THE CHILDREN’S WORK IN THE CHURCH IN ANAHEIM
“Proper care for the children also requires that the church have adequate children’s meetings at least once a week. This requires much labor but is worthwhile. If we take care of the saints’ children by laboring on them as a group through their six years in elementary school, by the time they reach twelve years of age, they will be clear about salvation and will be baptized. Through six years of care, we will gain a considerable number of young people as new believers. This is a profitable labor. If each family cares for their own children, the children have companions in the church life, and the church has adequate children’s meetings, most of our children will become remaining fruit and be useful to the Lord in His recovery” (CWWL, 1989, vol 1, p. 395).
“In order to do the children’s work well, we need to pay attention to these three aspects: the teaching material, the training of the teachers, and the leading of the elders; after brothers are designated to compile material, the leading of the elders and the training of the teachers should follow” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 314).
TEACHING MATERIAL
Since the publication of the book Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life in 2011, and through the speaking in the SCYP Children’s Work Conferences, we started to pay particular attention to the “teaching material.”
A. Compiling Teaching Material
“To compile material for the teachers, we need a number of brothers who know the truth and are also skilled in writing” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 312).
B. Three Levels
“We need only three levels—elementary, intermediate, and advanced. Each level can be used for two years” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 312-313).
C. 300 Stories
“Within the six years of elementary age, there are about three hundred Lord’s Days to build up the children in their human character. It is very helpful for us to do this” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 503). Based on this a framework for the 300 stories, 100 stories for each level were produced.
D. Avoiding the Way of Sunday Schools
“The material that we prepare for the children’s work should not be influenced by the material used in the Sunday schools in Christianity. Not only should we not use their material; we should not even reference it. We must drop the way of Sunday school in Christianity. We must never consult their material. Their material will not help us in the children’s work; on the contrary, it will cause our work to deviate” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 312). Through this ministry we should develop a strong awareness to not take the way of Sunday school and not to have the flavor of Christianity in our materials.
E. Concerning the Use of Bible Stories
“We should tell the children Bible stories. Use Bible stories to show them the proper standard of human life. But we have to beware of two things. First, there is the possibility of premature spiritual knowledge. Second, we can give away biblical truths too cheaply. Some teachers are too spiritual. They tell children teachings that are too high and too spiritual. For example, they may teach the children to pray, “Help us, Lord, to deal with our flesh. May Your cross work on us.” This gives the children premature spiritual knowledge. It will not help them. Other teachers treat spiritual things too lightly in an attempt to make the children understand. Their speaking does not do justice to the spiritual weight of their subject. This is also wrong. This gives away the truth too cheaply. We have to use the stories in the Bible to teach the children some lessons that they can apply in their daily life. We have to teach them to live a normal human life. Of course, we should not tell too many Bible stories. Otherwise, they will go home only with a bag of stories. Before children are old enough, we should never give them things that are too high or too spiritual for them” (CWWL, 1950–1951, vol. 1, p. 73).
F. Writing Stories Under His Light
“We need to learn to apply the light that we have seen from the Bible and the Life-study messages so that the light may increase within us. The more we apply the light, the more light we will receive. For instance, depending on the anointing, we may apply a Life-study message to the children, the young people, the middle-aged saints, or the elderly saints. If we apply the light that we have received from the Lord to these various groups under His anointing, we will have an increase in fresh light and utterance” (CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, pp. 37-38).
After much prayer and fellowship, closely following the Bible and the pure revelation we have received from the Life-study messages and ministry books, we began to write stories for the children. Our goal is to pass on the inheritance we have received in this ministry to preserve the integrity of the Lord’s Recovery while sowing life and making each story applicable to the children in every level.
G. Sample Story
“We should not prepare uniform printed lessons to be read in each class. Perhaps half a page of points, illustrations, and instructions is adequate. It should be easy to prepare lessons in this way” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 507).
“We need to train the teachers for the children’s meeting in such a way that they can find illustrations by themselves from practical situations” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 312).
Before presenting the story, every teacher is responsible for seeking the Lord, praying with the ones they are serving with and knowing the children they will be speaking to. Each story has a point to emphasize, a reference reading, a memory verse, and a story sample. After much fellowship, we realized we needed to include a “story sample” as a further help to the storyteller. A story sample is not a uniform story to be read to the children. Rather, it is intended to give the storytellers some guidelines regarding how to speak to the children, to give some hints concerning how to illustrate the story with a personal story of their own. We encourage the storytellers to read the story multiple times, to fellowship with the ones they are serving with, and to give much consideration to the children under their care to find the best way to present the story to them.
