The new 28-lesson curriculum from Children Desiring God called "Abiding in Jesus" challenges junior high students to know Jesus as the savior and satisfier of their souls. Inspired by John 15, these lessons teach youth that abiding in Jesus leads to trusting him in all of life’s situations and bearing spiritual fruit in him.

The study features interactive teaching with small group discussion, application, and prayer. There is also a special emphasis on students experiencing Christian fellowship.

The inclusion of journaling along with the teaching enables students to note important biblical truth. This will help to guide the class fellowship time and provide helpful direction for at-home Bible study and life application.

Samples from "Abiding in Jesus" and other curricula from CDG are available free online.

It gives me great joy to announce our new Spanish website Niños Deseando a Dios and to introduce our first children’s Bible curriculum in Spanish, El ABC de Dios (The ABCs of God). The entire curriculum is available for electronic download.

This announcement is significant for a number of reasons. First, it is a tangible effort, we hope and pray, that will move us forward in our mission statement… “equipping the church to spread a passion for the Supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of ALL peoples, through Jesus Christ.” Translating our website and curriculum into Spanish is an initial step to reach the next generations of Spanish speakers “…so that they set their hope in God” (Psalm 78:7).

Second, it is significant because many churches and individuals have partnered with us in this project. In particular, this would not have come to fruition without the incredible passion and investment of three churches: Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia and Iglesia Bautista del Nuevo Pacto in Dominican Republic and Cimiento Estable in El Salvador.

Key individuals at each of these churches have taught CDG curriculum and helped translate the resources with a desire to one day make CDG curriculum widely available in Spanish. Clearly God has placed a passion in their hearts to reach the next generation in their churches, in their respective countries, and to make Jesus known to all Spanish-speaking people in the world.

It is an understatement to say that we are grateful for their investment in CDG.

We are not resting in a Spanish website and a single curriculum translated into Spanish. Our desire is to be “…always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58. Therefore, CDG 2009 Conference audio and CDG Vision video will be available on the website soon. Our second curriculum in Spanish, ¡Cuan Glorioso Es Tu Nombre! (How Majestic is Your Name), is scheduled to be released before the end of 2009.

We invite you to partner with us by praying for the development of additional CDG resources in Spanish. We’d also love your help in spreading the word about these resources to those you know who are in ministry with Spanish speakers in the United States or overseas. Would you be willing to join us in our mission and become effective “spreaders” for Children Desiring God?

If you would like more information, please visit Niños Deseando a Dios or send us an email.

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Children Desiring God Habla Español

Es con sumo gozo que les anuncio nuestro nuevo sito en la web en español: Niños Deseando a Dios y les presentamos nuestro primer currículo bíblico para niños en español, El ABC de Dios. El currículo completo está disponible para ser descargardo electrónicamente.

Este anuncio es significativo por un gran número de razones. Primero, es un tangible esfuerzo, esperamos y oramos, por continuar hacia delante con nuestra declaración de visión y misión… “equipando la iglesia para esparcir una pasión por la Supremacía de Dios en todas las cosas, para el gozo de todas las personas, a través del Señor Jesucristo.” La traducción de nuestro sitio y currículo al español es un paso inicial para alcanzar las próximas generaciones de los hispano-hablantes. “…para que ellos pongan su confianza en Dios.” Salmo 78:7.

Segundo, es significativo porque muchas iglesias e individuos han participado con nosotros en este proyecto. En particular, esto no habría dado ningún fruto sin la pasión increíble y la participación de tres iglesias: Iglesia Bautista de la Gracia, e Iglesia Bautista del Nuevo Pacto en la República Dominicana y la Iglesia Cimiento Estable en El Salvador.

Individuos claves en cada una de estas iglesias han enseñado el currículo de Niños Deseando a Dios y han ayudado a traducir los recursos con el anhelo de que un día los currículos de Niños Deseando a Dios estén disponibles completamente en español. Claramente Dios ha colocado una pasión en sus corazones para alcanzar la próxima generación en sus iglesias, en sus respectivos países, y hacer a Jesús conocido entre todos los hispano-hablantes en el mundo.

Está por demás decir que estamos muy agradecidos por su aporte a Niños Deseando a Dios.

No estamos descansando únicamente en un sitio en español o en un solo currículo traducido al español. Nuestro deseo es estar “…abundando siempre en la obra del Señor, sabiendo que nuestro trabajo en el Señor no es en vano.” I Corintios 15:58. Además de esto, el audio de la Conferencia del 2009 de Children Desiring God estará disponible en nuestro sitio en la red pronto. Nuestro segundo currículo en español, ¡Cuan Glorioso Es Tu Nombre!, está programado a ser publicado antes de que termine el 2009.

