Author: Dr. John C. Kwasny
While it may seem that children’s ministry is the same in whatever church you attend, the theological commitments of the church do make a difference. Theology drives everything we do in life, and that includes how we do children’s ministry. The theological foundation we have adopted at One Story Ministries, grounding all our curriculum lines, is known as “covenant theology”. So, how does covenant theology shape children’s ministry in a unique and distinct way?
Before I give you four major ways, let me briefly define and describe covenant theology. Covenant theology is a framework for interpreting the Bible that views God’s relationship with humanity through a series of formal, binding agreements or “covenants”. It traces a cohesive story of redemption in Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelation. Covenant theology organizes Biblical history around three main theological covenants: the Covenant of Redemption, the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace, highlighting the unity of God’s people across both Testaments. The Covenant of Grace is ours in Christ—it is God-initiated and God-kept. He made the covenant with His son to give Him a people to save.
So, here are four ways covenant theology shapes children’s ministry:
1. Since covenant theology gives a unity to Scripture, it moves us to teach our children both the Old and New Testaments. Too many Christians think of the Old Testament as irrelevant, leading them to teach mainly the Gospels and some of the rest of the New Testament to children. When the Old Testament is taught, only the “big” stories are considered. Covenant theology requires us to see the continuity of God’s Word—needing the Old Testament to properly understand the New Testament, and vice-versa. There is only one people of God, not two; one story, not two.
2. Covenant theology views all the covenants culminating in Christ of the covenants. Therefore, a children’s ministry shaped by covenant theology teaches Jesus in all the stories of Scripture, even when teaching the Old Testament. This prevents our Bible teaching from becoming mere moralism or exemplary, taking the focus off the human characters to what God is doing. Wherever we are in Scripture, Jesus is shown to our children on every page of the Bible.
3. A right understanding of the covenants of Scripture includes their highly relational nature. As God enters into a relationship with His people through the covenant of grace, He calls us into covenant relationship with one another. In other words, covenant theology connects to the covenant community. In children’s ministry, covenant parents instruct and disciple children in a highly relational way. True discipleship is done in the both the nuclear family as well as the covenant family, the church—working together in harmony. It is the covenant of grace that makes us the family of God.
4. Covenant theology shapes children’s ministry with its high view of children. In other theological frameworks, children are viewed as outside the covenant community until they make their own profession of faith. Scripture views children, in both the Old and New Testaments, as insiders not outsiders, as members of the visible church. In covenant baptism, church members vow to come along parents to nurture and disciple their children. Covenant theology raises the status of children, welcoming them as Jesus did. The kingdom of God is for children, as we lead them to make trust in Christ alone for their salvation.
Our theology matters! Covenant theology not only enables us to grow in our understanding of God and His Word, but how to live in His world as well. This is at the heart of why and how we do children’s ministry in the local church.