A Biblical Perspective Aimed at Childlike Hearts

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Conversation One: One Human Race 7

Conversation Two: Sin Enters our Hearts and the World 12

Conversation 3: Separated by Sin, Not Differences 18

Conversation 4: Jesus Makes All Things New 24

Conversation 5: The Good News, A New Mission 29

Conversation 6: Hope—God’s Kingdom Restored 34

IntroductionSix 10-minute conversations on race for human hearts

Social and racial tensions today motivate a desire in my heart to learn about the his-tory and cultural extent of racism in our country. I am reading, reflecting, repenting. As a Christian mother who believes I am called to train up my children in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6) and impress on them the ways of the Lord (Deut. 6:4-7), I am both convicted and encouraged to intentionally talk to my children about race and racism.

Talking to Kids about Racism—A webinar by Be the Bridge with Elizabeth Behrens— en-courages parents to proactively help shape the racial attitudes of their children through conversations and relationships. Conversations can address both the subtle and blatant language of racism. Relationships intentionally developed with people of various races and backgrounds can create strong and lasting impressions on the hearts of children.

Conversations can open windows into young hearts—giving us entry to teach, learn and guide.

Conversations Roadmap

This resource contains six conversations between me and my four children, ages 6 through 12. We listen, question, talk and learn together.

The conversations begin with creation in Eden. They discuss the entrance of sin in our world. They investigate the reasons for divisions among people. They rejoice in the hope of reconciliation through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Conversation One: One Human Race starts with the creation of humans—male and female—made in the image of God. It builds a foundation for an unfolding understanding race and racism.

Conversation Two: Sin Enters our Hearts and the World

Conversation Three: Separated by Sin, Not Differences

Conversation Four: Jesus Makes All Things New

Conversation Five: The Good News, A New Mission

Conversation Six: God’s Kingdom Restored

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Conversation Elements

Each conversation contains six parts. The second through fifth parts make up the 10-minute conversation. The first part consists of parent preparation. The final part covers any followup.

Many of the elements contain links. Some display scriptures. Some include activities necessary to complete the element. Links are in blue and underlined.

Part 1: Ready your Heart is for parents. The selected Scriptures can in-struct your heart for the upcoming conversation. Each Scripture targets a specific area or topic you can reference during the conversation.

Part 2: Start the Conversation with a picture designed to intrigue young minds and steer their thinking toward the topic of the conversation.

Part 3: Ask Questions to turn on thinking in young minds. These questions aim to initiate dialogue and focus attention on the topic.

Part 4: Orient Our Hearts contains teaching information about the topic. You can read the content verbatim or paraphrase it as best fits your family.

Part 5: Go Deeper consists of questions and exercises to help children relate what they learned to their beliefs and the world. You can adapt these questions to children of different ages . Teens can go deeper with the greater knowledge of our American history and society. Encourage the asking of any questions on the topic. You may decide to split this section over a few days to keep the conversation going.

Part 6: Keep It Going at the end of each conversation provides three addi-tional resources:

• A children’s book• An activity, craft or toy• An adult resource

Each resource can help you and your family continue to learn about and discuss the issues of race and racism as they relate to God’s Story. A full list of additional resources is available https://www.baypres.org/bethebridge.

Keep It Going ResourcesErin Ritchie, Associate Director of Elementary Ministry, diligently collected, vetted and curated additional resources to help parents deepen and further these racial conversa-

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tions with their children. The Keep it Going parts of the conversation use these resourc-es. Some resources are geared toward preschool and elementary-aged children.

Partnership Thank You

Thank you—parents and families—for partnering with us to help give our children a biblical perspective of the world and raise up a generation to share the Good News and be on a mission of racial reconciliation.

In His Love,

Amy Free and BPC Discipleship

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CONVERSATION ONE

Conversation One: One Human Race

One Human Race can help children see people—all people—as image bearers of our creator God. This makes people—all people— valuable. This conversation can also help children think of themselves as image bearers, guiding them to see their identity and value in Christ.

