Making Disciples

Using Discovery Bible Studies with mixed groups of adults and children is such a beautiful way of exploring scripture together and discovering more about God and each other. For many people in the Global North who are stepping into Disciple Making and gathering in small groups, one of the big questions is how to involve and engage children. In many ways DBS is ideally formed to make this simple. The questions are the same each time, it is easily replicable and there is no need for special training or qualifications to lead a DBS. It’s very encouraging and exciting to see children lead the adults as we learn together and hear what God is teaching us through the stories we are sharing.

However, sometimes having younger children can pose a bit of a challenge. How do we keep them engaged? How do we make sure they are included? How can we ensure they are getting the most out of the story? We have found that being able to have a go at doing things in different ways has really helped us to figure out what works for the children we have in our midst. As we’ve done this we have also found that some of the solutions have been just as helpful and effective for the adults! We are, at the same time very conscious of not wanting to add anything which makes it feel harder to replicate or requires particular skills or abilities.

With a little bit of creative thinking it’s possible to find simple and straightforward ways to help younger children engage. In our context we’ve also found that it’s particularly helpful to be flexible and ok with a bit of chaos every now and again! The children won’t be 100% engaged all of the time, they will chat, go off and play, make noise and be disruptive sometimes - but all of this is fine as we are experiencing family together. We’ve often been quite surprised at what some of the children have taken in on the occasions when we felt we had completely lost their attention. It’s important to remember that we are not trying to recreate ‘Sunday school’ or ‘children’s ministry’ or a structured children’s provision! What we are wanting to do is to provide ideas so that our own children will become disciples who make disciples. Also that as we make disciples in our communities who are starting groups within their families and communities they have easily replicable ways to share the stories with their children.

So here are a few things we have tried and found to be helpful:-

We have tried involving the children in leading the whole DBS together we did this by writing all of the 7 questions on folded bits of paper which the children picked out of a pot. Then they opened them up and each read their question at the appropriate time.

In our context we had 6 children aged between 3 and 7. It was quite difficult to get them to answer the first section of a DBS - 1) What are you thankful for? 2) What has challenged or stressed you out? 3) Is there anything this group can do to help? In an attempt to make this easier for them we created a printed image with pictures of different areas of life. We then made some little emojis which could be stuck on with blu-tac. 

This has proved a very effective way of engaging adults and children alike, as each person sticks emojis onto the board and we talk about why they chose that emoji and put it in that place. One little girl sticks a sad face on the friends picture, one adult a tired face on the home image, another child puts a smiley face next to the play/leisure picture and so on. We have shared a pdf of our most recent version of this ‘emotions board’ which you are welcome to copy/download and use.

Reading/Sharing the story - This may seem obvious but in our experience stories in scripture work better than the more complex passages such as the letters for very young children! So we try to use the stories from the gospels, parables, Old Testament stories etc. As always in a DBS we read the story a few times and from different translations in order to really get into what is being told. We have found that reading the story from a children’s bible or a bible story book can be good for the children, they often have lots of pictures as well! Often children notice when things are missing (or added!) in the children’s versions which is very helpful! We have also used little cartoon or video clips which are easily found in a google or YouTube search and bring another dimension. Having the children read the stories to the group if they are able to is brilliant.

One of our treasured moments is of a 6 year old reading the story of John the Baptiser with just a little help, she was so pleased and got a round of applause!!

We have sometimes done little activities which help everyone engage with the story. We planted seeds when we looked at the story of the sower (Matt 13:18-23), we built a tower from wooden toy blocks when we talked about being living stones (1 Peter 2:4-7), we tested out in a sink what toys sank and which floated when we did the story of Jesus walking on the water (Matt 14:22-33), we had our 3 year old stand by a 6ft3 adult when we looked at David and Goliath!

Other things we have found helpful to consolidate the story:-

• Acting out the story

• Colouring sheets of parts of the story (can often be found on the internet if you have a printer)

• Plain paper and pens/pencils to draw or write on as the story is read

• Using toys to illustrate, such as Lego, dolls, nativity sets etc etc.

• Having bits of the story drawn or written on different pieces of paper and getting the children to put them in the right order as the story is read and re-read.

When we are looking at the questions 4) What does this tell me about God or Jesus? and 5) What does this tell us about me or people? Older children are quite able to engage with this and having them highlight or underline in different colours what the passage/story says about God and people is really useful. For our under 7s we found that these questions present a bit of a difficult concept, so we often just simplify it for them by asking them slightly different questions. What do they like/don’t they like about the story? What stands out to them or what do they remember? How does the story or the characters make them feel? Who do they like/dislike in the story and why? This can help them engage with the story and also bring things out that the adults can relate to what it teaches us about God and people.

In terms of the final, and really most crucial, questions 6) What am I going to do in response? and 7) Who can I share with? We find that children are often quite good at this bit! Sometimes just rephrasing the question helps a bit, what should we do from the story? Is there anything in this story that makes you think ‘I could do that’? If we have coloured or drawn a picture or planted seeds in a pot then often the children can think who they could give them to. One little girl took her picture to school and told the story to her teacher! Now surely that’s a DBS success, right?

Written by a dear friend and fellow disciple maker, CB.