**Originally in 2010 I completed an epic quest to write an A-Z of Children’s ministry, Now because of the epic fail detailed on an earlier blog post I am reposting an updated 2018 version!

B… bread, bridge, bands, beginning, Barnabas, Beyonce…

B is for Bible 

The potential for an image to convey emotion is very powerful. If I wrote on a wall – “The boy is sad”, any number of images could spring to mind but you probably won’t be overtly moved. If I instead place an image of a African child in despair over the famine he is experiencing… that ‘sad boy’ is far more powerful emotionally. It conveys SO much more meaning.

We need to be aware that it just might be the case that this current generation value images more than the written word, abstract more than the concrete. That’s scary for us logical, linear ‘oldies’ who grew up with ‘books’… but here is the awesome part… Jesus had it all covered way back in the first Century, he taught in pictures, in images, in metaphor. He took the prevalent culture and used it to bring understanding.

In a Image Based culture one of our highest callings is to develop children who love learning, not just kids who are learned. The way WE treat the Bible can have a big impact on that outcome.
The Bible is not a book! That’s JUST the way we have been reading the word of God for a few hundred years. In fact a Bible is useless unless the words have left the book and made their way into the hearts and minds of people. I am not bothered how my son chooses to interact with the BIble… in digital or paper versions it doesn’t really matter, my concern is that he chooses to.