord.Connectkids and families to Christ through gospel-centered Bible lessons. After kids have stepped through our front door, we want them to see Jesus in what we teach. This means preparing creative and educationally excellent Bible lessons that connect kids to Christ.Grow alongside families by helping them take next steps in their spiritual journeys. After families become regular parts of our community, we want to encourage them along in their journey of faith. We must be intentional both to call kids to appropriate faith responses and to equip parents with resources and rhythms that will help them walk with their children on a journey of discipleship.Go with kids and families, sending them out on gospel-fueled mission. Growth for kids moves beyond their own discipleship. Faith should move them to be ambassadors for Christ who love their neighbors and take the good news to the world.

My prayer for those who read this book is that your confidence will be rooted in the simple message of “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” It was all Paul needed, and it’s all we need as well.

As you dive into these chapters, trust that God’s actions through Jesus Christ are also truly enough to make you strong for children’s ministry. As we consider the one who welcomed children himself, know that the Savior and his good news is enough to keep you, and to keep your children’s ministry on mission.

Part 1

A Gospel-Centered Vision for Children’s Ministry

1

Stop! Believe! Christ Sent Me.

Our Both-And Mission to the Next Generation

There’s a legend about John the apostle that’s tucked away in a book you may have never read, especially if you’re a children’s or student minister. Musty second-century sermon manuscripts aren’t top-shelf reading material for those of us who spend our days shopping at Costco for Goldfish crackers, leading early morning discipleship at Chick-fil-A, sanitizing toys in the nursery, or ordering pizza for Wednesday night gatherings. But if you’ve missed this story, you’ve missed a treasure.

At the conclusion of one of his sermons, Clement of Alexandria provides a beautiful account of ministry to the next generation. The story begins shortly after John, the beloved and now elderly disciple, was released from prison on the isle of Patmos:

After the tyrant’s death [likely Clement is referring to the Roman emperor, Domitian], John returned from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus and used to go, when asked, to neighboring Gentile districts to appoint pastors, reconcile churches, or ordain someone designated by the Spirit. Arriving at a city nearby [probably the city of Smyrna in modern-day Turkey], he settled disputes among the brethren and then, noticing a spirited youth of superior physique and handsome appearance, commended him to the appointed pastor with the words: “I leave this young man in your keeping with Christ as my witness.”1

In his later years, John served the church as an itinerant preacher and traveling advisor. As a wise senior saint, John was also on the lookout for young talent. After finding a young man with some leadership potential, he commended the boy to the local pastor for training. Then, John returned to his home church, and the local pastor took the young man home, raised him, and when he had confessed faith, baptized him.

During Christ’s earthly ministry, he made his heart for children clear (Matt. 18:1–6; 19:13–15). Though his disciples missed the point at first, Clement’s story about John encourages us to believe they eventually came around. John, after all, was on the lookout for future leaders who would continue his ministry in the next generation. And if you picked up this book, I imagine this passion to see the next generation know, trust, and follow God’s ways has been passed along to you too. Children’s ministry exists so that kids might hear the good news about Jesus and follow him all their days.

Children Need the Good News

We can summarize the gospel story as a fourfold movement: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. What does this storyline teach us about kids?

First, we discover that God created children for himself. Kids are fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14). Their lives are imbued with the glory of a universe that reflects God’s beauty; they’ve been endowed with imagination and an ability to think and know. A child’s life has value because he or she is made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–27). As image-bearers, children are also made for worship. From childhood, every human is fashioned for giving praise. Our desire as Christians is to bring up a generation that is dazzled by God, captured by his world and his works and always talking about them to one another (Ps. 145:3–7).2

Second, our children are fallen and sinful. They inhabit a world marred by sin, abuse, suffering, and death; they feel its pain. “Sometimes, people talk about coming from dysfunctional families,” writes Robert Plummer. “The reality is that, because of sin, we are all ‘dysfunctional’ at the deepest level.”3 You’ve probably seen that children’s program where the wooly mammoth, vampire, monsters, aliens, and an overgrown canary have all invaded a side street in Manhattan. In his brilliance, Jim Henson took some of our greatest fears and made them cute and educational. The child-friendly terrors that live together on Sesame Street should remind us of the hidden reality of childhood. Children are glorious and beautiful gifts from God and yet within each child—behind the cuteness—there’s a fallen heart that’s twisted from the moment of conception.

