I Wonder: Engaging a Child's Curiosity about the Bible

By Elizabeth Caldwell

How can anyone completely answer the difficult questions that children ask: Who created God? Will there be another flood? Is the Bible true? But then, we adults have questions too: With so many options and Bible translations, where can I go for help? What is the best Bible for my child? How do we talk about miracle stories, healing stories, and the creation stories? What about violence? When kids ask about the relevancy of the Bible for today, what do we say?

How we read and interpret the Bible with children may mean the difference between whether or not it will continue to be an important source for their faith development as they become young adults.

Written by an expert in children’s ministry, I Wonder is a resource for adults who want to explore ways to help children read, engage, wrestle, and grow into deeper understanding of the Bible. It is for those who come to the Bible with souls open to be fed and who want their children to seek faith and wisdom. It will also help readers address timeless questions and issues including recent biblical scholarship, literary analysis, reading the Bible from their social location and reading the Bible in a multi-faith world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781426799938

Elizabeth Caldwell

Elizabeth Caldwell teaches as Adjunct Faculty in Religious Education at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, TN. She recently retired as Harold Blake Walker Professor of Pastoral Theology and Associate Dean of Students and Academics at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. She is ordained as Minister of Word and Sacrament by the Presbytery of Chicago. She was also the Common English Bible Readability Editor and wrote the “Life Preserver Notes” in the Deep Blue Kids Bible.

Book preview

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Half-title

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Title Page

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Copyright Page

I Wonder:

engaging a child’s curiosity about the bible

Copyright © 2016 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Permissions, Abingdon Press, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., PO Box 280988, Nashville, TN 37228-0988, or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress .com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Caldwell, Elizabeth, 1948- author.

Title: I wonder : engaging a child’s curiosity about the Bible / Elizabeth F. Caldwell.

Description: First [edition]. | Nashville, Tennessee : Abingdon Press, 2016.

| Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015040330 (print) | LCCN 2015042782 (ebook) | ISBN 9781426799921 (binding: pbk.) | ISBN 9781426799938 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Christian education of children. | Bible--Study and teaching.

Classification: LCC BV1475.3 .C34 2016 (print) | LCC BV1475.3 (ebook) | DDC

248.8/45--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040330

Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by the Common English Bible. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.CommonEnglishBible .com.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture marked NRSV are from New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents

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Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One

What Story Does the Bible Tell?

Chapter Two

How Can We Use Children’s Natural Curiosity to Help Them Read the Bible?

Chapter Three

What Bibles and Bible Storybooks Do We Read with Children?

Chapter Four

Stories That Form Us for a Life of Faith

Chapter Five

How We Support Families with Children

Appendix 1

A Wondering Model of Questions

Appendix 2

Evaluating Children’s Bible Storybooks

Appendix 3

Bible Storybooks for Children—A Recommended List

Acknowledgments

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Some Thank-Yous and Dayenu

I’m grateful to the groups that invited me to teach them, presenting material that I was working on for this book. Thanks to the folks I engaged with here in the Nashville area at Hillsboro Presbyterian Church; First Presbyterian, Franklin; and the Middle Tennessee Presbytery educational gathering. Thanks also to the adults I met with at The Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute in Kansas City, the Eastern Region of Educators of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators, and those who participated in The Main Event of Sheppards and Lapsley Presbytery in Birmingham, Alabama.

Thanks to the students at McCormick Theological Seminary and Vanderbilt Divinity School, whose creativity, imagination, and commitments to reading the Bible with children so they get don’t have to unlearn things later in life has inspired me to write this book.

Dayenu is sung at the Jewish celebration of Passover. It means it would have been enough. Thanks to my friend and Old Testament colleague at McCormick Theological Seminary, Ted Hiebert. It would have been enough if you had translated Genesis 11:1-9 in ways that help us see how all the difference in the world as a part of God’s plan for us to live together. But you also agreed that we should teach a course together, Reading the Bible with Children, so theological students preparing to be pastors and church leaders could model good biblical scholarship with children. Dayenu!