PREPARING THE PROPER LESSONS FOR EACH AGE LEVEL
(A Master Chart of Levels and Subjects with a complete summary of the levels below can be found at the end of this document.)
A. Preschool Topics (2-4 years old) — Preciousness of Our Humanity
Regarding the preschool age group, although it is not part of the three levels brother Lee suggested, he did mention, “When we speak of the children’s work, we are referring to children who have not graduated from elementary school but are more than five years old. These are the target of the children’s work. If we are unable to take care of the children who are younger than this age group, we will leave them to the care of their parents” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 311). However, we want to be able to take care of the preschool children and impress upon them the truth that God is their Creator and that He has created them with a precious humanity. This will give them a good foundation before they go to elementary school.
“We can tell them how to behave themselves as persons who are altogether different from the lower creatures” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 503).
Brother Lee told us to teach the children that they are different from plants and animals. We have taken this word and applied it to the preschool age for the children to discover the preciousness of their humanity. Preciousness means the quality of being beyond value. In the eyes of God, we are beyond value, more than any other living thing.
For this age group, we begin with the physical body which is “awesomely and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and then go on to explore some of the major traits of our humanity. In each instance we lead the children to discover the contrast between our humanity and plants or animals. This contrast is not the focus of our time with the children; but we use it to compare and highlight how we were created. We will not tell our preschoolers that they were made in the image and likeness of God. However, throughout these stories and lessons, they will discover that God made them very differently than the plants and the animals. Our humanity is precious because we were made to express and represent God!
B. Elementary level (Kinder/1st grade, 5-6 years old) — Inspiration / Aspiration
For the elementary level, we have selected the main persons in the Bible clearly revealed by the ministry as excellent persons that we use to inspire our children to be like them. We will present Adam, Enoch, Enosh, Moses, Samuel, Apostles, Jesus, Paul, among others. The children of this age are easily attracted to who people are. They want to be a princess, a fireman, or a doctor. They don’t see or really care or understand what it takes to be that person, they are just inspired and they want to be like them.
We present the story of the crucial persons in the Bible with the emphasis on their humanity so that our children would aspire to be like them. We inspire them to aspire to grow as proper persons. We want them to be inspired that they are a man that can be proper in their conduct. “You can be diligent. You can be kind. You can be obedient.” In the Bible, we can find the best and top level of morality. In these stories, we do not seek to impart a lot of Bible knowledge, only enough to introduce the person and to be able to have our children aspire to be such a person.
Elementary Level: We inspire them to aspire to obey their parents.
C. Intermediate level (2nd/3rd grade, 7-8 years old) — Encouragement
For the intermediate level, we went through the Bible and picked the main events in which we could present who God is, what is God’s intention and what God requires from us. These stories are not filled with doctrine, but with personal applications from the storyteller which the children can relate to and be encouraged to try to do what God says. Even though we use the events from the Bible, our focus is on how we can encourage the children to have the proper humanity.
We present the creation, the fall, the flood, Babel, time in Egypt, crossing the Red Sea, kingdom, recovery, spread and propagation, etc. We want to impress them with the facts in the Bible. By seeing HOW the persons in the Bible acted, what they did, how they did it they are amazed and encouraged. Our goal is not to give them more Bible knowledge. We don’t want to give them too much doctrine but to encourage them with the facts of the Bible. The children of this age always want to know what, why, and how things happened. They are open and want to know stories. The Bible is full of the perfect stories which leave them in awe and cause them to be encouraged to be this way.
If we are good storytellers, our children will be encouraged as they hear stories of Who God is, His ways, and His doings with man. As we go through the Bible with them in this way, we want to encourage the children that we need to follow and obey everything God has commanded us. We will encourage them to DO what God in the Bible is requesting of us. And even when it seems hard for them to do, or simply they don’t want to, we will encourage them to keep trying. We will also present to them what it takes to follow what God says and the need to do what He says, showing the children that God often accompanies His commandments with a reward or with discipline.
Intermediate Level: We will see with them what it takes to obey and encourage them to do it because this is what God requires from them.