More often than not, our kids act like the monsters that destroy poor Guy Smiley’s stage set. Every child is a sinner. It can be difficult for us to shoot straight with kids about this, but even they need to be faced with the reality of their brokenness. Charles Spurgeon says it well:

Do not flatter the child with delusive rubbish about his nature being good and needing to be developed. Tell him he must be born again. Don’t bolster him up with the fancy of his own innocence, but show him his sin. Mention the childish sins to which he is prone, and pray the Holy Spirit to work conviction in his heart and conscience.4

Even kids exchange delight in God’s glory for delight in the pleasures of the moment (Rom. 1:21; 3:23). Just think about what happens when kids are called away from their toys to bath time or bed. There is a battle for affections going on in kids’ hearts. Yes, children need comfort, care, and a healing touch. But they also need honest correction, because it’s only when kids see the terror of their sin that they’ll see their need for redemption. We need to hear Spurgeon’s warning: “Do not hesitate to tell the child his ruin; he will not else desire the remedy.”5

Third, redemption comes for children through Jesus. Remember, Jesus himself said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children” (Matt. 19:14 NLT). Jesus’s rebuke of his friends who would’ve kept kids at a distance should inspire us to include children in the life of our church communities. We must call even the youngest children to faith. We need to help each child see that Christ is his or her only hope. Children need us to help them to look outside of themselves to the salvation Jesus offers.

Through vacation Bible school programs, many of us have been trained to emphasize the ABCs with kids: admit you are a sinner, believe in Jesus, and confess faith in Him. We find this pattern in Scripture (Rom. 10:9–10), and there’s nothing wrong with it so long as we make clear that salvation isn’t about what we do but about what Christ has done.6 If we only talk to kids about what they should do, we run the risk of confusing or discouraging them. When a child becomes aware of personal sin, he may become introspective and worry, “Did I do enough? How can Jesus live in my heart when I still get so angry?” What Jesus has done for us is the most important thing—so much more important than what we do. He saves us; we don’t save ourselves. We must teach kids to look to the forgiveness that comes as a result of Christ’s substitutionary death.

Finally, in light of the coming consummation, our children are potential brothers and sisters in Christ. When we get to glory, the most enduring relational reality will be our relationship to the Savior (Matt. 22:30). To be embraced by God’s redemption is to be adopted as God’s child, gaining a new identity, which transcends every earthly status and relationship. Plummer describes it this way: “If our children stand beside us in eternity, it will not be as our children but as our blood-redeemed brothers and sisters (Rev. 7:9–12).”7 But if our children are going to join us as brothers and sisters in glory, they must hear the gospel now.

Our Both-And Responsibility

John knew this, and that’s why he left the newly converted young man in the care of the local pastor in Smyrna. Sadly, things didn’t go as the old apostle had hoped. We don’t know all the details. Clement just says that after the young man was saved and baptized, the pastor “relaxed his oversight.” At that point, as Clement explains, things went sideways:

Some idle and morally lax youths corrupted the young man with lavish entertainment and then took him with them when they went out at night to commit robbery or worse crimes. Soon, he joined them and like a stallion taking the bit in mouth, he dashed off the straight road and down the cliff. Renouncing God’s salvation, he went from petty offenses to major crimes and formed the young renegades into a gang of bandits with himself as chief, surpassing them all in violence and bloody cruelty.8

How should we respond when a young person turns away from the faith? Certainly, the fallen youth bears responsibility. But can we say each prodigal is just a bad seed? That’s what the pastor in Smyrna thought:

Time passed, and some necessity having emerged, they send again for John. He, when he had settled the other matters on account of which he came, said, “Come now, O bishop, restore to us the deposit which I and the Savior committed to thee. . . . I demand the young man, and the soul of the brother.”

The old [bishop], groaning deeply, and bursting into tears, said, “He is dead.”

“How and what kind of death?”

“He is dead,” [the bishop] said, “to God. For he turned wicked and abandoned, and at last a robber; and now he has taken possession of the mountain in front of the church, along with a band like him.”9

The pastor in Smyrna adopts a blame-the-kid approach. As we’ll see in a moment, the story makes clear this is wrong. But before we learn how the story ends, consider the assumption that John makes about the young man’s faith. He sees it as a deposit that he and Christ have “committed to thee.”

So who is it that is responsible for the faith of youth and children?

The kids in our children’s ministry on an average Sunday are, by God’s grace, the next generation of pastors, church planters, worship leaders, counselors, small group leaders, and parents; they’re the next generation of Christians. And if you’re a parent or a church member, the Bible says that teaching the gospel to these children is your responsibility:

[Things] that we have heard and known,

that our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children,

but tell to the coming generation

the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,

and the wonders that he has done.

He established a testimony in Jacob

and appointed a law in Israel,

which he commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments. (Ps. 78:3–7)

This psalm reminds us how God, throughout Israel’s history, had children in mind (cf. Deut. 6:7–9). God wanted Israel’s children to remember what he’d done to rescue and save. He wanted them to remember his laws and commands. He wanted the kids to hope and trust in him. And God gave the responsibility for training kids in the faith to two distinct groups: to Israelite parents and to their covenant community.

God commanded Israel’s “fathers to teach . . . their children” (Ps.