Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids

This is a life-changing book that put into words so many things that have nagged at the back of my mind about the way we teach the Bible to children. It seems far too many picture Bibles, Sunday school curricula, and parenting books boil the Bible down to "This Bible character did this. You should do/not do this." You could completely remove God and Christ from some of these books/methods and the application would not change: be good. Likewise, as a parent it's too easy to simply use Bible stories as a way to try to manipulate our kids' behavior. To begin with, trying to "be good" without understanding our new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit's enablement is completely futile. This focus on morality apart from the Gospel also helps explain why many church kids grow up and leave the church. If all church gave them was a list of how to behave, but they never truly fell in love with Jesus and understand all he did for them, why stay in church? Klumpenhower maintains that "The cross of Jesus—not principles of good living—is the engine of the Christian life." The gist of this book is that more than anything, kids need to be shown God's character, Jesus' work, and the Holy Spirit's enabling. This, more than any moral lesson, will be what transforms them. "We make a mistake if we think kids are saved by hearing the good news and trusting Jesus, but then grow as Christians some other way." While the Bible does give useful examples, if kids "get Samuel the good listener without first appreciating God the Great Speaker, they're liable to end up relating to God only in an anxious, what-I-must-do way." Klumpenhower gives practical advice for how to teach the Word in a way that points to Jesus and not our own efforts. For example, when teaching Old Testament stories he recommends asking: "1) What is God doing for his people in this story? 2) Good News! How does God do the same for us—only better—in Jesus? 3) Believe it! How does believing this good news change how we live?" Here is an example from teaching about Moses: "What is God doing for his people in this story? He arranges events to protect baby Moses and give the Israelites a leader who will rescue them from Egypt. Good News! How does God do the same for us—only better—in Jesus? He has provided a Leader and Savior who rescues us from sin and death. Believe it! How does believing this good news change how we live? Even when it's hard to see, we can trust that God is working out his plan to complete our salvation." Another great example is how he recommends addressing sin: the surface sin we can see (example: dancing to lewd music), the selfish fear underneath (ex: afraid friends won't like or accept me), and the root unbelief (ex: not believing Jesus gives me God's approval). I'm just scratching the surface of this book. Chapter after chapter is filled with wonderful truth about how the grace given in the Gospel impacts every area of our lives and about how our identity in Christ is what transforms us. I recommend it to anyone who wants to use the Bible as their foundation for living, teaching, and parenting. It's that good. Go read it! If you're intrigued but not sure you can read the whole thing, download the free Kindle sample and at least read the introduction and first chapter; it will give you a good overview. And then you'll probably want to read the rest!

This book is so good! It is full of biblical truth that is missing in much of Christianity. The author reminds us that Jesus is the whole point of the Bible. Go. After. Christ. Everything else will follow. Moralism does not save us. The love of Jesus does. Just beautiful. I wish the author had been my Sunday school teacher. All my life I've known the truth of Jesus. It's right there in the Bible, woven into every story. And yet I've still always felt like love was to be earned and moralism was at the front of my faith. This book makes me see how the cross is what I need. Jesus loves me. He is for me. Morals don't earn me points with God. The blood of Jesus paid all. And my desire to obey and be like him flows out of my love for him... and his abundant love for me. ❤️

I bought this last year at Bethlehem Seminary bookstore in Minneapolis on a bibliophile impulse. It was so remarkable, that I bought multiple copies here on Amazon to give to leaders and fellow-teachers of our children's outreach program at church. For instead of the typical way of teaching bible stories to children, it proposes a different way, one wrapped around the gospel of grace. Most of the time, children are taught the stories of David and Goliath, or Gideon, or whatever, to urge them on to moral behavior. "Do this like like this person did, don't do that like that other person did, and God will bless you". And so kids grow up in the church thinking that this is what the gospel is: do good and you'll gain God's favor. This book instead shows how God has always provided a solution for the wretched consequences of the fall. The writer doesn't recommend we automatically shy away from teaching the difficult stories of the bible, which is so common in children's ministries (like the captivity in Babylon, and the wretched stories in Judges, for instance). Instead, it shows teachers how to teach (AND see for themselves) the mercy of God in each of those bible accounts. It is not a curriculum, though it is very bible literate: for instance, Mr. Klumpenhower points out the not-always-so-obvious parts of a story that point to a coming redeemer. It has practical insights for showing the beauty of God's love and mercy in EVERY bible story, and for those who need further direction and insight, Mr. Klumpenower's website gives curricular-type lesson plans you can use when teaching those stories. In our church now, we continue to use a national bible-memory program that many churches use. But we use this as the outline for our group teaching times. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to teach the gospel from the scriptures, instead of just from a formula.

