We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

The Greatest in the Kingdom (1 of 2)
This post is a summary of what was discussed at the ReKnew CrossVision Conference in regard to what and how we teach our kids about the cruciform hermeneutic.
Article by Natalie Frisk
Recently, while involved in an all ages musical worship experience, I watched a couple of three and four-year-olds close their eyes and experience the moment, quickly followed by them running up and down an aisle, and then launching themselves into their parents’ arms. They were soon set down to repeat the aforementioned experience. It was actually an amazing cycle of their own worship. They were wrapped up into the moment (for their own petit attention span), from where they exploded with some energy, only to want to fall into the arms of a loving parent.
Cuddled. Set. Repeat.
So often, as ‘grown-ups’ we think we need to tame our kids, or to help them fall in line; or we think we have so much to teach them—if they’d only listen! But the truth is: we can learn a lot from kids. In fact, I learned that from Jesus. Not only did Jesus welcome kids to him to bless them (Matthew 19:13-15), Jesus showed others that it was actually the small children who were greatest in the kingdom. Take that in for a moment:
The kids who make noise when they should be quiet.
The kids who manage to make a mess in an empty room.
The kids who cannot contain their energy and excitement at the most inappropriate of times.
Greatest. In. The. Kingdom.
And so, when we teach our kids about God, this is our starting point: kids are the greatest in the kingdom. The kingdom of God belongs to them. That’s high value. That’s kingdom value. With that, we must seriously consider what it is that we teach them, how, and why.
Child-like faith is simple, not stupid.
Kids have an incredible capacity to absorb knowledge and apply it at various developmental stages. They can handle much more than we often present to them—especially throughout the past 30 or so years in the church.
Throughout this span of time there has been a heavy emphasis on morality-based teaching to children; Bible-story-as-morality-lesson is how things have taken shape. And though the church did its best to raise little boys and girls to be moral, it missed out on so much of the awesomeness of God’s story and our role within it. Instead, our teaching to kids has too often preached the outcomes of a life with Christ without explaining what it was to actually have that life: to know the love of the Creator, to draw close to Jesus and get to know him, and to experience the work of the Spirit in our lives.
Instead of being called into an exciting life with Christ, kids were called into a boring morality lesson—which certainly doesn’t engage kids to be life-long followers of Jesus. On the contrary, it presents them with a lackluster faith. I remember once hearing someone say: Why follow Jesus when you could just have fun?
Following Jesus can be fun, engaging, exciting—a full-on adventure! As such, our manner of conveying the story of Scripture needs to capture this. To do this, kids need to see that their own story is part of the much larger story in which Jesus is the main character—the full revelation of who God is. Jesus is the best picture of God that we have in all of Scripture. The rest of the Bible presents glimpses, but only Jesus shows us what God really looks like. Jesus, then, needs to be a central character in each kid’s own stories.
The experience that we present kids with from a very early age will help to shape this understanding. Early childhood learning experience is multilayered: kids are being introduced to God, God’s story, and their foundational understanding of God is being shaped. In fact, studies show that our foundational understanding of who God is has taken significant shape by the age of five. If our portrait of God is based on really poor theological reflections of God through poorly presented text, that is going to leave the wrong impression on our kids.
Kids are also developing their repertoire of stories, characters, and themes to draw on later while tackling larger theological questions in their youth and adulthood. They are doing this while discovering a sense of belonging in the broader church body.
That’s a lot for kids. So where do we start?
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
I once heard a story of a Christian man who was the principal of a school in an area of the Middle East heavily occupied with Muslims. The Christian school began at preschool: however, the surrounding Muslim schools did not begin until kids were in the first grade. For a variety of reasons, Muslim families sent their children to the Christian school for preschool. The principal was asked, “What do you teach those children in preschool?” He replied, “Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.” He knew that he’d only have those kids for a year or two and that was his opportunity to shape their understanding of the God who is Jesus.
And so, that’s where I begin: with Jesus. The same Jesus who welcomed little children to bless them. The same Jesus who took a little child and called him the greatest in the kingdom. The Jesus who shows us: God is love.
Category: General, Guest Contributor
Tags: Crucifixion of the Warrior God, Cruciform Theology, Kids
Guest Contributor:

Natalie Frisk serves as the curriculum pastor at The Meeting House – a multisite church in Canada, overseeing the development of kids and youth teaching from birth to end of high school. She’s been in pastoral ministry for over a decade in an ever-changing multisite landscape. Natalie is presently working towards a Doctor in Practical Theology (McMaster Divinity College) with a focus on the spirituality of children. She is the author of a new book, Raising Disciples: How to Make Faith Matter to Our Kids (Herald Press, 2019) that is presently available for pre-order now.
Related Reading

Eye for Eye: That Time Jesus Refuted An Old Testament Teaching
One of the most surprising aspects of Jesus’ teaching is that, while he clearly shared his contemporaries’ view of the Old Testament as inspired by God, he was nevertheless not afraid of repudiating it when he felt led by his Father to do so (Jn. 8:28; 12:49-50; 14:31). For example, while the OT commands people…

The Call to a Cruciform Life
Jesus repeatedly taught that following him meant that one had to be willing to “pick up their cross daily and follow [him]” (Lk 9:23; 14:27). Picking up our cross is the centerpiece of following Jesus because this was the centerpiece of what Jesus was all about. The thematic centrality of the cross is also illustrated…

The Starting Point for “Knowing God”
While it makes sense that Hellenistic philosophers embraced knowledge of God as the simple, necessary and immutable One in an attempt to explain the ever-changing, composite, contingent world (see post here for what this means), it is misguided for Christian theology to do so. By defining knowledge of God’s essence over-and-against creation, we are defining God’s essence…

Podcast: The Making of Crucifixion of the Warrior God with Tony Jones
Dan and Tony talk about Greg’s books Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision. Tony reveals what it was like to work with Greg, what the publishing industry is like right now, and what prospective authors can do to publish their own book. Tony’s recent book is available here: Did God Kill Jesus http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0423b.mp3…

Reviewing the Reviews: Rob Grayson (Faith Meets World)
Well folks, Crucifixion of the Warrior God (CWG) has been out three weeks and it’s already in its third printing! That blows me away! Thank you!! We’re already getting deeply moving testimonies of how this book – or how messages about the book — are freeing people to better see and trust the beauty of…

A Coming Storm
There is a storm beginning to brew on the horizon. It is a debate among Evangelicals about the violent depictions of God, stirred up largely by Eric Seibert’s Disturbing Divine Behavior. Here is a post that sounds “the clarion call.” The debate is presently around two options. Option #1: Traditionalists argue we must simply embrace…