This list is by no means all inclusive. There are other things that speak of excellence. You may not even agree with these. Nonetheless, here are numbers thirteen through sixteen of twenty.
13) Same meat, different packaging and portions . Why should we be teaching something different than what our senior pastors are teaching? Kids need the meat of the Word too. They just get smaller burgers. Sometimes they get a toy with it and it comes in a colorful box. Of course there are some principles and passages that kids probaly shouldn’t be taken through but use your judgement. When we change the message, we say that it isn’t relevant for kids.
14) Don’t just teach facts, share principles. Its not enough to know how many animals Noah took on the Ark or how many stones David loaded into his bag. It’s also not enough to just know about God, kids need to know God personally and be known for being like God. You have to teach principles of faith and not just virtues to make this work. When we only teach facts and virtues, we say that God can’t be known.
15) Get them involved. No where in the Bible do you see that we are called to only go to church. We are to move beyond and become the church. So many times we tell kids to sit down, shut up and listen. Then when they become adults all we can get them to do is sit down, shut up, and listen. Serving has to be trained from a young age. Find a way to get them involved and have them something to do. When we don’t involve, we say that we don’t care if they invest in the kingdom.
16) There is no junior Holy Spirit. I’ve looked all over my Bible, I can’t find reference to the Junior Holy Spirit. I know He’s got to be in there somewhere as so many churches seem to treat kids like that’s the one they got. Those are just the ones that believe that the Holy Spirit works on and dwells in kids anyhow. Read your Bible folks, God uses kids too. (See 1 Samuel 3 for example of God speaking to a child.) When we don’t respect the Holy Spirit’s ability to move in kids, we say we don’t need Him in our lives.