Missions Minded

By Brianna Frook

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘…Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…’” The Great Commission. Jesus’ final command was to go tell people about the Lord Jesus and how to follow Him. Do the children you teach in Sunday school know how important that is? Do you?

In 2017, the Barna Group did research on how many churchgoers have heard the phrase “The Great Commission.” These numbers may shock you. 51% of churchgoers said they had not heard that phrase and only 17% knew what it was and what it meant. When Barna presented the churchgoers with five different Scripture passages and asked them to identify the Great Commission, only 37% were successful. If the majority of churchgoers do not know the Great Commission, how will the children?

If the majority of churchgoers do not know the Great Commission, how will the children?

What can you do to help the children you teach in Sunday school to be missions minded and have a passion for Jesus’ final command? Well, you could include mission’s time in your class. There are so many missionary stories you could tell the children to get them aware of how God has used people to spread the Gospel. People like Amy Charmichael (missionary to India), Nate Saint (Ecuador), Mary Slessor (modern day Nigeria), and Hudson Taylor (China) have amazing stories the kids will love. And these are only a few of the many people you could tell the children about.

You could also talk about a missionary who is alive today that your church supports. Ask the missionary to give you some details about what they do in the area they are serving. Ask them for prayer requests and involve the kids in praying for them. The kids could write letters to encourage the missionary. The cherry on top would be if the kids could meet the missionary if they ever came to visit the church. If the missionary isn’t able to come to the church, try coordinating a video chat or even have the missionary send a video of them telling the kids about themselves.

There are so many missionary stories you could tell the children to get them aware of how God has used people to spread the Gospel.

Encourage the saved children you teach to be a missionary themselves. They don’t have to go to another country to that. Encourage them to think of people in the neighborhood, school, and family that do not know Jesus as their Savior. Some kids may be nervous to talk to people about Jesus. You can help calm some of those nerves by taking time to go through the key points of the Gospel. Tell them simple truths they can share about God, sin, and Jesus. You could look into buying some evangelism tools that kids could use to share the Gospel.

The kids need to know how important it is to share the Gospel. Take time to teach them the importance and how they themselves can be a missionary.

Check out cefpress.com for the missionary stories mentioned above as well as evangelism tools children can use when sharing the Gospel.