Teaching Kids with the Lord's Supper

At a meeting of Boone Church, the adults are usually outnumbered by the kids. To Dan and Tamara Law, Max and Heather Cook, Keith Cook, and Jordan Cook, one of the church’s most important responsibilities is successfully passing on their faith to those kids. Max lays out their vision: “The goal should be for the faith of each generation to go beyond the last. We are hoping that our kids at their current ages will go beyond where we were at those same ages.”

A key tool they use every week is the Lord’s Supper. Two of the four oldest children are picked each week to help the adult who is leading it. The first child helps out when it is time for the bread by explaining the bread’s significance to everyone. The second child does the same thing for the cup. During this time the younger kids often chime in with their two cents, while the adult provides context by asking questions and framing the time in with a passage. Max says when they first started doing this, the kids were timid and often unsure of the answers. By now, though, they are comfortable and remember the concepts well. “Our purpose for doing this is so our children grow up with a better understanding of the Lord’s Supper, a better understanding of the church, and so we can use it as a launching point for first principles when they are older.”

This summer Max and Heather’s oldest daughter Lydia was baptized. They attribute a large part of her readiness to this Sunday night exercise. Because Lydia frequently explains the meaning behind the bread and the cup, she understands and has confidence in Jesus and His works and understands the significance of the faith she is committing to. Her parents were confident in her readiness for baptism because they frequently heard her articulate those ideas. It also helped Max engage her in a First Principles study, using the understanding she already had as a starting point. Going forward, Boone Church hopes that involvement in the Lord’s Supper has the same significant effect on all their children and that they are able to see their long-term goal realized of raising a new generation even stronger than the one before.