Ready your Heart

Read Genesis 1 and 2 . As you read, answer these questions:

1. What adjective does God use to describe His creation? (Hint: Genesis 1:9, 1:12, 1:18, 1:21, 1:25, 1:31)

2. How does God create man? What instructions does he give man? (Genesis 1:27-28).

3. What two trees does God plant in the middle of the garden where man lives? (Hint: Genesis 2:9)

4. What does God tell man about the trees? (Hint: Genesis 2:15-17)

Start the Conversation

Show a picture of people with various skin colors and ethnicities.

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Examine the picture together. Ask the children to point out things different and things similar among the people.

Ask Questions: 1. What do all of these people have in common? (Hint: They are all human.)

2. Do you know about melanin?. (Hint: Melanin is inside all people, but not in equal amounts. The amount in of melanin varies among people. The amount of melanin determines skin color. People with a lot of melanin have darker skin color. People with a little melanin have lighter skin color.

3. Look at your skin. Do you think you have a lot of melanin or very little melanin?

Orient Our Heart 1. Read Genesis 1:26–28 together.

2. God created all people in his image. We may look different on the outside, but all of us—boys and girls—are of equal value to God. We have natural value because God made us in his image. God’s image is incomplete with just one type of person or one skin color. God created different people. And each one is an important part of God’s image.

3. When we look at this picture, we see differences, especially skin color differences. When referring to groups of people with similar skin color or physical character-istics, you may hear the word race. People in America come from a lot of races—black, white, Asian, Native American, African, Indian. But we all belong to one race—God’s human race.

4. God created us different. He enjoys our outward physical differences. But he also sees the most important part of us—our hearts. As humans, we sometimes think more about what we see on the outside of a person. God tells us the inside mat-ters most. 1 Samuel 16:7 says People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

5. Why does God care so much about your heart? Because it is your central process-ing unit. In your heart you experience emotions, decide what you believe, process life, connect with God, connect with other people. Take a look at this picture of the heart and some of what is inside. (next page)

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Go Deeper

1. God cares deeply about where we find our value. He tells us we are loved, re-deemed and chosen. Our ultimate value and identity are found in him, not in the things the world values. What are some things the world values? (Hint:-Wealth, intelligence, good looks, athleticism, certain professions, technology, freedom.)

2. God also cares deeply about the content of our hearts—no matter our age, gender, job or social status. What does God want to see in our hearts and lives? (Hint: love, humility, grace, mercy, truth, faith, obedience in love, godly relationships, love for all of his creation, a servant attitude, good works.)

3. How can someone show you that you are valued? (For example, spend time with you, ask about you, say encouraging things, etc.)

4. God values you as his precious child. How does knowing this make you feel?

5. Do you ever want to own things or do things to try to possess more value in the eyes of the world?

6. For older children: The picture you saw at the start of the conversation showed of people with different skin colors. When is the first time you realized there are other skin colors? When is the first time you noticed your own skin color? How did you feel about skin color and the skin colors of other people?

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Keep it Going

Children’s Books:

All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Got Out Skin Color by Katie Kissinger God Made Me and You: Celebrating God’s Plan for Ethnic Diversity by Shai Linne

The Color of Us by Karen Katz

Activity:

All About Me. Spend time together creating an All About Me craft. Use paper, markers, yarn and oth-er craft supplies to create a self-portrait. Include pictures cut from magazines of things your child likes. Then choose a book with a person of color as the main character. Read the book together. Repeat the All About Me activity—this time make it all about the main character. Discuss the appearance of the main character. Cut out magazine pictures of things of interest to the main character. Ask what things you and the main character have in common? What things are different?

M is for Melanin: Introduce the concept of melanin. Try this activity to help reinforce this new concept. Explain how people possess vari-ous levels of melanin. People with a lot of melanin have darker skin. People with little melanin have lighter skin. Teach vocabulary words to enhance understanding. Young children are full of curiosity about everything. Sometimes they like to make sense of the world by putting things into boxes—to sort and categorize.