Les invitamos a participar con nosotros en oración por el desarrollo de recursos adicionales en español de CDG. Por otro lado nos encantaría su ayuda en compartir con otros la noticia sobre la traducción de estos recursos a aquellos entre sus conocidos que están en el ministerio con hispano-hablantes en los Estados Unidos o en otras partes del mundo. ¿Estarían dispuestos a unirse a nosotros en nuestra misión y llegar a ser “propagadores efectivos” de Niños Deseando a Dios?

Si desea más información, por favor visítenos, en Niños Deseando a Dios o envíenos un correo electrónico.

Tony Kummer is giving away an "ABC's of God," Sunday school curriculum for 1st - 3rd graders from Children Desiring God.

This is about a $215 value and all you have to do to enter is comment.

Update: Sorry I was unclear. Please comment at his site to enter.

Here are 5 books that were recommended at CDG's conference.

• Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem
• Big Truths for Young Hearts, Bruce Ware
• Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, Paul Tripp
• Parenting by the Book, John Rosemond
• Instructing a Child's Heart, Tedd and Margy Tripp

The following is from my notes at Kempton Turner's session yesterday at the CDG conference.

1. Be a truth-drenched example.

1 Timothy 4:16

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

The example of your life is the hammer that drives your message home. If your life doesn't exemplify what you expect, your message will not be believable.

2. Have a truth-drenched marriage and family life.

1 Timothy 3:4-5

He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

We shouldn't see if someone is fit for the ministry by how they do in seemingly less important ministries. Rather, we should see what kind of husband and father he is. If he leads his family well, then maybe he's fit for the ministry.

Paul assumes that a church leader first leads his family. A truth-drenched youth ministry will get the overflow of the youth minister's leadership of his wife and kids.

3. Cultivate a truth-drenched staff.

Acts 13:2-3

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Gather as a staff mainly to go vertical. Meet with God and see what strategy comes from this worship.

4. Preach and teach truth-drenched messages and lessons.

Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

The main thing your youth should think about when they remember you is how you spoke God's word to them.

Don't replace teaching truth with games, media, skits, etc.

5. Develop and implement a truth-drenched vision and philosophy of youth ministry.

Proverbs 29:18

Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Picture youth ministry as a mountain. Develop a plan that puts the cross at the top with all the other good (but less important) things below. Then the truth of the gospel will flow down that mountain over everything you do, drenching your ministry.

What does it mean to lose heart?

To lose heart is to lose our courage or lose the will to go on. It means to be utterly spiritless and worn out, to throw in the towel. It is more than discouragement. It's discouragement to point of quitting the race before it is over.

God forbid that any of us should throw in the towel of our gospel ministries! We are those who do not lose heart! We do not throw in the towel of displaying the glory of God to the world! To throw in the towel of the gospel is to have believed in vain, to make shipwreck of our faith.

There are glorious promises that tell us that if we have indeed received this ministry that we will indeed not lose heart (John 10:27-30 for one). No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck us from his hand.

How do we keep from being among those who just give up?

We do it by fixing our eyes on the God-centered realities that describe us:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)

For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:17)

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. (2 Corinthians 3:5)

Surely there are times when it is wise to consider changing the way and type of ministry that we are doing. But we should be very slow to interpret our present difficulties as an indication that we should quit.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Despite all the difficulties we do not throw in the towel. For though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

The following is from notes on Paul Tripp's message last night at the CDG Conference. Audio will be available next week.

There are five things that you must know about the children you minister to. These must always be the backdrop to the ministry you provide as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

1. They were created by God to be revelation receivers.

They were never wired to figure life out on their own. You'll never ever know the things you need to know by just using the process of human discovery. You have to have supernatural revelation.

2. They are by nature interpreters.

Human beings do not live life based on the facts of our experience. We live life based upon the interpretation of the facts. We're meaning makers.

3. They are worshipers.

Human experience is not the most essential thing about the human experience. Worship is. It's what we're born doing and what we continue to do all of our lives.

4. They are hard-wired to seek glory.

We're glory oriented. Glory is why we like chocolate mousse cake and great movies and the last quarter of basketball games. And glory is why we exalt ourselves over others around us: we want to get as much as we can for ourselves.

5. They are self-focused and self-obsessed.

Sin causes us to shrink our lives down to the claustrophobic confines of our lives, our wants and our needs. It makes us incapable of loving anyone else.

