The MOST Important Thing You Can Do As a Parent is tell your children the truth about Jesus.

How to Share the Good News About Jesus With Your Children

Our Children Need to Know the Good News about Jesus

Most Christian parents want their children to start a relationship with Jesus but don’t know how to introduce their children to the saving truth of Jesus Christ. We call that truth the “Good News” or “Gospel” truth and our children need this truth for their salvation, just like we do.

Many adult Christians accepted Jesus Christ as a child and never stopped to consider how the truth was presented to them to pass that Good News along to their children.

Sometimes people get Gospel presentation training in preparation to volunteer at Vacation Bible School or another ministry program. Some even have formal training they received in preparation for a mission trip or while they were studying at a Christian college.

However, the majority of Christian parents have never been trained and simply wait for church leadership to tell their children the Good News and invite them into a relationship with Him.
Most parents who do this don’t give it a second thought and assume it will happen. They don’t even follow up with their children about whether or not they’ve heard the Good News or accepted Jesus’ invitation.

I love and serve the local Christian church! I respect it as the institution God put into place to bring His people together to remember Who He is through worship and to encourage His people to live for Him throughout the week.

However, God tasked parents as their children’s primary evangelists and disciple-makers, not the church (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
The time has come to obey God’s command and lead our children to Him. Yes, we must continue (or start) to read the Bible to them, encourage them to read it themselves and teach them how to pray. And, yes, we must continue to take them to church, but we must be intentional and tell our children of their personal need for Jesus and His leadership in their lives. Because it’s our job, our responsibility.

If your children have already accepted Jesus’ gifts of salvation and eternal life… AMAZING! Well done leading them to Him! Now it’s time to take the next step in training them how to share the Good News about Jesus with others.

There are MANY ways to Jesus, but only One Way to God

You may have heard there are many ways to get to Jesus but only one way to get to God… Jesus!

God uses many ways to bring people to the understanding of their need for Him. Because of this, there are many ways to present the Good News about Jesus. Often people must hear the truth about Jesus many times and in many ways before they accept it.

I have a resource I love to share with parents that’s part of my Alphabet Theme Weeks Curriculum which helps parents teach their children the alphabet using teaching them biblical concepts while doing fun activities together. The specific resource is called “G is for Gospel” and it includes 8 “Inside Activities”, 7 “Outside Activities”, and 7 “Adventure Activities” all focused on presenting the Gospel to your children and training them to present the Gospel to others.

How to Present the Good News About Jesus to Your Children

If you’re ready to present the Gospel today and need a resource, I’ve got one for you RIGHT HERE:

Years ago, I received training at a Dare2Share event on how to present the Gospel clearly and effectively. To train my youth group students, and eventually my own children, I made a simplified and adapted version of the training I often use when I present the Gospel.

 

The Good News

God loves you. 
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”        John 3:16

God created us to be with Him.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make (people) in our image, to be like ourselves…’” Genesis 1:26 (Genesis 1-2)

We have all sinned. (Sins are the wrong things we think, say, and do against God.)
“For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23

Our sins separate us from God.
“Now the Lord observed the extent of the people’s wickedness, and He saw that all their thoughts were consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them. It broke His heart.” Genesis 6:5-6 (Genesis 3)

Sins can’t be removed by our good deeds and must be punished with death.
“God (saves) you by His special favor when you (believe). And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” Ephesians 2:8-9
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

God loves us and wants to be with us, so He sent Jesus to earth. Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.
“I passed on to you what was most important and what had been passed on to me - that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

 Everyone who trusts in Jesus alone has eternal life and will be with Him forever.
“I assure you, anyone who believes in Me already has eternal life.” (Jesus’ words) John 6:47
“For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”      Romans 10:9
 
After reading through these truths and answering any questions they have (which may take a while, so prepare for this and have your Bible ready… and biblegateway.com) you can say something like,

The Invitation

“Now you know the truth about the gift of living life with a relationship with Jesus now and eternal life with God through Jesus, you have the opportunity to decide what you will do with this gift.

You can accept His gift and start a relationship with Him right now.

You start that relationship by telling God you believe He raised Jesus from the dead and that you want Him to be in charge of your life.
‘For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.’       Romans 10:9

When you make the decision to follow Jesus and tell Him you believe, you will never have to wonder what will happen to you when you die. You can know for certain that you will spend eternity with Jesus.

Would you like to start a relationship with Jesus right now?”

