Providing the ingredients for children’s ministry

Do you remember April 2020?

It’s probably more memorable than most months, even though some of us wish we could erase it from our memory. An unknown virus was beginning to sweep across Japan, and a state of emergency issued by the government confirmed it as a national crisis.

I remember a new reality sinking in—that we would not be gathering together at church on Sunday. Instead, we would be meeting online. It was at that time that my colleague Mitsuru pointed out that although Sunday services were going online, most Sunday schools were likely going to be canceled altogether.

So three days later, Mitsuru uploaded the first episode of our online Sunday school (こども聖書クラスオンライン) to YouTube. It used the images and videos from 41 Bible stories from the Bible App for Kids, which OneHope launched in Japanese in 2016.

Using the app today

We have now uploaded a Sunday school video every week for four years. It has been a great experience to be able to reach thousands of children that we had not been able to reach before and to help children engage with scripture in a new way.

We have found that these images and videos can be used in all kinds of ways for both print and digital media. In 2016 we made a gospel booklet called the Bible App for Kids Book of Hope (こども聖書アプリブック), which has been distributed to 700,000 children. We also created kamishibai (picture storytelling cards) with Word of Life Press (いのちのことば社), which sold out. We even made karuta (playing cards) and a coloring book that allows a child to see a Bible story as they color it in.

Children responding to the Word

We’ve received stories of both Christian children and not yet believing children learning about God and Jesus through the different formats of the Bible App for Kids content.

One Japanese boy living in San Francisco watches our online Sunday school every week. When he received birthday money from his grandpa, he gave it to support the online Sunday school program. Mitsuru made a thank-you video and sent it to him, which then made the boy so happy he nearly cried! Although they have never met in person and live across the Pacific from one another, God built a new friendship through the videos.

Another boy in Saitama Ken wandered into church for the first time for a church’s Christmas event. The kids at the church were playing Bible App for Kids karuta. To win at karuta, you have to memorize the yomifuda (reading cards) that have short Bible story summaries. The boy had a great time, but he didn’t come back to church for a while. Then he came again six months later and joined the Sunday school. When the teacher started sharing about Moses splitting the sea, the boy exclaimed, “I know that story!” and started to say the yomifuda that he memorized six months prior. It was an incredible example of how karuta could be effective for young children to get acquainted with the Bible. We learned that children engage with the Bible in different ways and at different places and times, and it reminded us of the value of having different media for children to engage with from the Bible App for Kids.

Expanding reach through shared assets

We felt we had done everything we could with the Bible App for Kids until we found that other people had lots of other ideas. In response to some requests, we decided to give away all our Bible App for Kids images and videos (over a thousand files!). Now anyone in Japan can use these assets to make PowerPoints, flyers, kamishibai, videos, and more.

It seemed to us that the team at OneHope were chefs providing a completed dish to the local church. Then we realized that our assets could be ingredients that we give to the local church so that they can be chefs, cooking up a dish in whatever way they want. This empowers the local church to create programs that fit what they want to do.

We are living in an age where digital assets are abundant and accessible. If you look around for open-source resources to help share the Bible, you can find plenty of artwork and media that help communicate the truth and beauty of the gospel.

I’ve also been privileged to work with BibleProject over the past several years to bring their images and videos to Japan, and these, too, are available for free download. You can use and combine these resources to serve your ministry.

Next time you are preparing for children’s ministry, perhaps you can look around for some fine ingredients and add a new flavor to your program so that the children you serve can experience the Bible and encounter God in a fresh way.

Photo from website