Kids Bible Reading: A Slam Dunk for Parents and Kids Leaders

I am honored to lead the Resources Division at LifeWay and serve with a team of leaders who are passionate to serve the Church in her mission of making disciples. Each Wednesday, I share the heart behind one of the resources our team has developed and give an opportunity for you to register to win a free copy of the resource. This week’s resource is Foundations for Kids by Robby Gallaty. Our Kids team helped write this post.

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In his 2004 book “Basketball on Paper: Rules and Tools for Performance Analysis,” statistician and basketball aficionado, Dean Oliver, sought to use statistical analysis of NBA teams to determine what actions are most important in winning a game. His research identified four key areas that he ranked in importance with numerical values (in parentheses). He determined that teams who did these things well won games more consistently.

• Shoot a high field goal percentage (10).
• Do not commit turnovers (5-6).
• Get offensive rebounds (4-5).
• Get to the foul line frequently (2-3).

Want to know where to focus your team’s energy to win more often? Here’s your to-do list. Per his research, making a higher percentage of shots taken is far and away the biggest indicator of a winning team. Any coach with access to this knowledge would be foolish to not plan and practice with this top indicator in mind.

In my recent blog Research Reveals the 5 Biggest Influencers on Your Child’s Spiritual Health I shared the findings of a new LifeWay Research project as reported in Jana Magruder’s book Nothing Less: Engaging Kids in a Lifetime of Faith. The research showed that the number one childhood indicator of spiritually healthy adults—by far—is regular Bible reading. While the stat isn’t surprising, it is profound, and like Dean Oliver’s analysis, we would be foolish to ignore it.

As parents, pastors, and kids ministry leaders it is absolutely essential that we invest in helping our children establish a healthy habit of Bible reading while they are still young. Here are three ways you can set your children, and the kids in your church, up for success.

1. Make sure they have an age appropriate Bible of their own.

Having a Bible that they love will encourage kids to read what’s inside. There are many Bibles available for kids of various ages with different cover designs, illustration styles, and devotional helps. Pastors and Kids Leaders: Consider giving Bibles to kids as gifts from your church. Parents: If your child does not have an age-appropriate Bible of their own, plan a trip to a LifeWay Store near you to browse the shelves and pick out a special Bible. In either case, be sure to write their name and the date inside the cover to commemorate the occasion.

2. Read with/to them.

It is important for adults to model reading the Bible. Teachers: Make a point to open your Bible when you teach and acknowledge kids who bring their Bibles to church. Give kids the opportunity to read from their own Bibles in Sunday School. Parents: Whether you read with your kids at bedtime or on the front porch on a Saturday afternoon, take time to read aloud to them from their Your participation in Bible reading will help reinforce the value of God’s Word, and will create warm memories of time together centered around the Bible.

3. Encourage kids to spend time alone in God’s Word.

Even kids who have the desire to read their Bibles don’t know where to begin. One of the best ways to help kids create a pattern of regular Bible reading is to provide them with a reading plan that’s designed specifically for kids. This will help them with their pace, patterns, and consistency. One of the best around is Foundations for Kids, by Robby Gallaty, and it is today’s giveaway. Foundations is a 260-day reading plan for children that takes kids through passages from Genesis to Revelation following the H.E.A.R. method. The acronym H.E.A.R. stands for Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond.

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Enter here, or in the form below, by 11:59pm tonight, Wednesday, November 1, 2017 for your chance to win 10 free copies of Foundations for Kids that you can distribute to kids and families in your church. The winner will be contacted via email in the next week.