Children at the GARBC Conference have been going through the Kids4Truth Clubs 10th doctrinal theme, “God’s Purpose for His Children.” “We have had an extremely fast-paced program where the children are learning and reciting truths from an entire doctrinal theme,” says Marrena Ralph, RBP’s clubs program specialist, who is leading this week’s children’s ministry. “This is normally done in a church setting over a six- to eight-week period,” says Marrena, “so you know these children have worked hard. Our time with the children has included main teaching time, small group discussion/memory time, reciting memory work, and exciting review games, activity sheets, and crafts (which are free downloads from our teacher’s resource site, EquipU) to reinforce what the children were taught and memorizing.”
Marrena says that a well-balanced children’s ministry has three basic types of Bible teaching taught in a variety of ways: basic Bible stories/lessons, Bible survey, and doctrine. She says we teach Bible doctrine to children to “lay the foundation upon which all of their Bible belief structure will fit/lie. Children need to know what they believe and why they believe it. If we don’t teach it to them, I guarantee you the world will teach its belief system.”
Just as the children have “tried out a doctrinal theme for free,” churches are welcome to download a free sample of the Kids4Truth Clubs curriculum. This free download includes teacher lesson plans, a parallel document (scope and sequence of the memory work), and the TruthBooks (student books) for all four levels of learning for doctrinal theme 1, “God’s Word the Bible.”
“Kids4Truth is so much fun!” said one child. “I like learning all of the Bible verses, and the crafts and games, and I like that I get to make lots of good Christian friends!”