Adult Resources:

Be the Bridge by Latasha Morison

The Gospel Coalition: an article written by Christian hip hop artist and author, Shai Linn, about his experience as a black man

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CONVERSATION TWO

Conversation Two: Sin Enters our Hearts and the World

Sin Enters our Hearts and the World can help your child learn about sin and its con-sequences. This conversation can guide your child to see sin for what it is, plus the ability to overcome sin through Jesus.

Ready your Heart

Read Genesis 3. As you read, think about these comments and questions:

1. What lie did the serpent tell Eve to tempt her to eat the fruit?

2. Eve doubted God. Her doubt grew from fearing God said something less than true about the fruit trees. As a result, Eve took control and ate the forbidden fruit. How do your doubts turn fear into the desire to take control?

3. Notice the broken relationships from eating the fruit. Humans became alienated from themselves (v. 7). They also became alienated from God (v. 9), each other (v. 12) and the creation (v. 17-19).

4. All relationships today suffer because of the disobedience in Eden. Sin breaks both personal and community relationships, often ending in conflict. How can you see social injustice as a result of broken relationships and conflict? A description of justice may help you think through your answer. Justice seeks right, fair and impar-tial actions by humans or by God or by both. The actions must promote equality or equal treatment of all people. Justice means courageously and sacrificially making other people’s problems my problems. This applies to social, economic, educational and legal issues. The sacrifice of Jesus provides justice for us in the eyes of God. (See this video for more information).

Start the Conversation

Show a picture of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Ask for descriptions of the pic-ture. Then ask the questions.

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Ask Questions

1. What is happening in this picture? (Refer to Genesis 3).

2. What happens as a result of Adam and Eve eating the fruit? (Hint: Sin enters the world)

3. What are the consequences of their sin? (Hint: Separation from God. Everything breaks.)

Orient Our Hearts

1. The sin of Eden continues to break all of our relationships. Sin breaks our relation-ship with God our creator. Breaking with God ruins all other relationships—with each other, with ourselves, with the creation (our world and its environment.) Sin wrecks the good world created by God. The results of sin show up in many ways. Family life becomes topsy-turvy. Weeds grow. Work becomes difficult. Many people live in poverty. Wars break out. Natural disasters occur. Disease and sickness wreck the lives of people everywhere.

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2. Since that first sin entered the hearts of Adam and Eve, sin has remained in our hearts. We can see the consequences of sin displayed in Adam and Eve’s very own child—Cain. (Genesis 4:1-12) Cain gets angry because he is jealous of his brother—Abel. God warns Cain about sin crouching at his door and desiring to swallow him. Sin swallowed Cain. You see, sin wants to swallow us. It wants to rule our hearts. And when it does, it can come out in pretty horrible ways.

3. In our first conversation, we talked about our identity, how others think of us and how we think of ourselves. We discussed our desire to be valued. As children of God, we find our identity and value in Jesus. Nothing else in the world can truly satisfy the desires of our hearts and give us the value we seek. We often forget the high value God places on us. We may try to make ourselves feel more valuable compared to others. We may speak and act in ways to bring down others to try to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Wanting to be better than others—not seeing their value as creations of God—is sin. Such sin can grow. Before we know it, we can believe bad things and do bad things we never thought possible. Remem-ber, Cain murdered his own brother!

4. Sin can make one group of people try to bring down another group of people be-cause they are different. This type of sin can cause hopelessness to take root and grow in the lives of the downtrodden people. Sin can also make groups of people who have been put down or mistreated feel hopeless. Yet, all people long for good relationships. Good relationships can be restored through the help of Jesus.

5. God (Romans 5:8) from the beginning planned a way to save us from sin and heal all of our relationships. That way is Jesus. When we ask Jesus to live in our hearts, he begins to renew us from the inside-out. Little by little Jesus makes us see our sins. He gives us power to change our ways, resist sin and work with him to help right the broken relationships in the world.

6. God understands our sinful nature. He knows we struggle with wanting to lift up ourselves while pushing down others. The Bible gives us a better way in the Gos-pel. We ran far from God and all of his good plans. So, he rescued us. He did this for everyone. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIV) This causes our hearts to fill with gratitude and ask God, “How do I live to show you my love?”