D. Advanced level (4th/5th grade, 9-10 years old) — Conviction
The advanced level is a crucial age group that already know many Bible stories and may not consider themselves children anymore. It is during these years that they start having inward transactions and start making choices that would shape the person they will be. Stories written for this level use some of the outcomes, results, and consequences, from choices and events in the Bible with the revelation of the ministry. We want to help strengthen the work of their conscience with the goal of convicting them in their heart.
We present the results of the fall, the outcomes of slavery, idolatry, and division, among other topics. By the time our children are this age, they have the human capacity to see that if they make the wrong choices there will be consequences and results. Some of these consequences are long-term consequences and their results can affect the rest of our lives.
Children hear and perceive things very concretely. So, we try to be specific in some of the matters our children need to hear. We use the outcomes from the Bible along with conversations, not theoretical discussions but real discussions, and we bring in examples of real life situations that can stay with them and help them when they go through the same experiences.
We want our children to see that they have not been like the persons in the Bible we inspired them to be; that they have not behaved or done the things that they have seen the persons of the Bible do; and that when they have failed and have made mistakes, there are always consequences. We want to guide them to talk to God and to always go to their parents and older ones among them who can help them deal with their feelings and what to do in each situation. “The kind of character building we practice is absolutely different. We should build up the children in the way of realizing that they can do nothing in themselves because they are fallen and need a higher life” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 506). This level is critical in how they experience God’s full salvation.
Advance Level: We will help strengthen their conscience and convict them in their heart for them to realize that there are consequences for not obeying their parents. We guide them to talk to God, their parents and older ones among them about not being able to obey.
E. Sixth Grade (11-12 years old) — Truth and Experience of Salvation
This is a one-year cycle in which we present the truth and experience of salvation. We present the story of the universe and man’s fall. Then we present the Savior-God by seeing the provision of His death and resurrection. Later, we present to them the way of salvation and how to contact the Lord. After their salvation we help them to become functioning members in the church. All these lessons are presented with tangible examples appropriate to their age level.
TEACHING BY EXAMPLE
“The teachers of the children’s meetings have to be very careful with their behavior and attitude. Their attire should be neat and simple. They should not wear flashy clothing, hair styles, or makeup. Teachers sometimes set improper examples for children, and this damages the children for their entire life. Frivolous words and jokes and improper conduct and gestures should be avoided. The teaching material is not that important by comparison. Teaching by example is more important than teaching by word of mouth. The brothers and sisters who act as teachers should be very careful and sober in their character and conduct” (CWWL, 1950–1951, vol. 1, p. 73).
PREPARING THE PROPER SONGS FOR THE CHILDREN
From brother Lee’s sharing about using tunes for the young people’s songs (in a meeting with leading ones given in Irving, TX) we learned that we must select tunes with extreme care, otherwise, we could build up the soulish life. Using “Broadway or popular” tunes is against this principle. Children and young people are easily caught up in the tunes that have no positive impact on their heart or spirit. For this reason, he even states that it is best if children don’t sing verses.
Our goal when composing and selecting songs to sing with the children is based on the fellowship we received in the ministry. “The children’s songs should be of three levels, and each level should include at least fifty songs” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, p. 313). Children’s songs should follow the same principles as stories. They should be of three levels—elementary (from a child’s perspective), intermediate (with facts of the Bible), and advanced (general knowledge of the truth but with no doctrine or premature knowledge). The songs we write or select are not religious, but teach the children to be proper human beings, conveying that there is a God in the universe and share a general knowledge of the truth. The general criteria used in placing the songs in the levels are length of the songs, word choices in the lyric, and the message conveyed by the songs.
We don’t insist on the level of the songs. The levels are guiding principles. However, by experience, we’ve seen how a child comes to enjoy a song that relates to his need. Also, to have a little child learning songs full of Bible stories with very little application (based on what the ministry shows) may result in “slippery ears” when at a later stage these truths or their practical applications are presented to them.
MEMORY VERSE
As parents and serving ones, we would like to see our children growing up in the Lord’s recovery to know God and to have the word of Christ dwell in them richly. For this we encourage verse memorization as part of our time with the children. As parents in the Lord’s recovery, our view is that we have been called to meet God’s need in the present age. The richness in a local church can only be realized by “Timothies” being raised up in families that foster a love of these sacred writings.
