A Fun Idea to Share the Gospel with Children

(elementary age)

I’m always on the lookout for ways to share the story of God’s love with my kids that doesn’t end up being too complicated. Today, an idea came to me inspired by a favorite sermon my pastor preached one Sunday.

I wish I could regurgitate everything he said that day because it was just THAT GOOD, but in short, my pastor used the analogy of speeding and getting a ticket (representing sin and breaking the law), going to court (judgment), and the judge (God) paying the ticket even though he didn’t do anything wrong because he wanted relationship, and how the speeder couldn’t pay the fine. Jesus paid it all!

For my version of sharing this analogy, I had the kids act out a thief stealing something as well as a “super speeder” getting pulled over. Both get “arrested” and go to “court”. The judge had an innocent person serve the thief’s sentence and pay the speeder’s fine.

A simple way to do this with just 2 children is to let one child be the thief. Instruct them to go “steal” something from around the house. Have the other child be a police officer who arrests them and brings them to “court”. You can be the judge. Tell them that the sentence will be for 150 years or some other large unattainable number and watch their reaction. Then, explain that you as the judge have decided that YOU (or a stuffed animal) will be going to jail for the thief instead. Point out the fact that even if they attempted to serve their sentence, it wouldn’t be able to be served in full because none of us will live 150 years.

This gives you opportunity to explain the parallel of how God loves us and sent His Son to die in our place for all the wrong we do. Explain how our wrongs are forgiven through Jesus if we accept His forgiveness and believe He rose from the dead. Likely, your “police officer” will look as surprised as your “thief” does. 

If your police officer playfully gets offended that the thief doesn’t have to serve their own sentence, you could also explain a bonus point that God’s forgiveness of our sin is not based off of other peoples’ opinions of whether or not we deserve it because God is the ultimate judge. 😊

If you like the idea, add or subtract characters to fit your scene and use items around your house to make it more creative. At my house, some of the other neighborhood kids were playing in the back yard, so I was able to use plenty of characters!

I started by calling all of the kids over to my patio and told them I wanted to show them something. I asked for 2 volunteers to be thieves and sent them to go find something in my yard to “steal” and bring back to the porch.
I instructed 2 kids to be “saints” meaning they did nothing wrong and gave them a little knitted cross and a heart decoration to hold. 

1 volunteer was told be a super speeder and to run around- they got a handwritten “speeding ticket”. 

It just so happened that my 3 year old son has a police costume jacket that he put on to be the policeman. I was the judge.

The thieves brought nerf guns as their stolen items. I had the little policeman go “arrest” them. Then the little policeman chased the super speeder down handed the them a “speeding ticket” that I wrote on a piece of paper and escorted them back to the porch to stand next to the thieves.

Once they were all lined up on the patio, I told them we were now in court, and I being the judge, was going to give them their sentence!

I turned to the police officer and asked him what he thought they should have to do to pay for their crimes. He said that the thieves should go to jail for 50 years and the super speeder should pay thousands of dollars.

I turned to the “law breakers” and said, “I know you all did bad things and there will be a price to pay for what you did. So as the judge, I am going to have the SAINTS, who have done absolutely nothing wrong, go to jail for you and pay your debt, and you get to go and enjoy being free with me!”

They all burst into laughter.

I asked them if anyone could tell me what they thought I was referencing from the Bible by getting them to act this out. They didn’t guess it, but I was able to tell them that this is what Jesus did for us- He paid our consequence so we get to enjoy freedom in relationship with God!

I would love it if you shared some of your own ideas for discipling your family with me!

Love,

Payton