Changes to KidQuest and FirstLook for Parents and Kids (Part 4 of 6)

NEW TEACHING MODEL

We believe that the Holy Spirit is God’s chosen teacher; it is He who causes spiritual growth and formation when and as He chooses. As such, we have articulated ten distinct environments that our curriculum will help create in the church and at home.

We desire to create spiritual space, which we refer to as an environment, in which God’s Spirit can move freely in this teaching model. Each environment will not be highlighted each and every week, but over the course of a year, your child will have experienced each environment and seen how God can use them through it. Following is a brief explanation of these ten environments:

1. Storytelling: The power of The Big God Story impacts our lives by giving us an accurate, awe-inspiring perspective of how God has moved throughout history. It further compels us to see how God is using every person’s life and is creating a unique story that deserves to be told for His glory.

2. Identity: This environment highlights who we are in Christ. According to Ephesians 1, we have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, sealed, and given an inheritance in Christ. This conviction allows children to stand firm against the counter-identities the world will offer to bring them destruction.

3. Faith Community: God designed us to live in community and to experience Him in ways that can only happen in proximity to one another. The faith community serves to create an environment to equip and disciple parents, to celebrate God’s faithfulness, and to bring a richness of worship through tradition and rituals, which offer our children an identity within our church.

4. Serving: This posture of the heart asks the question, “What needs to be done?” It allows the Holy Spirit to cultivate a sensitivity to others with a cause that is bigger than one individual life. It helps fulfill the mandate that as Christ followers we are to view our lives as living sacrifices we generously give away!

5. Out of the Comfort Zone: As children are challenged to step out of their comfort zone from an early age, they learn and experience a dependence on the Holy Spirit to equip and strengthen them beyond their natural abilities and desires. We believe that this environment will cultivate a generation that, instead of seeking comfort, seeks a radical life of faith in Christ.

6. Responsibility: This environment captures the ability to take ownership for one’s life, gifts, and resources before God. In addition, a child must be challenged to take responsibility for his or her brothers and sisters in Christ as well as for those who are spiritually lost. Our hope is that the Holy Spirit would use this environment to allow each child to be nurtured within a kingdom-minded worldview.

7. Course Correction: This environment flows out of Hebrews 12:11–13 and is the direct opposite of punishment. Instead, biblical discipline for a child encompasses: a) a season of pain, b) the building up in love, and c) a vision of a corrected path for the individual with the purpose of healing at its core.

8. Love/Respect: Without love, our faith is futile. This environment recognizes that children need an environment of love and respect to be free to both receive and give God’s grace. Innate in this environment is the value that children are respected because they embody the imago dei (image of God). We must speak to them, not at them, and we must commit to an environment where love and acceptance are never withheld due to one’s behavior.

9. Knowing: We live in a world that denies absolute TRUTH and yet God’s Word offers just that. As we create an environment that upholds and displays God’s TRUTH, we give children a foundation based on knowing God, His Word, and being in relationship with Him through Christ.

10. Modeling: Biblical content needs a practical, living expression in order for it to be spiritually impacting. Knowledge is the “what” while modeling is the “how.” This environment serves as a hands-on example of what it means for children to put their faith into action and is live out through our small group leaders.

Only 2 more parts left.  If you want all 6 parts together, you can pick up a packet on the KidQuest table in the church foyer (with samples).