7. The Bible answers this question in part in Philippians 2:3-4, saying, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above your-selves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (NIV) The key point in the verse is humility. Remembering what God has done for us motivates us to “consider others better than ourselves”. Our grateful hearts help us to value others more than ourselves.

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Go Deeper

1. We recently talked about things the world may value the most. When we have these things—money, intelligence, good looks, a big house, athleticism, as exam-ples—we can feel good about ourselves. What about people who lack these so-called valuable things? Do we think less of them? Why? (Hint: You can bring up here people with special needs and disabilities.)

2. How are people sometimes mistreated or ignored by others because they lack what the world values or because they look different? Explain. How can you show other people—especially those different from you—you value them?

3. Have you ever seen or experienced, perhaps at school, a group of people who do not value others above themselves? Perhaps they put down someone or another group of people because they are different from them. How does that make you feel?

4. For older children: We earlier saw how sin corrupts the goodness God intended for his creation. Sin breaks all of our relationships with other people, ourselves and even nature. Because of sin, even things we intend for good—such as governments, institutions, laws, and rules—can be flawed. Can you think of any examples of this?(Hint: slavery) Watch this video from the Ready Your Hearts section with your children and discuss.

Keep it Going

Children’s Book:

My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

Activity: Talk about creation. When God created the world, he said it was good. Our relationships with God, nature, others, and ourselves were in harmony. How do you think God intended those rela-tionships to look like?

Have kids color these pictures. (Note: Encourage your kids to take their time. The more effort they put into it, the better they will be able to understand the next step.)

When we chose to disobey God, sin entered the world, and broke all of our relation-ships. Yet, God designed us for good. Talk about how sin affects relationships. Have

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your kids tear up the pictures they just colored. They should tear the pictures into several large pieces. This act symbolizes our broken relationships. Save the pieces in a zipper bag for an activity in Conversation 5. Talk about the differences between how things were before sin and how they are now. See the following table for examples.

Toys:

Baby Dolls: examples here and here

Playmobil: Mom with Kids Beach Family Firefighters Hospital

Adult Resources:

Selma (film)Holy Post- Race in America by Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales)

WITHOUT SIN WITH SIN

oceans, rivers, and lakes

beautiful and cleancontaminated with

pollution

wild animals live in harmony fight and kill

trees/bushesbeautiful and

never diebeautiful but die

peoplealways at peace with

one anotherfighting, prejudice,

hate

weatherbeautiful and calm/

no destruction

tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes

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CONVERSATION THREE

Conversation 3: Separated by Sin, Not Differences

Separated by Sin, Not Differences can help your child learn God’s plan for making people with different characteristics. It addresses our use of these differences to di-vide people into races. Racism results from sin in our hearts. It divides us, but we can repent and turn toward God.

Ready Your Heart

Read Romans 3:9-31. Think about these comments and questions:

1. How are Jews and Gentiles the same?

2. What does the law reveal to us?

3. Where does righteousness come from?

4. Who has sinned and how are they justified?

Start the Conversation

Show a picture of the world. Request a description of the picture—land masses and sea. Talk about the possible differences among people from different continents—lan-guage, skin color, hair texture, eye shape and culture being examples.

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Ask Questions

1. What separates the landmasses of the earth?

2. What are the names of the seven continents? (Hint: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Austra-lia, Europe, North America, South America)

3. Point to a continent and ask for a description of people who live there. What lan-guage do they speak? What sorts of things do they do in their lives? (Hint: Think about what they might do for a living and what kind of environment they live in.)

4. How can we see these different land masses, different people and different ways of living as good? (Hint: Think about God creating every color of skin. Neither one skin color nor one people group can fully capture the image of God.)

Orient Our Hearts

1. Large bodies of salt water—we call them seas or oceans—separate many of the continents. People who live in the same land often share some things in com-mon—overall appearance, language, everyday routines of living and even what they believe. Today, we are exploring the Tower of Babel. It is a story about a group of people who spoke one language and decided to gather in one place and build a special city.

