PRINCIPLE 15 |
Extra caution is required when evangelizing children. For one thing, evangelists (whether parents, teachers, or pastors) sometimes try to explain the gospel to a child using the same vocabulary, symbols, and illustrations they would use if they were talking to an adult. But this is quite unfair to the child in view of his linguistic and mental limitations.
One of the child's most obvious linguistic limitations is his vocabulary. At age two a child has a vocabulary of approximately 300 words. At age three his vocabulary is around 1,000 words. It continues to increase at a rapid rate for several years. While this rapid growth in vocabulary is quite remarkable in itself, the other side of the coin is that during his earlier years there are many words which we adults use but which he has not yet learned.
Children usually will not say, "I don't understand that word." They are used to hearing many words which they don't understand. They often function on the basis of the words they do understand and pass over the others. Therefore, you should not assume that a child understands and wait for him to say so when he does not.
Another misleading practice is to ask a child if he understands what he has been told. If he gets any meaning out of the statements at all, whether it is the intended meaning or not, he will probably answer with a "yes." Even if he did not understand anything and knows it, he is still tempted to answer "yes" for a variety of psychological reasons. One obvious reason is that he wants to be grown up. So asking a child if he understands is not a safe procedure.
The most reliable way to find out if a child is understanding what he is being told is to get plenty of feedback from him in his own words. Once we get him talking to us about the gospel, we will soon be able to judge how well he understands what we have been saying. But the key here is to get the feedback in the child's own words. If he merely repeats the words we have used, we can be sure that he is a good imitator -- but we cannot be sure he understands what we have said. A lecture to a child with a few head shakes or affirmative answers from him is just not enough. Instead, engage him in a genuine conversation. (More is said about communication and feedback in chapter 23.)
Besides the matter of vocabulary, there is also the matter of complex sentences which we adults use so frequently. For example, suppose we want a child to memorize the following verse.
We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Or, perhaps we just want to explain the teaching of this verse to the child. But the verse includes these words and phrases: "therefore," "ambassadors," "as though God were," "appeal," "implore," "on Christ's behalf," and "reconciled." Note carefully, the ideas or concepts in this verse are not too difficult for a child's mental ability, but the specialized language used to express these ideas are beyond his linguistic ability. A child typically learns concrete nouns and verbs first. Other parts of speech which perform more complicated grammatical functions (such as prepositions, logical connectives, subjunctive verbs, and passive voice) are not understood well by the child until much later. And this verse contains all of them! Thus, the grammatical construction of this verse is too complex for many children. Naturally, if the parent or teacher explains these truths using similar grammatical forms, that too will be beyond the ability of the child.
Notice how this same verse can be worded for children:
We are Christ's missionaries. God is speaking to you through us. We are speaking for Christ as we ask you from our hearts to turn from your sins and come to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20; The Children's New Testament, translated by Gleason H. Ledyard, Word Books, 1969)
The sentences are short and in active voice. The vocabulary is much simpler. This is the sort of "adjustment" we must make constantly when talking with children.
There are many concepts which we are used to discussing in our adult "spiritual language," but every concept can be expressed in simpler terms and in simpler sentence structure. Here is a listing from the NIV of five verses related to the gospel. Notice how the same ideas have been expressed in easier wording in The Children's New Testament.
| New International Version | Reference | The Children's New Testament |
|---|---|---|
| All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. | Romans 3:12 | Everyone has turned away from God. They have all done wrong. Not one of them does what is good. No, not even one! |
| For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. | Romans 6:23 | You get what is coming to you when you sin. It is death! But God's free gift is life that lasts forever. It is given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. |
| But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. | Romans 5:8 | But God showed His love to us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. |
| For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. | 1 Peter 3:18a | Christ suffered and died for sins once for all. He never sinned and yet He died for us who have sinned. He died so He might bring us to God. |
| For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. | John 3:16 | For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God's Son will not be lost, but will have life that lasts forever. |
Besides vocabulary and sentence structure, we adults use a great deal of figurative and symbolic speech which is often misinterpreted by the child. Children are much more literal in their understandings than adults are. To a child, a heart pumps blood, a shepherd cares for real sheep, death is when you stop breathing, and black, red, and white are simply colors. Note carefully, the ideas and concepts behind figurative and symbolic language are not too difficult for children, but the figurative and symbolic form of expression may not convey the meaning to the child. Again, the surest way to find out if the child is understanding is to get plenty of feedback in the child's own words.
In our attempt to explain concepts to children, we often use stories to illustrate the ideas. However, if the story has no counterpart in the child's experience, the point of the story may be lost. For example, if we tell a young child a story that revolves around a dictator, or marriage, or buying and selling, will his limited experience allow him to understand the story? We should attempt to draw our stories from the child's experiences.
Besides these grammatical matters there are various psychological pitfalls. No one is more easily manipulated than a child. For one thing, the child is very susceptible to group pressure -- he is an imitator at heart. Also, every child loves to get a prize, so he might do anything for that shiny trinket. And children have a lot of fears and can be easily scared into doing just about anything.
Parents and teachers, even without any conscious attempt to be manipulative, still place very subtle pressures on the child. Because children need the approval of those around them (especially parents), they will often do what they think will gain that approval whether they understand what they are doing or not. There is also a strong desire on the part of a young child to be like his parents. So if dad says he is trusting Christ as his savior, the child may say he wants to do the same thing, not out of any understanding of sin or salvation, but out of a desire to be like dad. (Psychological conversions are discussed more fully in chapter 16.)
After you have led a child to Christ, follow him up the same way you would follow up any new Christian (see chapter 13), with one addition. Get his parents involved (assuming they are Christians). In the case of a new believer who is an adult, the responsibility for follow-up, either to do it or see that it gets done, falls on the person who led him to trust Christ and, as time goes on, increasingly on the church as a whole. In the case of a new believer who is a teen or a child, the responsibility falls on the person who led him to trust Christ and on the parents.
How much of the gospel must a child understand? Can he get saved if we water down the gospel? We need to simplify the message for the child, but we do not simplify it by leaving parts of it out. Rather, we simplify it by communicating the gospel in words and sentences he can understand, by using illustrations that come from his limited experiences rather than from ours, and by avoiding figurative and symbolic expressions. He does not need to repeat the six points of the plan of salvation just as they are worded in chapter 12, but he does need to grasp each of the six ideas. Children can understand the gospel at a surprisingly young age if we are able to communicate it to them on their level.
When does a child become accountable for his own decisions and actions? We know that accountability depends on knowledge. In other words, a person is held responsible (punishable) only when he knows that his act is wrong (or when he omits an act that is within his ability and he knows that it is right). If he does not know right from wrong, he is not accountable. The fact that accountability is dependent on knowledge is taught or implied in such passages as James 4:17; Deuteronomy 1:39; Romans 4:15; and Romans 5:13.
Integrating information from the Bible with findings from the field of child psychology leads to the conclusion that the age of accountability probably comes quite early in life, perhaps at the end of the preschool years or the very beginning of the school years. This topic is discussed more fully in the paper "The Age of Accountability."