Across the globe, Christians suffer great costs for their devotion to Jesus. One in seven experiences intense persecution. For those of us who reside in the West, it can be challenging to comprehend such realities, let alone teach kids about them. But if we desire our children to understand the cost of following Christ and the state of the global church, we must intentionally teach them about persecution.
Why Teach Kids About Persecution
As an expert on the persecuted church, Ruth Ripken says, “There’s no such thing as the persecuted church and the free church, there’s just the church.”
Scripture describes the church as one body with Christ as the head (Col. 1:18; Rom. 12:5). While we affirm the reality of local churches, this universal body has no geographic boundaries (1 Cor. 12:13; Rev. 7:9). As members of that body, Christians are exhorted to remember the persecuted (Heb. 13:3), for when “one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Cor. 12:26).
Since many of us don’t experience persecution regularly, we easily forget the plight of believers worldwide. But if we ignore the hardships of our brothers and sisters, we’re possibly neglecting our responsibilities to them (Gal. 6:10) and unintentionally modeling callousness to our kids.
While Christian parents may feel powerless to help, we can still pay attention to the needs of the global church and model prayer for the persecuted within our families. And God may use this to prepare our children to one day suffer or to be those who take Christ’s gospel to the nations.
Read the rest of my article with resources for different age groups for kids on TGC.