Brother Witness Lee highlighted the importance of sharing Bible verses with our children. He stated, “By choosing the best verses concerning God… we can impress them (the children) in a brief and simple way that there is an almighty One in the universe, who is our God” (CWWL, 1967, vol. 1, pp. 504-505). Brother Watchman Nee shared with us that “In order to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, at least we have to memorize the Scriptures.” Brother Nee gave the example that “the Lord Jesus memorized the Scriptures while He was on earth” (CWWN, vol. 54, p. 81). Brother Lee encouraged us to start early – The Bible verses memorization should begin early in the children’s life. “…Parents should teach their children when they are young so that what has been taught can be wrought into their ‘blood.’ Then it will be impressed deeply within them and will be difficult to forget” (CWWL, 1987, vol. 1, p. 309).
ACTIVITIES / PROJECTS / CRAFTS
In our time with the children, the primary focus is on the topic/story/lesson, singing, and the memory verse. We use the snack time to sit among them and talk with them in a cherishing and personal way. In the remaining time, we do healthy activities together. Brother Lee never talked about crafts. We are not writing a curriculum where everything we do ties together. If time allows you might use an activity / project / craft to engage the children and teach them a skill. We don’t bring holidays, traditions, cultures, or any kind of mixture with the world into any of our activities, projects or crafts.
USE OF AUDIOVISUALS
We realize the need for the use of audiovisuals during some gatherings. However, the use of audiovisuals should not be used to entertain the children. When we use audiovisuals (pictures, drawing, maps, audio clips, video clips) they should be aimed for a specific purpose and the result of much fellowship and wisdom. We don’t assume every picture is appropriate. We prefer to show real animals and real people, and do not use any kind of animation or cartoons of figures with exaggerated features. We don’t present pictures or drawings of any person or events in the Bible. We don’t use pictures with personified animals—no bowties, no clothing on animals. We don’t do skits or plays since they are in the realm of make-believe and not real.
FAMILY TIMES
We strongly recommend parents to have family times at home. The following excerpts are from brother Nee’s writing in his chapter entitled “Parents”: “We suggest having two home meetings a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. The father should lead the morning time and the mother should lead the evening time…Your meeting should be short, living, and never long…Ask everyone of them to read a verse. The father should take the lead to pick out a few phrases and speak about them. If the children can memorize something, ask them to memorize…At the end of the meeting the father or the mother should offer a prayer for God’s blessing. Do not offer lofty or deep prayers. Pray about things that children can understand…
The evening meeting should be a little longer, and the mother should lead it. It is not necessary to read the Bible at night, but the family needs to pray together. In particular, the mother has to gather the children together and talk to them. While the father is sitting next to her, the mother should encourage the children to speak up. Ask them whether they had any problems that day. Ask whether they fought with one another and whether anything was bothering them. If a mother cannot make her children speak up, something must be wrong…The mother must learn to bring out the things that are in her children’s hearts…The parents should lead them to pray in a simple way one by one. Make sure that everyone prays. Finally, conclude with a prayer of your own. But do not be long. Once your prayer becomes long, children become bored. Feed them according to their capacity. Once you try to do too much, you will overburden them. Pray a few sentences with them and then let them go to sleep” (CWWN, vol. 49, pp. 543, 544).
CONCLUSION
This is what we have seen regarding the teaching material and how we have been applying it to all our stories and lessons. When we conduct neighborhood children’s meetings, children’s meetings during gospel meetings and blending conferences and family summer camps, the same application is being carried out. We don’t consider our work to be a finished product but a work in progress.
Regarding the training of the teachers, we see the need to have them regularly. Training videos are available on our website. We are all learners and are open to be adjusted and perfected with one another.
We consider ourselves as ones who serve under the immediate leading of the elders. We continue to seek their fellowship regarding all of these matters so we can carry out this work, “in order to do the children’s work well.”
Finally, as stated in the Foreword of Raising Up the Next Generation for the Church Life, “We hope that all the saints and all the churches everywhere will be just as Brother Nee and Brother Lee were, focused on and laboring for the central line among us, especially when they touched ‘the leaves and the branches.’ Of course, some have been called to serve primarily among our children and young people, and we know that such a service is of the Lord and to the Lord. But we certainly feel that all of us should conduct our service so as to lead all in our care to apprehend and experience the central line in the Bible.” May the Lord continue to guide us!
Master Chart of Levels and Subjects (click here to view on browser)
Master Chart of Levels and Subjects