Kids & The Incarnation

Few theological truths should shape our model of children’s ministry like the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In the incarnation, God got down on our level and told us of his incredible nature in a way we could understand. What are the implications of Christ’s incarnation on the way we engage children with theology?

Jesus is described in the Nicene Creed as “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God”. In his flesh, when he got down on our level, Christ did not relinquish any part of his divine nature. That means when Jesus said “let the little children come to me”, he was inviting children to an interaction with God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. Why would we, as the body of Christ, invite our children to anything less than the invitation Christ himself extended to children—to know Christ as True God from True God?

Why would we, as the body of Christ, invite our children to anything less than the invitation Christ himself extended to children—to know Christ as True God from True God?

St. Athanasius in “On the Incarnation” wrote, “As a good teacher who cares for his students always condescends to teach by simpler means… so also does the Word of God. For since all human beings, having rejected the contemplation of God as though sunk in an abyss with their eyes held downwards, seeking God in creation,…the Savior of all took to himself a body and dwelled as a human among humans…[so we may] know the truth and through him might consider the Father.” In other words, in order for us to know God truly, God became flesh.

If we saturate our children in a reduced version of God, keeping them from categories we feel are “too advanced” for them, we will have to give them something else instead.

To use St. Athanasius’s logic, we know how Christ condescended to us, so how are we going to condescend to our kids as we teach Christ? Are we giving them True God from True God? Or are we giving them a slice of God that we’ve decided is “good enough for them until they get older”? If we saturate our children in a reduced version of God, keeping them from categories we feel are “too advanced” for them, we will have to give them something else instead.

Typically, the answer is to build them a pretty and sentimental glass-house theology, one devoid of foundation and structure that will be easily shattered in adolescence and adulthood. What’s worse, is that when this glass-house theology does inevitably shatter, we will have deceived them into thinking they have interacted with the true Christ, while they have only met a sentimental form of him. When this happens, it is unlikely that they will ever return to reexamine Christ in his fullness, True God from True God.

So how do we condescend to our kids, introducing them to the fullness of Christ without overwhelming them? I have three personal commitments to this end:

• Lifelong Learning: We have an example of condescension, and it’s extreme. God became one of us so we could know him more truly! We ought to bend over backwards to make him known in his fullness to our kids. And this is very hard work. This requires those of us who are teaching children to be ardent disciples of Christ, putting in the hours for effective communication of Christ’s fullness to kids. It’s a blessing that kids won’t let you get by with Christian cliches and undefined terms. Children’s ministry is an ever-refining fire for our personal knowledge of God.

• Exposition of God’s Word: When we teach the Bible to our kids, we must be committed to teaching the entire story. Children excel in learning through narrative, which is also a major way God has chosen to reveal himself to us. When it comes to more mature passages, it’s important to never “clean up” scripture. Rather, creatively emphasize the theological thrust of the passage without the gory details.

• Theological Categorization: Before learning how to diagram a sentence, we are taught the differences between nouns and verbs, but we must learn to read first, and in order to read we must be taught the alphabet. This pedagogical method must also exist in theological education. In order for our church to understand what Christ has accomplished for them in the atonement for sins, our children must be introduced to theological categories like justification and propitiation. While we may not use these words, per se, the idea of being made right with God has to be a clear category in their minds. When they are older they can build on these ideas with a greater understanding of the glory of God and the edification of the church.

Dorothy Sayers often wrote about staying far away from what she called “loose and sentimental theology”, which is what we will inevitably give our children if we do not condescend to show them what Christ condescended to show us— True God from True God. She wrote, “Let us, in heaven’s name, drag out the divine drama from under the dreadful accumulation of slipshod thinking and trashy sentiment heaped upon it…[show them] the same God who made the world, lived in the world and passed through the grave and gate of death. Show that to the heathen, and they may not believe it; but at least they may realize that here is something that a man might be glad to believe.” May we likewise have the courage to drag out the divine drama for our kids, so they may see God in his fullness and be glad to believe.