Grades 6-8

Help Them Take Responsibility

PARENT EMPHASIS

• Talk about more mature struggles
• Teach biblical manhood and womanhood
• Encourage children to make the Chrstian faith their own

Junior high marks a major transition toward maturity.

Youth are capable of more than people tend to think. They need you to call them higher by helping them to take ownership for their relationships, their spiritual walk, and their responsibilities as they aim toward becoming godly men and women.

At this stage, your child is being asked to think with greater maturity about the world we live in. Grounding their view of sex, gender, technology, and other pressing topics in God’s Word will prepare them to think biblically moving forward.

• Emphasize the inerrancy, authority, clarity, sufficiency, and necessity of Scripture.
• Train and equip them to more fully utilize inductive Bible study skills.
• Give a balanced approach to studying the Bible grounded on these theological disciplines: Bible survey, biblical theology, systematic theology, moral instruction, and gospel.
• Press in on the need to rightly respond to Scripture with the mind, heart, and will.
• Encourage the use of age-appropriate Bible studies for their personal use, including those that study one book of the Bible at a time.
• Expand upon teaching the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

Find more age-specific Bible training in From Childhood You Have Known--Guiding Children to Understand and Treasure the Bible.

FAMILY DEVOTIONALS

• Glorious God, Glorious Gospel 15-chapter family devotional grounds children in the essential, foundational, and glorious truths of the gospel.
• Established in the Faith booklet guides parents and others in the church to help young people ages 11 and older who profess faith in Christ to examine themselves to discern if they are “in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
• The Fighter Verses Bible memory collection with 260 essential passages to arm believers to fight for faith and love, and against unbelief and sin. 
• Putting Away Falsehood Help children approach deceit from a biblical perspective of heart transformation through “the renewing of the mind” and the power of Christ at work in the heart. (7 lessons).
• Putting Away Fear Eight lessons teach about the Holy Spirit’s power to turn a child’s heart away from self-interest and self-reliance to confident faith in the almighty, unchanging, wise, and loving God.
• More Than a Story A new kind of Bible resource for children that takes them on a chronological journey through the Bible teaching biblical truths, explaining the historical narrative of the Bible, presenting an overview, highlighting biblical texts, and exploring the practical application of the Word in daily life. 

MORE DISCIPLESHIP RESOURCES

• The Inductive Bible Study Handbook by Jill Nelson
• Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp
• Thoughts for Young Men by J.C. Ryle
• 10 Marks of Manhood by Albert Mohler
• Raising a Modern-Day Knight by Robert Lewis
• Keeping Your Kids on God's Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith by Natasha Crain
• Strange New World by Carl Trueman

THE GOSPEL AND SALVATION

Your Role: pruner—shaping, encouraging the growing plant

This stage follows true conversion and is a period of growth in faith. The job of the sower does not end at this stage, but the sower’s role changes in character and focus. Young faith must be carefully taught the Word, see an authentic model of the life of faith, and be sustained by prayer. The sower then becomes a pruner as God shapes and brings
faith into maturity.

The Fruit—Salvation and Evidences of Saving Faith
Conversion requires an understanding of the facts of the gospel, a turning away from unbelief and rebellion, and a turning to the Lord Jesus Christ in trust, surrender, and submission. Thus the key elements involved in embracing the gospel are repentance and faith, usually the result of a process and not an event. 

This section was excerpted from Helping Children to Understand the Gospel, a booklet for parents about teaching the gospel to their children, that also includes a 10-lesson devotional to help present the gospel to children.