"Seven-Year-Old" Pastors

Yesterday marked Tracy’s last day of teaching for the first term of ABI. It also marked a first for us as we tag-taught the pastors about teaching children. Tracy showed them that the primary teachers in children’s lives are the parents. He also encouraged them to establish Sunday school programs within the church. I shared with them about storytelling. However much I told myself to relax and enjoy this time of teaching, I was still nervous. I sent out an S.O.S. on Facebook to ask people to pray for me. As I began to share, I gradually felt comfortable and at ease. God was answering prayer!

Because children are not valued in this culture I used Matthew 18:3-4 as my jumping off text. My opening question was, “Raise your hand if you want to be great in the kingdom of heaven.” Everyone enthusiastically raised their hand. Then I shared with them Jesus’ view of greatness—becoming like a child, welcoming children, and receiving them. For the next 15 minutes we examined ten verses that show Jesus’ connection with children.

Not only did I share the importance of children, but I also showed the importance of teaching children. A rumor I heard when we moved here shocked and surprised me. Some Zambians in the church don’t believe that children can learn spiritual truths. Some don’t even think a child can come to faith in Christ before early adulthood. Tracy and I both stressed that if we hide the gospel from the next generation, that generation will be lost.

Finally, I encouraged the use of storytelling in reaching children. I then shared two ways of telling stories, one was poor, the other better. For the first method I simply read the story of the paralytic from Mark 2:1-12. Oftentimes this is the teaching style for children in the church. Before I shared the second example I asked them to pretend to be seven years old again and that I’m their Sunday school teacher. The pastors quickly entered in to this with eagerness. As “seven year olds” they interrupted me with questions while I dramatized the story. I tried to tie in things they would identify with, such as the extremely crowded house being just like a mini-bus. And, if the man’s arms were paralyzed he couldn’t feed himself nshima, a Zambian’s food staple. They definitely liked the second way of telling stories better and from the sound of it, they plan to incorporate that in teaching children.

The pastors were a joy to share with and I was happy to be back in the saddle again!