God Is Writing Our Story, Not Us

Because these 5 things are true of all of us, as God is writing the story of our lives, we're always inclined to try and take the pen from him so we can write it ourselves.

The Bible is one long story with God's notes. Ministry to children—or ministry to anyone else—means helping them forsake the urge to write their own story, and accept instead that God is the author. Then their story will be embedded in God's larger story of redemption, so that in every circumstance they recognize that their life is about and for God.

John Knight, Senior Director of Development at Desiring God, gave a message this afternoon entitled, "Beyond Access: God's Delight in Disabilities."

If you'd like some background on John and his story of God's faithfulness to his family, you can listen to his message from Bethlehem Baptist's 2008 men's retreat (Part 1 & Part 2).

The audio from today's talk will be available in a couple weeks. Until then, here are some of the notes:

God is purposeful in creating all people, including those with disabilities.

Psalm 139:13

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

God knew what he was doing when he knit John's son together without eyes, with autism, and with mental retardation in his mother's womb.

Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

This is even more explicit than the verse in Psalm 139—God creates disability. Does he seem embarassed about it? Is it ambiguous?

No.

God claims it: I make people mute, deaf, blind—disabled.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

God uses disabilities intentionally for his glory.

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

God uses the disability of blindness to show that there is something far worse than being disabled—something we all suffer—namely, being sinners.

Sin is our primarily problem, not any disability, because when we sin, eternity is at stake. But there is a solution...

Adapted from a handout at the CDG seminar "Nursery and Toddler Ministry: Preparing the Littlest Ones to Stand on Truth." Audio will be available within the month.

1. Have an open Bible on your lap during story time. This reinforces where the story comes from—God's word.

2. Use short sentences and few words. Too many words overwhelm young minds.

3. Be animated in your facial expressions and tone of voice. This will help keep children engaged.

3. Incorporate movement into the story and singing. Children this age need to move their bodies. Movement helps them learn and remember what you're teaching them.

4. Create routines during the story/circle times by using songs, finger plays, etc.

5. Use repetition to cement biblical concepts in children's hearts and minds.

6. Keep it short and sweet. A story time of 5-10 minutes is the maximum children this age can attend to and sit for.

Here are my notes from Bruce Ware's message this morning at the Children Desiring God conference. The audio will be posted next week, Lord willing.

“There is None Besides Me”: Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God

There are three themes from Isaiah 40-46 that demonstrate that God is exclusively and incomparably God.

1) God as Creator (Isaiah 40:18-26)

Implications:

• As Creator of all, God is independent of all that he has made. He doesn't need the world or you or me. His creation adds nothing to him. We cannot make God better or enrich his life. He is the Provider, we are the needy recipients.
• As Creator, God is rightful owner of all that he has made.

Application:

If we understand this rightly we should fall before God with a deep sense of humility and dependence before him. This is how to fight pride: by remembering the greatness, supremacy, and all-sufficient fullness of who God is. We have nothing we we can claim as our own that we have rights over or can take credit for.

2) God as Redeemer (Isaiah 43:1-13)

Implications:

• As Redeemer, God is rightful owner of his people. This was an implication of him being Creator. It's also an implication of him being Redeemer. Those redeemed by him are twice his people. They are doubly owned.
• As Redeemer, God demonstrates his selecting and particular love for his people. There is a lavish display of his goodness that God reserves for those whom he chooses with his electing love, though they are no more deserving of it than others.

Application:

This should make us respond with trust and confidence in God. He is for us. Can you believe it? We not only owe him our allegiance because he created us. We also owe it to him because of his great redeeming love for us. And we ought to gladly give it!

3) God as Sovereign Ruler over Good and Evil (Isaiah 44:24-45:7)

Implications:

• As Sovereign Ruler, God reigns over nature and nations. God not only makes everything; he also controls what they do. Whether sudden catastrophes or the installation of kings, all is in total control.
• As Sovereign Ruler, God rules over good and evil. We are usually OK with affirming the first. But Scripture is clear: he has absolute control over evil too. But just because God controls both good and evil doesn't mean that he is both good and evil (see Psalm 5:4; 1 John 1:5). God is good and wise in regulating everything that happens, even evil.

Application:

This truth should cause us to respond to God with hope and strength. Because everything is ordained by a wise and loving God, we can remain hopeful and strong in the midst of suffering.

Taken from notes on Piper’s message at the Children Desiring God conference.

1. Indoctrination

By indoctrination I mean putting thoughts into a child's head without a due concern that they should have good reasons for believing them. Whenever we teach children we must be concerned that we don't simply indoctrinate them.

