What We Learn When We Teach Kids the Bible

As adults, it’s easy to assume that teaching the Bible to kids is helpful for them, but not for ourselves. Why?

Sometimes we assume our maturity has outgrown whatever simple truths kids can grasp (I don’t need this). Other times we’re so consumed with contextualizing the message, we neglect to teach ourselves (I really want the kids to get this). Because we’re better resourced than ever before—with quality Bible curriculum that provides main points, creative elements, and application—our urgency to personally encounter the passage wanes. But teaching kids the Bible can be as beneficial to our souls as it is to theirs. 

Here are five ways God can powerfully transform you while you teach children.

1. Teaching kids helps us rehearse the Bible’s story.

Kids love a good story, which makes teaching the Bible (most of which is narrative) captivating to them. Nevertheless, the challenge of explaining how all the Bible’s mini-stories fit into its grand story can be daunting.

I experienced this while training several new teachers in kids’ ministry, as we were studying how Judges connects to the overall storyline of Scripture. It was an exercise these leaders had never done, even as mature believers. 

To present the overall story of the Bible to kids, we must grasp it first. Preparing to teach catalyzes our learning, helping us connect the dots.

Here is a far-from-exhaustive taste of how Judges ties into the metanarrative of Scripture:

• God includes the book of Judges in his story, so it contains precious truth we need.
• Judges is violent and unsettling, showing how sin (introduced in Genesis 3) has grown. 
• In Judges God relentlessly restores rebels, a pattern that flows through the Bible until its culmination in the cross. 
• The flawed leaders in Judges expose our need for a Good Shepherd, who later arrives in Jesus.

To present the overall story of the Bible to kids, we must grasp it first. Preparing to teach catalyzes our learning, helping us connect the dots.

2. Teaching kids helps us simplify what we overcomplicate.

Teaching kids demands simplicity. It requires teachers to be illustrative and concrete, not abstract. It sharpens our theological language, forcing us to put things plainly.

The problem is, most adults think they’re clearer communicators than they really are. Few things expose this like teaching a group of kids—it’s the ultimate litmus test for clarity. With kids, religious jargon is gibberish. Lofty theological monologues lead to fidgety limbs and bored expressions. 

But when we teach kids well, our wordy explanations get reworked into simple ones. Instead of repeating the same thing the same way, we present it from multiple angles to engage different learning styles. Our messages, once cluttered with too many ideas, now orbit around one big idea from the text. 

Teaching children debunks the myth that complexity is profundity. As Woody Guthrie once quipped, “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” 

3. Teaching kids reunites theology and creativity.

Teaching kids challenges us to present truth creatively. As the source of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3), Jesus could have taught exclusively with straightforward, literal truth statements. But he didn’t. He often used stories and metaphors, masterfully translating the gospel into everyday life. His teaching models both biblical bluntness and also vibrant imagery—a balance we must emulate.

In a presentation at the 2018 Canvas Conference, Ross Lester shared how theology begets creativity:

So much of what we see as theological precision lacks beauty, texture, nuance, and tension. . . . Beauty and clarity are not mutually exclusive. If we describe God as clearly as we can, beauty and creativity should be the soon and sure response to that.

In recent months I’ve watched teachers use all sorts of creative methods—a road sign, megaphone, plastic unicorn, hand motions, projector slides, and funny voices. Creative methods like this help adults move theology from the shelf of the intellect to the center of the heart (Luke 24:32). 

4. Teaching kids humbles us.

If you’re looking for a quick ego-boost, teaching kids isn’t for you.

Their body language tells the hard truth about how engaging we are (or aren’t). Kids don’t walk away from a message telling all their friends about how articulate and informed we are, nor do they tweet sermon highlights that puff us up. The fruit of our teaching often takes years to manifest in a child’s life, and most of it we will never see firsthand. 

It’s enlightening that when Jesus’s disciples jockeyed for status, he rebuked them by pointing to the humility of a child (Matt. 18:1–5; Mark 9:33–37). In a unique way, teaching kids topples our self-centered kingdoms, reminding us to yield to God’s. It’s a wakeup call that teaching is about his glory, not our own. 

5. Teaching kids produces joy.

Kids remind us that joy and gravitas are not antonyms in the kingdom, though adults sometimes think so. 

Reflecting on his former role as president of Dallas Theological Seminary, Chuck Swindoll said: “I opened the windows and let a little grace air flow through. I introduced [the students] to something that had been missing, which was laughter and the joy of ministry.” 

That’s a great way to describe how teaching children affects our hearts. It restores in us what adulthood often erodes—tenderness, laughter, innocence, uninhibitedness, joy.

Kids remind us that joy isn’t a naïve pipe dream, but a reality in God’s kingdom (Matt. 13:44). They point us to Christ, whose gospel is weighty (1 John 5:12) but whose burden is light (Matt. 11:28–30).