And thanks to my dear friend and colleague Sarah Tanzer. It would have been enough if you had only put up with my questions about Jewish traditions, and you even bought Protestant bagels for me (blueberry), but in teaching with you I learned how to read the New Testament in ways that don’t include negative stereotypes of Jews, how to read the New Testament without prejudice, to hear how the text would have been heard by its original Jewish and Gentile audience. Dayenu!

Jack Seymour and Margaret Ann Crain are both friends and colleagues in the field of religious education. Margaret Ann reminds me that to write well I need to take breaks to work on one quilt square each day. Jack has supported my writing and research since he joined my doctoral committee over twenty-five years ago. I am grateful for his helpful and careful reading and editing of this book. It would have been enough if the two of you had only been good colleagues, but over shared meals in many places in Chicago you also listened, encouraged, and supported me. Dayenu!

My sister, Cathy Caldwell Hoop, has always supported my writing with wonderful stories of children. Now she is a pastor serving God’s people in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with her prophetic gifts of compassion, courage, and love. I have learned much about how to engage children’s curiosities about Bible stories as I have watched her teach and preach with all God’s children of every age. It would have been enough if you had just been my sister but you have also been my patient teacher. Dayenu!

And finally, to my husband, Harold Jackson, it would have been enough if you had listened to this book in all of its stages of research and writing, but you also surrounded me with the creative loving space that made this work possible. For your presence in my life and your abounding love I am always grateful. You are the wind beneath my wings. Dayenu!

Introduction

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I wonder as I wander out under the sky How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die.

John Jacob Niles, a folksinger, first heard these words sung by a traveling evangelist, Annie Morgan, in 1933, in North Carolina.¹ He memorized them and sang them as a new hymn for Christmas. The words of the hymn capture the story of the birth of Jesus but begin with the end of the story, which is a very interesting way to tell it. Also interesting is how it is told with a wondering question.

Children participate in church educational programs and learn many Bible stories. They possess a lot of factual knowledge about Moses and Miriam, Abraham and Sarah, David, the stories of Jesus and the people he met, and the beginnings of the church, which are told in Acts and the Epistles. Such learning is an important building block in their spiritual formation.

The chance to wonder about the Bible as they wander through their life is essential for a child’s spiritual formation, for developing a language of faith.

Like us, and like John Jacob Niles, children have very important questions about the biblical texts, about the variety of faith expressions they experience in congregations, and about the comments other children make to them as well as the ones they overhear from us. Equally important is the chance for them to ask their own questions about biblical texts, to wonder about the story, to reflect on how they understand and interpret it and the meaning it has for their life. This chance for children to engage the Bible with all their curiosity and questions as they wander through their life is essential for their spiritual formation, for their developing a language of faith. It is incomplete if it only happens in the church. As good as such ministries are, they are insufficient unless supported by parents and families at home.

Contemporary Challenges

As I write this book, the Pew Research Center has released its most recent report on the religious landscape in the United States. Their latest survey of more than 35,000 Americans shows that adults over the age of eighteen who identify themselves as Christians has dropped 8 percent in seven years, while those who identify themselves as unaffiliated religiously (atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular) has increased by 6 percent.

A major factor in this decline is those who identify themselves as Christian and the growth of the nones. The millennial generation (ages eighteen to twenty-four) has less connection with church. Fully 36% of young Millennials (those between the ages of 18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated, as are 34% of older Millennials (ages 25-33). And fewer than six-in-ten Millennials identify with any branch of Christianity, compared with seven-in-ten or more among older generations, including Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers.²

As smaller churches close and as an older generation dies, many churches across denominations are not seeing growth in membership from the Millenials. The Pew survey reveals that 68 percent say they believe in God, while 37 percent describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, and 21 percent say that prayer is a part of their daily life. They do think that congregations are important in the culture because of the commitments to strengthening bonds with the community and in mission and service with the poor. "With few exceptions, though, the unaffiliated say they are not looking for a religion that would be right for them. Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics."³

