7 Essentials for Growing Kids’ Faith

Here are 7 essentials for developing, enhancing, and growing kids’ faith.

Most of us who work with children understand the importance of God’s impact in kids’ lives. Most of us would agree that children hold a special place in God’s heart. From the first mention of kids in the Bible, it’s evident that God wants to nurture children in their faith walk.

Developing kids’ faith isn’t optional. Jesus expects us to support children and their potential for spiritual growth and maturity. As children’s ministers, our understanding of how kids’ faith is developed, enhanced, and shared is crucial. Here are seven essentials for understanding and growing kids’ faith.

Essential #1. Kids’ faith can be crushed.

Remember when Jesus’ disciples rebuked people who were bringing children to him for blessing? When Jesus witnessed their actions, he was displeased. “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14).

Children have a right — and a natural desire — to enter into Jesus’ presence. They have a natural faith. Our job is to encourage and strengthen that faith.

“It’s important for children’s pastors to know and understand that a child’s faith is both real and fragile,” says Jack Miller, children’s pastor at Grace Pointe Church in Irving, Texas. “It can be developed — or destroyed.”

Careless words and behavior can crush kids’ spirits. In their innocent and childlike faith, kids often share prayer requests about their pets, toys, upcoming activities, television heroes, and family members. Wise children’s ministers will encourage their faith by praying with kids and encouraging them to believe and trust in God. Sure, a prayer request may appear to be an obvious impossibility to an adult. But God listens and responds to his kids. Be careful about not taking kids’ sincere requests seriously.

“When a child talks about a wonderful experience or incident of faith, we must believe and affirm the child,” observes one children’s ministry director in Atlanta. “Use Scripture to show children how God hears them and has answered. Be careful how you reply to children when their faith hasn’t yet brought the result they’ve asked for. God is always on time and never late to answer.”

Essential #2. Kids’ faith has no boundaries.

It’s a fact that faith comes by hearing and living God’s Word. Whenever we teach kids the Word and they receive it, their faith grows. Each Sunday school class, each Bible study, and each interactive experience grants children the opportunity to grow their faith. With consistent, positive experiences, it’s natural that children will want to exercise their faith, resulting in further growth. Their prayers grow stronger as they see and believe that God can do anything.

Affirm kids’ faith. Teach them examples of faith in the Bible. Share personal testimonies of your faith growth. Allow children to talk about how their faith has resulted in answers to prayer. Display a chart with prayer requests and dates of answered prayer. Give kids a prayer journal to help build their faith.

Essential #3. Kids’ faith should be Bible-based.

Knowledge of God’s Word is foundational to kids’ faith. You can develop kids’ faith in healthy ways based on a solid scriptural foundation — not on man-made interpretations of the Bible.

If kids’ faith is Word-based, then teachers need to ask tough questions about what they’re teaching. Is the information scripturally based? Are all activities and plans focused on God’s Word? What media-based tools are appropriate? Media shouldn’t only be used to keep kids engaged. Any media-based tools used need to directly support kids’ faith development by having a clear link to what they’re learning in the class.

Essential #4. Kids’ faith is strengthened by relationships.

Children are an important part of the church…but many congregations haven’t realized that. Some segregate children at all times and don’t afford them the opportunity to learn from the entire faith community. Many churches want children to be still and quiet when they are part of a church service. Some churches never give kids the chance to worship with the entire church family.

However, when we segregate kids, we prevent them from learning from the older people in the church, and vice versa. When Jesus was in the temple, he was practicing the accepted method of teaching in his day by asking questions that provoked teachers to rethink their understanding of God’s Word. Jesus wasn’t asking questions just to learn their responses or obtain answers.

Involve children in the overall ministry of your church.

This includes worship, singing, leading praise and worship, reading the Scripture, testifying, praying, and speaking. The biblical image of God’s people includes a community of people who’ve been redeemed regardless of age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. We are family. Children can worship.

One children’s ministry director recalls a time he stepped in to help: “My dad was a pastor. Both he and my mother believed in me. They poured into me the knowledge that God had a plan for my life, with God’s Word being a focal point in our home. They encouraged me to put my talents to work for God.

“I recall one Sunday morning when the church organist quit. The Sunday school superintendent had led the congregation in the children’s song ‘Jesus Loves Me.’ Believing that this song was ‘too childlike’ for the worship service, the organist resigned. I’d been taking organ lessons, so my dad determined that it was my turn to play. Thank God for a community of faith who understood the importance of encouraging a young man to use his God-given talent and ability! Subsequently, I started teaching children’s church at age 14 and began a junior choir at age 15.”

A faith community is vital to faith development in the life of any person, but especially in a child’s life. Kids need avenues to express their faith, and such a community can provide it.

Essential #5. Kids’ faith is significantly shaped by experiences and relationships with parents.

In large part, parents shape their child’s image of God by how they relate to their child. Therefore, to nurture a child who loves God, others, and themselves means to approach grace-filled parenting. None of us can truly love a God who is distant, disrespectful, or disappointed in us. In this manner, parents are indeed the primary disciple-makers of their children, shaping the child’s image of God, which ultimately is the foundation of children’s faith development.

Your church must do its best to strengthen relationships with families, equipping parents for their role in faith development. Before God created the church, he created the family. Your church must perceive its role to be a support and resource for families as parents endeavor to make disciples of their children. Encourage parents to model their faith in their daily living. Equip them to share God’s Word at home. Help them understand principles of child development so they know how to relate to their children in an effective way.

Wise teachers and parents understand the need for experiential learning. You can help them understand how important it is for children to experience what they learn rather than try to absorb life truths through passive learning. Parents teach their children 24/7. Birthday parties, religious celebrations, taking the Lord’s Supper, family ministry events — all these support and undergird family units and allow children opportunities to experience their faith. Only after faith has been explored and questioned can it really be developed and strengthened.

Essential #6. Kids’ faith yields results.

God values children and honors their innocence. Jesus demonstrated this when he accepted a boy’s small lunch and fed thousands.

“After a weekend Kidfest kids’ event, I had one boy, 11 years old, who said he heard from God,” says Kevin Edgington, a children’s pastor in Milford, Ohio. “He believed that God wanted him to go home and start having services for kids in his neighborhood. His family supported him and helped him begin services for kids on Saturday mornings. In just a very short time, nine children accepted Jesus as their personal Savior.”

Essential #7. Kids’ faith development impacts their eternal destiny.

The impact of building a strong faith now can result in a healthy relationship with Jesus and the church in the future. The moral development of children is complete by age nine, according to research by the Barna Institute. Nonreligious-oriented research on children’s moral and values development substantiates that the foundation for lifelong values and morals form during kids’ earliest years.

Every child has a place in the body of Christ. Children’s destinies await them. It’s our responsibility to help kids determine their destinies and their purposes in life. And entire faith communities must be involved in developing and nurturing children and their parents.

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