Children's Ministry Seminar EPISODE 012: WHY TEACHING CHILDREN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IS ESSENTIAL by Steve Karges Original Release: April 20, 2022 Christian Doctrine is essential for you to know and teach to the boys and girls in your children's ministry. Unfortunately, the word "doctrine" is often viewed negatively in the church and misunderstood by many Christians. The word doctrine, translated from Greek, means teaching that comes from an authoritative source. So when I speak of Christian Doctrine, I am referring to the teaching and instruction in the Bible, which comes from God, who has all Authority and is the Source of Truth (John 17:17). There are many doctrines, but Christian Doctrine only comes to us from the Bible, not from people or other religious books. As children's ministry leaders, it is vital for us to know Christian Doctrine so we can teach it to the children we minister to. We must be careful what we teach to kids. That is why we only teach from God's Word and not from other sources (I Timothy 4:16). There may be times when you are tempted to replace what God says with man-made doctrine or tradition, but RESIST DOING THAT! Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for "teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7, ESV). In the Bible, doctrine is broken down into spiritually related fields of study. We see an example of this in 2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) which says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Christian Doctrine is important because our faith is based on a specific message, which is Christ died for our sins, and He was raised to life on the third day according to the Scripture (I Corinthians 15:3-4). If the message is changed, then the basis of our faith will shift away from Christ to something else (Hebrews 13:8-9). Therefore, the Holy Spirit uses sound doctrine based upon Scripture to lead us to the truth (John 16:13-15). In children's ministry, we must move beyond shallow teaching and take kids deep into the Bible, so they can see for themselves what God says. I want to show you how to systematically teach Christian Doctrine to boys and girls by focusing on one specific doctrine essential to the Christian faith, THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. The Doctrine of Christ helps us to understand who Jesus is and what He has done,  as documented in the Old and New Testaments. The Doctrine of Christ is the Biblical truth we believe about Jesus. Please note that the Doctrine of Christ is not a single lesson that we teach occasionally. Instead, this doctrine infiltrates all of our teaching, and we come back to it repeatedly. From the time a child is born until they graduate from elementary school, we want to walk them through the Scripture to reveal what it says about Christ. So there are times when we give an overview of the Doctrine of Christ, and there are times when we dig deeper into specific aspects of who Jesus is and what He has done. For example, the Scripture says that Jesus Christ is God. He is the second person of the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Because He is God, Christ the Son has all the Divine Characteristics and Attributes of God the Father. So begin by taking children through a study of Christ in Eternity Past.    Then encourage the kids in your children's ministry to keep their Bibles open and walk them through the Appearances and Activities of Jesus in the Old Testament. Follow that with the Prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament, before looking into the New Testament to see where those Prophecies came true. While they’re in the New Testament, show your kids how Christ became a man through His miraculous birth and lived on earth. Explain to the children how Jesus had two natures. He was fully God and fully man at the same time. Then dive deep into Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to show them the eyewitness a