The Prayer

You may need to explain that talking with God is called praying and that praying is simply thinking thoughts or saying words aloud to God. Tell your child that God hears us every time we speak to Him.

How your child “prays the prayer” isn’t as important as them doing it. There are no perfect magic words to say to accept Jesus’ gifts and start a relationship with Him. It’s really about your child’s heart recognizing the need for Him and confessing that need.

You can offer to say a prayer your child will repeat after you. This is the age-old ABC prayer (Admit-Believe-Commit) You can lead them in a prayer something like this:

“Dear God,
I admit I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness.
Thank You for sending Jesus to die for my sins and for forgiving me.
I believe You rose Jesus from the dead.
I commit my life to You, asking You to be in control of my life, leading me.
Thank You that I can spend eternal life with You because of this gift of salvation from my sins!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen”

Your child can pray on his or her own aloud or silently using the prayer above or one of their own.

If your child isn’t ready to make this decision, don’t give up! Remember, many people must hear the truth about Jesus multiple times in a variety of ways before they accept His gifts and start a relationship with Him. You may want to try another approach using the “G is for Gospel” resource.

The Celebration

After our new brother or sister in Christ has experienced the re-birth that comes from this most important decision, it’s great to celebrate by letting your child know that Luke 15:10 says,
“… there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”

This means there is a party happening RIGHT NOW in heaven about this decision!

Make this decision a BIG deal for your child. Invite them to share their decision with any important people in their life (the other parent, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, Sunday school teachers, friends… everyone)!

My friend celebrated her children’s salvation decision by literally throwing them a salvation party! We had cake and brought gifts and everything. It was SO cool.

You could call it a Spiritual Birthday Party and invite those closest to your child and give your child the opportunity to profess their faith aloud to all who are invited. It’s good practice for choosing to get baptized!

Next Steps

If you don’t know what to do to help your children take the next steps in their faith, I’ve got 2 resources for you!

1. You can get the first one on my website BethMeverden.com by signing up for my email list. It’s called “How to Help Your Children Take the Next Step in their Faith” Discipleship Map. If you don’t want to be on the email list, I still want you to have the resource, so just email me at trainingyourchild@gmail.com and ask for it and I’ll send it to you!
2. There is another resource I created for children and students who accept Christ’s gift to help them process and take the next steps to grow in their relationship with Jesus. I call it the “What Now?” Card. Here’s what it says (adapted for you to use):

You just started a relationship with Jesus, so now what?
When you make friends with anyone, you spend time getting to know them. It’s the same way with getting to know Jesus. You spend time getting to know Him.
You can get to know Jesus by…
· talking to Him. We call this prayer. It’s like thinking thoughts to Him in your mind. He hears you when you pray (Jeremiah 29:12). You can also talk to Him out loud by yourself or with other people. You can talk to Him about anything, anytime! He’s always there with you (Matthew 28:20)!

· learning about Him. You do this by reading the Bible. It is full of stories of God showing His love for people. The first four books in the New Testament are different people’s stories about Jesus and His time loving people on earth. The book of Mark is a good book to start reading to learn more about Jesus. Grab a Bible and look for it in the Table of Contents then just keep reading and learning more!

· spending time with others who love Him. We go to church to spend time focusing on God and to encourage other people who love Him. At church, you will hear lots of stories about God and those who love Him and have fun learning about how to know Jesus more.

People who have a friendship with Jesus are called “Christians” which means “followers of Jesus Christ”. Now that you are a Christian, you have the BEST example to follow of how to love other people better and how to make good choices in Jesus.
Churches exist to give people a place to learn more about God and worship Him with others who believe. It’s a place to grow in our relationship with God and learn about how He wants us to love others. If you ever have questions about being a Christian or anything else, please feel free to ask the person who shared the Good News about Jesus with You or one of the leaders at church!

If you aren’t able to go to church or spend time with other Christians, a good place to start learning more about Jesus is: www.Bible.com

We are so glad you made this decision today! Welcome to the family of believers!
 
Please feel free to cut and paste any of what you’ve read here.
Look up different ways to present the Gospel and adopt one.
Then as stated in 1 Peter 3:15b, “…if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”

Someone pointed you to the One who carried you across the bridge from death to life.

Now you get to be that someone for another person.

What a cool opportunity to say thank you for the Gift you have received by sharing that Gift with your children!

I’m praying for you as you intentionally start these conversations with your children and help them “grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All glory to Him both now and forever! Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18!