Another statistic to add to this conversation comes from Mark Chaves whose research has documented the decline in belief by Christians in the literal truth of the Bible. As a sociologist of religion, Chaves has also seen how, along with the decline in belief in biblical inerrancy, there is evidence of growth in Christians’ appreciation of religious traditions different from their own. Even in the midst of high levels of religious belief and practice in American society, there is declining confidence in the special status of one’s own religion. No longer seeing the Bible as inerrant is part of a more general shift, even among practicing Christians, away from seeing Christianity as uniquely true.⁴

The Barna Group has published their own findings about the Bible. In 2014 their research indicated six trends for 2014:

1. Skepticism about the Bible has grown and equals the numbers of those who read the Bible at least four times a week.

2. Most Americans do continue to be pro-Bible, viewing it and its teachings positively. Eighty-seven percent report owning a Bible, and there are at least four Bibles in these households. The most interesting statistic is that 37 percent read the Bible at least once a week.

3. One of the things that keep people from reading the Bible is the busyness of life, which distracts from regular engagement.

4. Electronic versions of the Bible has made it possible for 26 percent to read it more, because of being able to download it on a phone or tablet.

5. People still read the Bible, seeking both answers and comfort.

6. There is less connection in people’s beliefs that moral decline in the culture is linked to a lack of reading the Bible.⁵

The implications of this current research for our thinking about how we read the Bible with children are staggering. Pastors, religious educators, and lay leaders have noticed the changing demographics in declining Sabbath practices of worship and church school participation. Sporadic participation once or twice a month is more the norm than consistent weekly attendance. Church leaders also know the realities of the questions that members bring to the Bible as they seek to understand these ancient texts in light of contemporary cultural challenges. Pastors also hear confessions from individuals about the infrequency of their engagement with the Bible and how they want to get into a regular practice of reading the Bible. And, we watch as parents’ worldviews about faith and religion shift when they attend interfaith weddings, or watch as their adult children convert to another faith tradition or become religiously ambiguous or a none (unaffiliated with any religious organization—none of the above).

What church leaders have been noticing for the last ten years is now being documented by researchers of religion. We are not surprised! We know that when we preach, the introduction to where we are in the text and background about the setting and the character is essential information to share, because without it, many will be unaware. Reminding people of connections between stories in the Gospels is important because many haven’t read those stories in a very long time. If children are present in worship and hearing the text read, they may know more than their parents.

The children in our spiritual care need a way to engage the Bible that will grow with them. They need to have a spiritual foundation with the Bible that is grounded at home as well as in the church.

The reality of all this research is important, because the children in our spiritual care need a way to engage the Bible that will grow with them. They need to have a biblical tool kit that will help them as they bring their questions, the things they wonder about, to the Bible. They need to have a spiritual foundation with the Bible that is grounded at home as well as in the church.

Focus of This Book

This book will address timeless questions such as: how to read and under-stand the Bible, how to select a Bible, how to understand difficult texts, and how to read ancient texts and interpret their meaning in a contemporary context. Helping children and youth learn new ways of reading and interpreting biblical texts will hopefully help them experience the Bible as both accessible and relevant to their lives of faith.

Chapter 1 asks the question, What story does the Bible tell? It invites those who want to read the Bible with children to consider why and how we do that. Chapter 2 addresses the topic of how children engage the Bible. Readers are invited to consider a wondering model of reading that supports children’s spiritual formation. Chapter 3 considers criteria to use in selecting Bibles or Bible storybooks for children and youth. It also provides examples of positive and negative ways to tell and illustrate Bible stories for children.

Persons of every age wrestle with difficult texts in the Bible. Some parents would prefer their children not read about the rape of Dinah in Genesis 34. And we probably all wrestle with the story of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22. And who doesn’t read the book of Jonah and wonder what this story is really about? And we come to the New Testament and read how Jesus welcomes all, especially women, children, and those who seek