To want to have truth go into a child's head is a very good thing. But you should also take care that while you are putting truth into their heads you should also try to give them a process they can test it with. Don't just give the what and the why behind it; also give the how.

2. Contextualization

Let's take a little people group called three-year-olds, for instance. If I only use words they don't know, they obviously won't learn anything. But if I only use words they do know, they won't learn anything either.

So contextualization isn't the most important thing with kids. The most important thing is concept creation. Children need to be given new categories of thought in order to learn.

Read the rest of the notes from this message.

The Children Desiring God National Conference starts tonight. We'll hear from John Piper, Bruce Ware, Paul David Tripp, David Michael, and more.

Here at the DG blog, Tyler Kenney and I will be blogging the plenary sessions as well as several of the almost 40 elective seminars.

If you'd like to follow along, please subscribe by RSS or email. We'll also link each new entry here, so if you want to let others know about the CDG conference blog, this is the post to send them to.

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Conference posts:

• The God-centeredness of God, John Piper
• Two Cautions for Teaching Kids 
• A Book to Help You Teach Your Kids Theology
• 16 Passages that Emphasize God's Uniqueness
• Bruce Ware on Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God
• 7 Ideas for Teaching Toddler's God's Word
  

Children Desiring God just released its fourth Vacation Bible School/Backyard Bible Club curriculum titled Wisdom Calls Aloud. This 5-lesson curriculum is an evangelistic study on wisdom and the fear of the Lord.

Free samples from the teacher's notebook and student project booklet are available (but they're secured PDFs, so you'll need Adobe Reader to open them).

Tim Jones offered this seminar for Children Desiring God this morning. It is based on his forthcoming book Perspectives on Family Ministry.

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Doing Family Ministry: Real-Life Ministry Models for Real-Life Churches

God commands us in the Scriptures to make the family the fundamental context of discipleship (Deuteronomy 6:4-8; Malachi 4:6; Ephesians 6:4).

Problems in the Church with Family Ministry

1) Parents, especially fathers, have become disengaged from the task of discipling children.

2) Most churches have not consistently expected or prepared parents to disciple their own children.

3) Adolescence is perceived as a developmental ideal instead of as a period of preparation for mature adulthood. It's a recent social construction in which responsibility is minimized and indulgence is maximized, and a lot of our church models have been built around it.

What Do These Problems Look Like?

• The youth group is barely connected to the congregation.
  
  
• The separate aspects of the church's family ministries operate in relative isolation from one another.

What Needs to Change?

Every church is called to some form of family ministry. This doesn't mean just adding one more program.

Rather, family ministry is the process of intentionally and persistently realigning a congregation's proclamation and practices so that parents—and especially fathers—are acknowledged, trained, and held accountable as the persons primarily responsible for the discipling of their children.

3 Models of Family Ministry

Family-Integrated Model - says that the way to make the family the primary context for discipleship is to get rid of all the separate ministries. Some churches are called to this model, but not all churches.

Family-Based Model - says to keep all the same ministries that are already going on but to make them do some additional, intergenerational things together.

Family-Equipping Model (Jones' favorite) - the entire congregation embraces shared responsibility to move children toward spiritual maturity. Church and family work together to set spiritual milestones to move the children toward mature Christian adulthood.

4 Assumptions Behind the Family-Equipping Model

1) God has called parents to serve as primary disciplers of their children.

2) The church is responsible to look after "spiritual orphans" while passionately seeking to disciple their parents. If a church has nothing for the single mom, then it's model is deficient. There must be a conscious process for taking care of children whose parents are not present or not involved.

3) Where God's kingdom makes itself present, generations are drawn together, not driven apart. Do the youth in your congregation know the older members? Do they care when the 90-year-old member dies?

4) What you do for God beyond your home will typically never be greater than what you practice with God within your home.

How Does It Work?

1) You must acknowledge that the family has the primarily responsibility of discipleship. Most parents are just ignorant of this, not openly rebellious against it. So we need to preach this responsibility and mention it in our new member classes, etc.

2) Hold the parents, especially the fathers, accountable.

3) Provide opportunities for the family to do ministry together (i.e. taking a mission trip together where the fathers end up leading their own families).

At this year’s CDG National Conference there will be over 35 seminars covering everything from “preparing the littlest ones to stand on truth” to leading a “truth-drenched youth ministry.”

