Share their Faith

Welcome to the next step along your Child’s Faith Path!

Teach your child how to Share Their Faith.

 It is wonderful how eager children are to tell you about their lives. They love to share the things that are important and matter most to them. This raises the questions:
How do you encourage children to include their faith in the list of important things they're sharing? And what can you do to help them share their faith with their friends?

Here are a few ways to encourage your child to share their faith with others:

1. Engage their heart with the gospel. Motivation to share Jesus with others will never come from simply being told we should do it. This is true for adults too. We all know we should be sharing Jesus with those around us. This is, after all, the very task Jesus left for his disciples.

"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'" Matt 28:18-20

The more we engage our child with the joy of the gospel, the more they will be prepared to share their faith with those around them. We need to engage their heart with the joy of Jesus, show them who Jesus is, and why we need Him. This is the kind of faith that can't help but be shared.

2.  Teach them how. Once we engage the heart of our child with the gospel, we need to teach them what it looks like to share their faith with others. This can include anything from telling a friend what they learned at church, to inviting someone to come along with them to Awana.

For children and adults alike, sharing your faith happens in lots of different ways. It's your job to:

• Help our child work out what it might look like for them at school, at weekend sports, at after school care, or in any other situation they might face.

• Ask your child who they know that they can share their faith with.

• Talk about the different conversations they can have about their faith. A simple model for kids to remember how to share their faith is to follow the ABC's.
Download the ABC's to Knowing God Personally.pdf
• Pray with them and for them as they do so.

3. Show them how. Children are more likely to share their faith with others if they regularly see others do it too. For parents, this means sharing your faith with others in front of your child. Letting them see and hear you talk with your friends about your faith will give them a model that they can copy with their own friends. Think about the opportunities you have to show your child how they can share their faith. Tell them stories about when you have shared your faith with others. Invite them to come with you to welcome a visitor at church. Encourage them to sit with a visiting child in Sunday School and help them look up Bible passages or answer questions.

remember

Talk about the possibility of rejection. Be sure to prepare your child for the possibility of a negative response when they share their faith. We do our child a disservice when we make it all sound easy and positive. Even when sharing with a friend, your child could experience a reaction different from what they hope for. Your child will need to know how to respond to them in a positive way, not take it personally, understand that maybe this is just not God's timing, and that they have planted an important "seed of hope" with that child. You don't want your child to be unprepared and receive a negative response, and possibly discourage them from trying in the future.
Encourage your child to record names they've shared the gospel with on their My Spiritual Development Tree so they'll remember them and keep praying for them.

going further resources

ABC's to Knowing God Personally

Your Child’s Next Step

As children get older, they become ready for additional steps along the Faith Path.

Thank you for becoming intentional about guiding your child’s faith journey!