This book essentially takes the Christ centered theology taught by guys like Walter Marshall (Gospel Mystery of Sanctification), Horatius Bonar (The Everlasting Righteousness & God's Way of Holiness) and John Colquhoun (A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel), and it packages it in a way that is easy for anybody to understand and apply in the classroom. I have not come across another book that does this particularly for teaching children. I highly recommend this book for those who are involved in children's ministry (even adult ministry for that matter). It will particularly help those in your youth ministries understand the law/gospel distinction and gospel motivation. Once the teacher understand this, it will begin to permeate his/her lessons.

"Show Them Jesus" is the best resource on children's ministry I have seen in 15+ years as a children's ministry director and I have recommended that all of my volunteers get their hands on this book as soon as they possibly can. Too often in children's ministry we've watered down the gospel or worse yet assumed the gospel and today many adults grew up in church and still have no idea how to answer the question of why Jesus died on the cross. This book reminds us that the cross is the central point of the Bible and therefore should be central in our teaching. I love the way the author takes us on his journey of learning to teach gospel centered lessons and shows us what he learned along the way. I love the fact that he encourages teachers to study and prepare the text their teaching on and not simply rely on the curriculum pieces (no matter how good and gospel centered they may be). I also really appreciate the practicality of the book as he gives suggestions at the end of each chapter on how to apply what you're reading right away in a classroom or at home. If you teach in children's ministry or have kids you care about you should read this book!

A while back, a ministry acquaintance of mine decided to impart a little "wisdom" to this children's pastor. His advice? Well, in the context of discussing preaching and teaching, he said: "Kids just need to be told what to do." Explaining, he adding "Obeying parents, reading Bible, that kind of thing." Within context, he was heavily implying that they don't need theology, or the teaching about why we do what we do. Instead, he was settling for simple moralism. As an amusing contrast, I had begun reading Show Them Jesus only shortly before that. Whatever good intentions may have lain in his heart, that acquaintance sadly failed to remember the axiom "Rules, without relationship, breeds rebellion." Show Them Jesus takes the Biblical philosophy that showing children Jesus, and helping them know him, allows morals and behavior to flow naturally from that relationship. Rules that children will want to follow themselves, rather than complain about and find every chance to break or bend, which is inevitable with simple moralism. The book is divided into two sections. The first is "Why Teach The Good News" and the second "How to Teach the Good News." Each chapter within those sections has a title, a subtitle, and a relevant quote. For example Chapter 4 has "The Factory-Preset Fourth Grader" with the subtitle "Because the good news changes hard hearts." While the titles are usually inventive and fun, they are also insightful enough to specifically address the problem and solution offered in that chapter. The basic premise of the book is summed up in a statement made early on. "Rather than coax the kids into temporarily acting better, Joe [a fellow teacher at the author's church] told about Jesus and trusted God to use that message to make the kids become better." The author, upon discovering this, tried it, tested it, and found it to be so true that he wanted to share it with the world. Hence, the book. In the aforementioned Chapter 4, one of my favorite chapters, the author begins with an all too familiar situation. He had just finished teaching on greed, specifically, not being greedy. Next up was snack time, and the class promptly began fighting over who got more cookies. Noting that simply moral teaching just wasn't cutting it, as studies show, and lives display. Taking the time to dissect each of the good reasons we try to motivate good behavior, he finds each lacking when compared with a genuine fascination and love for God. Part 1 absolutely shines in the approachable language, relatable stories, and Biblical evidence. His philosophy is, like the Bible, simple, yet profound. It strips away tradition to reveal the hollow human efforts behind it and instead purposes the solid and soul-transforming power of the Good News of the Gospel. At this point, I was begging to know how to best address this in my own preaching, and eagerly leaped into Part 2. Beginning in chapter 6, the author begins on a slightly wobbly note. He admits he has never been to college, nor received formal training with teaching or biblical interpretation. Sadly, this shows. Chapter 6 covers showing Jesus from the Old Testament, and is populated by as many mountain peaks of beauty as it is valleys of misunderstandings. One of the peaks is his looking at each passage in light of how man has failed (or will fail) through sin, and how God responds to that. This is formally known as Bryan Chappell's "Fallen Condition Focus." (1) Using this, the author rides this principle, not to the modern day, but first, to how Jesus either solved the problem, or offered a better solution than the one in the OT. He does this with one of three questions: "Who God is," "What God does," and "Jesus Solves Problems," This is actually a pretty interesting approach, and one that many teachers would benefit greatly from. He lays incredible emphasis on getting past the human players and looking to God for the lesson to be learned. He even recommends ditching pre-made lessons to try out this "good news" focused approach, an idea I (after reading far too many moralistic and simplistic and topical) I heartily agree with. Later, however, the author writes that each passage can have several themes and main ideas. While that's true to a point, concepts like the "Hermetical Idea" and/or "Exegetical Idea" rely on the fact that passages contain one big idea, and additional elements explain or apply it. He also offers the idea that some OT passages are wrought with a "tension" and incompleteness until Jesus is applied. While this sounds nice, it also means saying that God's Word was incapable of conveying the truth he wanted until thousands of years after it was written. What then of the original, biblical author's intent to his original audience? Sometimes, it seems, in the eagerness to find Jesus, Show Them Jesus misses that God is also, well, God. Using the author's own approach to find how God loved sinners would show how God continued to love them in that way in Jesus, rather than heavily hint that there are/were problems with the Bible and it's stories until 33 AD. Thankfully, the remaining chapters, stepping into Christ's time, then into modern application, obviously don't suffer as much from interpretive issues. Chapter 8 is heavy on practical application of this, not only in teaching, but in other classroom policies. It breaks down class rewards, discipline, corporate worship, and even how to handle misbehavior in light of the "good news" model. It's an incredibly hard-hitting chapter that needs to be read and re-read. The final chapter ends with a reminder to stay the course, even when it doesn't seem to be working, or life is frustrating, or even you yourself struggle with this "good news" focus. Christ is there, he loves you, and he will aid you. The conclusion, featuring a sermon excerpt of Spurgeon's, as his Gospel-centered message inspired D. L. Moody to speak far more often of Christ in his own preaching. This hearkens back to the opening of the book, as there, another teacher inspired the author on his own journey. The book closes by challenging the readers to inspire those around them as they too teach Christ. At it's brightest, Show Them Jesus is a brilliant beacon of hope that has the power to turn the stagnant and ineffective moralism upside down and inside out by reminding Christians of the power of God's good news in Christ. Like a surgical knife, it cuts away at false motivations and selfish desires to do right, and makes way for the Bible's truth to penetrate our hearts. He offers the problem, he offers a solution, and now it's our turn to step up to the plate and follow his lead in showing others Jesus. Notable Quotables: Chapter 1: Because Jesus is All We Need - "The good news means you relate to God based on what Jesus has done for you, not what you’ve done to prove yourself worthy." Chapter 4: The Factory-Preset Fourth Grader - "None of us learns to love anyone—including God—by having someone tell us to love them. You love people because you find them beautiful and lovable, and because they love you. The good thing is that God is far, far more beautiful and love-worthy than anything or anyone else, and he loves us far, far more than anyone else ever could." Chapter 8: The Grapes That Taught Good News - "The kids’ attitudes also confirmed what my gut felt when I first heard about the [Bible] bucks: a classroom culture built on rewards for performance wouldn’t fit the good news I planned to teach. It wouldn’t do to teach that God’s rewards in salvation come freely, by grace, but that rewards in the church come by being good and memorizing verses." Chapter 9: The War on Sin - "Moral reform is not the same as Christian growth." 8/10