We will offer several new seminars this year as well as some that have been available at previous conferences. Some of these new seminars are

• “Mobilizing Men for Children’s Ministry” by David Michael, highlighting the importance of men in children’s ministry.
• “The Centrality of God in the Life of a Children’s Ministry Leader” by Sally Michael, focusing on the importance of cultivating a deep relationship with God as a leader.
• “The Church: Too Many Unproductive People” by Paul Tripp, discussing the importance of mobilizing and motivating lay leaders for the glory of Christ. 

There will also be other new seminars by Paul Tripp and Bruce Ware.

We hope you will join us April 30th through May 2 as we seek to glorify Christ through our endeavors in children’s ministry!

You now have the option to download CDG Sunday school curricula in addition to ordering hard copies of our workbooks and leader’s editions. 

These new downloadable resources increase your flexibility by giving you the option of printing a week or an entire year at a time. They are also priced significantly lower than our printed resources.

Also, three more curricula are now available in the ESV as well as the NIV. (If you are an existing customer and would like to convert your NIV curriculum to ESV, please call 888.346.4700 for a conversion pricing).

In the CDG breakout session, Gregg Harris challenged pastors to inspire fathers to lead and instruct in the home.

Imitating God's Fatherhood

He said that first we must think theologically about both fatherhood and sonship. We should see how God the Father and Jesus relate, and then try to emulate that with our own children. We should not try to out-father God, because our fatherhood is defined by him, not the other way around.

There are 3 qualities in God’s father-son relationship that we should try to emulate in our own relationships:

1. The father makes the son a part of what he’s doing.
2. The son does the will of the father.
3. Father and son outdo one another in showing honor to one another

Harris reminded us that it is important that we, as fathers, don’t fall into the false humility that tends to think that we don’t have the right or ability to direct our children. The primary goal of training children is to prepare them to be included in our lives, as God includes Jesus. We should not think of our role as preparing them to fit in somewhere else, in someone else’s life or for someone else’s purposes.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children [1] of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
(Psalm 127:3-5)

Children are arrows to be shot in the battle we are fighting. Don’t entrust your arrows to an enemy—you may be wounded.

So What Can Pastors Do to Inspire Fathers to Be Like This?

Harris offered one main answer: Be the kind of fathers you want the fathers in your church to be (1 Pet 5:2-3).

Be authoritative, not authoritarian. Authoritarian leaders appeal to their office to get their way. Authoritative leaders, on the other hand, gain their credibility by how they live. They don’t pull rank; they show themselves to be worthy of following because their own life serves as an example of the value of what they are teaching.

A pastor should only be a pastor if he is looked to as an example of how to live. Again, it is a false humility to avoid being an example for your flock.

Harris noted that one way to become the kind of father you hope to be is to take your own advice. What would you counsel a father in your church to do to strengthen his relationship with his son? Do that. We will be surprised how wise we are. We know a lot that we don’t put into practice.

A Simple Strategy for Fathering

He suggested this simple, summary strategy for fathering

1. Get a life.
2. Include your kids in it.

That’s it.

If that doesn’t feel like enough, here’s his 3rd step: repeat steps 1 and 2.

Get a life by being someone you would admire and putting your hand to something with all your might. Then include your kids by letting them know that you are training them up with a mission. Make them a part of what you do, and then engage them about it at their own level. (This may include ice cream.)

What Does This Kind of Fathering Look Like in Practice?

Harris urged us to not be concerned about whether what they’re doing now what they will always do. We should find the long-term value of what they love to do now, then nurture it, and give them what they need to pursue it. This will turn our gifts to them into tools rather than toys. We don’t need to be up to our elbows in everything they do, but we should be a committed patron of their art.

How Should Children Be Treated Like Arrows in the Hands of a Warrior?

Harris’s suggestions:

• Sharpen them intellectually. Have dinner together as a family. Invite guests into your home that will enlarge your children’s minds. Read.
• Straighten them out morally. Discipline them—if you can’t, call the police. Seriously. Make sure they know that you care enough to keep them in line.
• Pay attention to the feathers on the arrow, their moral guidance system
• Aim them at what matters. Don’t waste ammo on trivial targets.
• Hold them back till their ready to be released. (This may create tension.) Don’t over-protect, strategically protect.
• When they’re ready, let them go with only your prayer and friendship left as an influence.

Favorite Quotes from the Session

And, finally, here’s a couple Gregg Harris comments I couldn’t resist including:

“I’m an idiot who by the grace of God knows I’m an idiot. And that makes me wise.”

“We haven’t had a television for 35 years. We get so bored in our household that sometimes we go out and … do something.”

On the humility that comes from having a successful child: “Nobody stands around looking at the launching pad after the rockets have taken off.”