Kids are inquisitive and curious. Their questions can be funny, annoying, challenging, or thought-provoking. Below are some questions that I have received working with kids and corresponding answers based on the Bible.
Answering Kids Questions based on the Gospel
Questions/Statements include:
Is Jesus a demi-god, like the character in my library book?
I want to learn how to talk to "spirits".
Why does God let bad things happen if he's supposed to be so powerful?
I don't want to go to Heaven because all my friends won't be there.
"Answers for Your Children's Christmas Questions" - by Scot Chadwick with Answers in Genesis. Questions include "who is Jesus?", "when was Jesus born?", "where was Jesus born?", and others. Answers based on Scripture; additional articles included for further study. Does archaeology confirm Scripture? See the results of one recent dig. Article by Troy Lacey with Answers in Genesis.
*Check out the book Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer with Todd Hillard to see statics on why young people are leaving the church and how believers can help bring them back. Scroll down to the "Contents" section to read each chapter.
Format
Coming Later -Description of how questions will be addressed when articles are written by NETworkers TEC
Variations of the Question: These are some variations of the main question. The same answer, for the most part, should apply to these variations as well as the main question.
A Question for a Question: Sometimes you need to ask more questions in order to pin point exactly what the child is asking. In this section you will find some extra questions that can help you verify exactly what the child is asking so that you can provide the most appropriate answer.
Behind the Curtain: This section gives some reasoning of why a child might ask this question. Sometime we think that their question is out in left field but, in reality, could be due to something we have said or that they have heard from others that they might be trying to piece together.
Short Answer: This is the simplistic version of the answer.
The Answer in Childrenese: This is the extended answer but given in a way that a child would understand, hence "children-ese". It is formatted so that a child could read the answer and understand it or so that you, the influencer, could read the response or teach it to them and they would be able to understand it.
Why Bother? This section gives some commentary on why it is important to answer the child's question. Sometimes it is easy to brush off a question because we don't see it as important or because we don't know the answer. But studies show that yesterday's children are leaving the church today because their parents and Sunday school teachers did not take their questions seriously.* If we don't know the answers, we should be willing to struggle along with our young person to search out the answer because God's truth does apply to all of life and today's children and youth need to see that.
Teach Me: If available, this section will provide some ideas or object lessons for teaching this answer to kids on a level they will understand.
