One of the best ways to share the Gospel with kids is the wordless book. It’s a series of colors that can be used to explain the Gospel.
I was surprised to learn that many believe that Charles Spurgeon originated the wordless book idea. Later is was used by several early Evangelical Missionaries. You can find a good summary of it on Kidology and read about it’s history on Wikipedia.
Do You Use The Wordless Book?
If you have used this approach to sharing the Gospel with children, then leave a comment below. Let us know what setting and how it turned out. Have you seen many children come to Christ through this explanation?
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
We make bracelets!
Well, we’ve also made necklaces and keychains and the list goes on… anything you can use beads to make, we’ve done it! I’ve worked with kids from age 3 thru highschool.
We’ve done them during VBS, Sunday School, discipleship training time, extended care time (during worship service), on Wednesday nights.
We’ve made them for “reminders for ourselves,” to have a tool to share the Gospel with friends and family, to give to friends and family, to give to random people in the church, to give to random people out in public…
Really, I’ve helped kids make them with everything from pipe-cleaners and pony beads to jewelry wire and glass beads, and they ALWAYS love it. I noticed that with teenagers it seemed to hit home a little more, and with the younger kids it’s a GREAT, FUN way to help them remember the Gospel.
Meg,
Thanks for sharing those ideas. Using these simple colors to share the Gospel with kids is simple but leaves so much room for being creative.
There is an interesting discussion over at Kidology about the Wordless book and whether we should use “black” to represent sin or go with some other alternative. Link: Should We Use ’Black’ to Represent Sin?
Ray,
Thanks for the link. I had that conversation a few years ago to. I think we said “darkness” was a less offensive way.
I love using the Wordless book! A great resource for kids of all ages. We made very simple paper books (3x4in) at a VBS one year. I made a sticker with the color story on it (and verses) to help remind the students of the story. Very effective witnessing tool!
We didn’t call the black page “black” but instead it was the “dark” page. We also called the yellow page “golden.” White was the “clean” page as well. The kids were still able to retell the story with the change….
Neat concept. I noticed that there was some concern about black being taken as a condemnation of “black” people. Perhaps you could use a very dark blue/gray as a symbol of the darkness of night. This way you would not have to use a word that is a slang for a people group (I’ve never heard of anyone being called a gray person, except for a kid that’s been in the dirt for a while
. You could also use brown for the dirtiness of sin.
Tony,
Thanks for your newsletter and this info about the Wordless Book. It is a great ministry tool. Your post inspired me to finally create a webpage for a Wordless Book presentation using sculpting balloons that I created in 1993 before I went on a mission trip to Romania. I hope that it may be of use to others wanting to share the Gospel to children. The site give a full description of the presentation and has a couple rough tutorial videos.
Blessings,
Mitch Townley
http://web.mac.com/mitchtown/iWeb/WestHillsKids/WordlessBookBalloons.html
We have added a blue page, bead, to the presentation of the wordless
book. With little or no creation taught in public schools we felt it would
be good to establish first of all “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. It flows naturally to show mans sin then the
need of salvation, the black and red pages then white. We have a world map behind the wordless book “station” with pictures of some of
our missionarys representing “growing” green , in the Lord as His children take the gospel to others. Little ones are so visual, it stays
with them.
We have made bookmarks for our Bibles, pompom caterpillars, Christmas ornaments, and backpack tags instead of bracelets as boys don’t always wear bracelets. We have used blue for baptism and the living water, and purple for the royalty color, King of Kings, King of all Creation, and also our life ( good reminder for kids and adults).
Thanks for sharing the idea of Wordless Book . I think it’s a great resource to reach out to my multi-racial hearing impaired students in my school besides the Sunday School children.
Hi guys
I have been working on a video that takes this approach – in the URL above, or here:
http://www.7colourgospel.com/
If anyone wants to help me out, please contact me.
Thanks
Brad
For years, our church has made Gospel Walking Sticks for use by the Fellowship of Christian Farmers at farm expo’s throughout the US and Canada. We have a local sawmill cut wood for the sticks, drill holes at the top, and then thread the colored pony beads on leather thongs and knot them at the top. We’ve worked with the FCF at a show when it was held locally to present the Gospel with them. People come to their tent to get a free stick and hear the Good News.
Also, our church does a local 4th of July outreach each year where we use the Wordless Book colors to do free face painting and fingernail painting. We’ve also done the beaded bracelet craft to tell the story.
One thing I’ve tried to do is to use the gold bead to represent the person and character of God instead of just the “streets of heaven” approach.
If you are interested in the walkingstick ministry, go to our church website at http://www.livinghopebiblechurch.org/index.htm for info on how we do it.
wow.. tank God… its been a great help… for me visiting and being connected with your site… it did helped me a lot for te childrens ministry iwas now assigned with..
I have used wordless book before, and I am planning to use it tomorrow in my church, with the children. It has helped children to understand the Gospel. With the help of the Holy Spirit, it’s very easy to reach children, especially when teaching them how to be saved. There is a song that goes with the book- “My heart was dark with sin, until the Savior came in. His Precious blood I know, has washed me white as snow——-. You open the pages as you sing the song.
The Wordless Book was commonly used when I was a child growing up in the church…in fact, it was a key element in my own understanding of the gospel message as a child. I have used it all of my life – and I am now in my mid 50′s…I have used it in Sunday School, in Vacation Bible School, in Ministry Fairs, on Mission Trips to Russia, etc. and still use it to this day. There are of course several different variants of it…with things today like the Jelly Bean Prayer, – the colorful glove, (at one time someone did a craft which had a caterpillar with pom poms of different colors to tell the story to the children). To me it has always been a staple in ministry especially to children, however I have been amazed at how many adults respond to it as well.
I have witnessed several who have given their hearts and lives after its presentation. It’s a wonderful tool!
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