If you teach The Gospel Project for Preschool, you may have noticed that there are three lines of dialogue in the “Watch or Tell the Bible story” of the Large Group Leader section that sound virtually the same every week. It always goes something like this:
Do you know why the Bible is the most important book there is? The Bible is God’s words, and all God’s words are true! The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God and His Son, Jesus.
I promise we are not being lazy and just recycling words, these repetitive statements have a purpose: we are laying the groundwork for a biblical worldview.
Wayne Grudem defines systematic theology as “any study that answers the question, ‘What does the whole Bible teach us today?’ about any given topic.” All theology (good theology, that is) is rooted in the Bible. That is why it is absolutely critical that we help preschoolers develop a right understanding of the Bible.
Let’s break down these statements from above:
The Bible is God’s words.
This statement teaches preschoolers the authority of Scripture. The words of the Bible are the very words of God. To believe them or disbelieve them is to believe or disbelieve God Himself.
All God’s words are true.
This statement teaches preschoolers the inerrancy of Scripture. Again from Grudem: “The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything which is contrary to fact.” I love how the Baptist Faith and Message describes the Bible: “It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.”
The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God and His Son, Jesus.
This statement teaches preschoolers the sufficiency of Scripture. God has given us exactly what He wanted us to know through His holy Word. The Bible is enough. The Bible tells us all we need to know to be saved and to live in light of that great salvation.
When I was on church staff, I told the Bible story during chapel time in our Weekday Preschool each week. I made it a practice begin each story by explaining that we were about to read from the most special book of all. I always asked preschoolers to tell me what makes the Bible so special. Soon every preschooler could answer: Because it’s God’s words! Because it’s true!
One day, a young mom told me what she overheard when her preschool son was playing with his toddler brother. He said, “Now, what makes the Bible the most important book there is? That’s right, the Bible is true! What else? Yes, the Bible is God’s words!” When his mom questioned him as to where he learned that, he said off-handed, “What mom? I’m just pretending to be Ms. Karen.”
We repeat these statements over and over again because we want them to sink down deep into preschooler’s hearts. We want them to grow up believing the Bible so that they will one day come to know and love the God of the Bible.
Jeremy says
Good stuff, Karen! Keep up the great work!
Karen Jones says
Thanks, Jeremy! Hope to see you and Richard at ETCH!