[1]I love hearing my babies chatter through the monitor after putting them down for a nap. One afternoon, shortly after sitting down with a second cup of coffee for a moment of rest, I heard my 2-year-old’s voice crackling through the speaker. At first, it sounded the familiar chatter – half recognizable words, half made-up gibberish. But as I listened, I realized she wasn’t babbling. She was reciting – repeating the questions and answers from a catechism playlist I’d been playing in the car. Somewhere between a morning trip to the park and nap time, my not-yet-3-year-old had begun memorizing theology.
As a born-and-raised Baptist, catechism questions were not part of my childhood discipleship. So, when my child’s favorite song of our car-time playlist became “Catechism Interlude 1,” I was taken aback – especially when considering adult theology.
The latest State of Theology report from Lifeway Research and Ligonier Ministries shows that while many Americans affirm basic Christian ideas – belief in God, the Trinity, and God’s goodness – the details often don’t hold together. Many say God is three persons while also describing the Holy Spirit as a force, or call Jesus a great teacher without affirming that He is fully God. The language of Christian belief is familiar, but the framework holding it together is often weak.
While the church must clarify and affirm orthodox Christian belief, what if the most important answer doesn’t begin with correcting grown-ups, but theologically training children? You may even say that we need to un-childproof theology.
Solid theology doesn’t happen by accident
Clear, durable theology doesn’t happen by accident. Of course, it is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit often uses faithful, ordinary means to form a lifelong faith. Early in biblical history, God calls His people to pass down the truths of the faith to the next generation.
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children.” – Deuteronomy 6:4-6 CSB
Children learn who God is by hearing about Him repeatedly.
[2]While parents do not save children, we are called to repeat gospel truths. We get the joy of repeating foundational knowledge of who God is, and prayerfully, watching love for God that grows out of knowing Him. Through conversations, Scripture reading, prayer and even car-ride catechisms, we get to join in the Spirit’s work in our children, being used in the story of their faith.
Over time, discipleship moments add up. Words about God grow familiar. Categories start to form. Children recognize who God is, what He has done and why knowing Him matters. Solid theology rarely arrives all at once. More often, it grows slowly through repeated exposure to truth and roots itself when a child’s natural curiosity takes hold.
Kids ask theological questions
Children are always asking big questions: Who made everything? If God always sees me, why can’t I see Him? Why does Jesus let storms happen?
They may not use language that we deem theological, but their questions are just that – helping them form an understanding of God. In fact, Jesus Himself told us that there is something about the posture of children that is worth paying attention to.
“People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’” – Mark 10:13-14
Jesus celebrates the kind of openness and trust that children exhibit. It’s a trust that adults are often too jaded from years of cultural wearing down. Children approach big questions with curiosity instead of suspicion. They are eager to learn, quick to memorize, and unlike us, willing to accept truths that adults feel the need to overcomplicate. They are ripe for theological learning. Willing to hear. The soil is soft and tilled.
Rehearse truth early and often
Don’t do what I did and ask how you can entertain children into faith. We can free ourselves of the crushing pressure to use our own methods to make tiny Christians. Rather, we give them the truths from the Bible. We memorize Scripture, repeat catechism questions, sing worship music, open real Bibles together and tell them that we trust them with theology.
We must stop subconsciously communicating that they aren’t capable of real faith. How then are we any better than the disciples with whom Jesus was indignant? In fact, I might contend that when we don’t teach theology to our children, it is more about our own lack of faith than theirs. If I don’t understand the Trinity, how can my 4-year-old? How will I answer his questions?
At some point, every child will reach a developmental stage where they have harder questions about God. “Why does Jesus let storms happen?” will turn into “Why does God allow evil?”And at that moment, more than ever before, the church and the parent need to be a place where those kids feel safe bringing their questions. Rehearsing truth early and often prepares children to preach those truths to themselves later when doubt creeps in.
By giving our children clear language about who God is and what He has done, we partner with the Holy Spirit to lay a foundation strong enough to carry them through the questions, doubts and challenges that will inevitably come. After she fell in love with catechism questions, we leaned into that method (I even wrote a series of catechism board books called Toddler Theology). We pray that knowledge gives her faith a framework many adults never received.
May the words we repeat to our children today become the truths they hold fast to tomorrow.
Lauren Groves is the author of “Toddler Theology” board book series [3] and serves as the kids acquisitions editor at B&H Publishing Group, an imprint of Lifeway Christian Resources. She is also a writer, wife, mom of three and kids’ ministry coordinator at her local church in Nashville, Tenn.
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