This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read aside from the Bible. This book taught me more in one day than 25 years in church. I had never been more excited about Jesus or the bible until this book, my son has caught on and loves to talk about it. My one goal as a parent, the only thing I truly want for my son is to have a love for god and an understanding of Gods love for him and I didn't know how to reach that goal until I read this. I prayed about it, and this book came up on my suggestion list with one review, could of been the mans wife, but I just knew that it wasn't a coincidence. I have since read it twice in my kindle and came back to order it in hardcover. Every parent and ministry leader should read this heavenly book. I have never read an author that was so humble, not the humble that makes you smirk but the type that makes you cry because you don't feel like you are being schooled or judged but somehow this man gets right on your level and speaks to your soul. Jack, thank you, for your humility, for your obedience, for your love for God, you have changed our lives and I will always be grateful.

While not well written, the book does deal with a critical topic, i.e. Why do kids leave the church soon after Sunday school? Jack identifies the singular reason and gives very helpful examples of how to prevent the trend from continuing in your S.S. or home. It shows good hands-on, tried and tested ways, not just theory, to help kids (and adults) fall in love with Jesus. Jack reminds us that as teachers or parents we are totally dependent on the Lord to give us that love. I was also helped by the section on discipline/keeping order in the S.S. I expect to use this book to help improve the teaching and discipline in our S.S, Perhaps, most importantly, personal application is needed first.

Professores e pregadores serão incentivados com exemplos práticos para pregarem Cristo, especialmente em textos do AT que passam despercebido como possibilidade para tal.

Everyone who works with children should read this.

It's a really good book for teaching the gospel to children.

Amazing! Made me rethink lots of the things I do as a teacher. Grace all the way!

This is such a great book! I recommend it for anyone working with kids or has kids. So many applicable, practical examples that make teaching the gospel to kids feasible. I also really enjoy how this book points you to Christ and just leaves you wanting to share that with everyone around you kids or anyone else for that matter.