2. These people believed in their similarities and in way they lived to made them great—greater than other nations around them. They believed in their heart that they could be the masters of their own destiny. They believed they could build something grand that went up to the heavens. They wished for others to look up to them and see their greatness and fame. They wanted to set standards for everyone else. They wanted to be their own gods. Their hearts were full of pride.

3. They said to each other, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, with a tower that reach-es to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Did you catch that? They wanted to make a name for themselves, have a symbol of their power and depend on themselves for safety. They wanted to stay together and not be scattered over the face of the earth.

4. God could see into their hearts. He knew they were trying to live without him. God knew the tower could never make them happy or safe. God loved them too much to let them continue in their ways. He put a stop to their plans, saying, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel- because there the Lord confused the lan-

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guage of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:7-1 - NIV)

5. God dealt with the pride in their heart and in their belief of being superior or higher or better by making their ability to build the tower impossible when he confused their language. But His action was also an act of mercy and love. God was reminding his people that he is the Almighty God and they should be looking to Him. The different languages made the people scatter all over the earth, helping to fulfill what God commanded his human race to do in Genesis 1:28. God was show-ing his people that not one language nor one people group is superior or higher or better to another. The differences that God created in his people were good and for their good. What wasn’t good was the sin in their hearts.

6. Sadly, as people spread over the earth, the sin in their hearts remained. Their desire to be higher or better than God and others remained. As people gravitated toward others they could understand, the differences between groups became a source of conflict. Separation increased, instead of celebration of the goodness and creativity in the diverse creations of God.

7. As we discussed before, all people want to be valued. To accomplish this in our lives we need to remember the variety of people in God’s good design. God de-signed all people groups. People of all skin colors are part of his plan. God reveals his likeness—his image—in the diversity of people he created. When we forget this, bad things happen. We start to search for our value in the things of this world, rather than in the things of God. This searching can lead people to believe they are more valuable than others because of skin color.

8. Believing you are more valuable than other people who have a different skin color is called racism. Racism is sin. Racism thinks about other people in negative ways because of their skin color. Racism treats other people badly because of their skin color. Racism judges others in unkind ways because of their skin color. Thinking in a racist way is called prejudice. Acting in a racist way is called discrimination. Dis-crimination means saying or doing something unkind to other people because of their skin color. Racism, prejudice and discrimination can be hard to understand. But this may help you understand: Have you ever looked at a food and immediate-ly knew you disliked it even though you had never tried it? Have you ever refused to try a new food just because you didn’t like its look or its smell? Maybe it was brussels sprouts or fish or avocado or okra or black-eyed peas or a fried egg. May-be it is was chocolate cookies? Nah, it couldn’t have been chocolate cookies. But here’s the point: How could you possibly know if you like the new food without trying it?

9. Sometimes we are not completely aware of our prejudices or how we discriminate. Even Peter, a disciple of Jesus, struggled with prejudice in his culture of the time. Thankfully, he had a brother in Christ, Paul, speak truth to him to help him see the wrong things he was believing. (Read Galatians 2:11-14.)

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10. Many forms of racism exist in our world today because sin is in this world and in all our hearts. (Romans 3:9) From the beginning sin separated us from God. Sin still desires to divide and separate us from one another and from God. In His mercy and because He loves and values all of his creation, God has a way to bring us back to him and to each other. We will talk more about this next time. But first, we need to recognize the sin in our hearts. Remember, God is concerned with our hearts. What are we to do?

11. We can change our ways. Changing our ways is called repenting. Repenting means stopping bad behavior and starting good behavior. We throw out the bad and bring in the good. God calls us to repent, say we are sorry and change our ways—change our thinking and our behavior. Repentance requires us to change our minds about being a sinner (Romans 3:23). It requires us to change our hearts and recognize our need for a savior—Jesus. We can ask God to show us when we have prejudice and discrimination in our hearts. We can say we are sorry and change our attitudes. We can even say we are sorry for the sins of those who came before us, like being sorry for the sins of our dad, grand dad, and great-great-great grand mom. Repentance changes our thoughts and actions with the help of Jesus.

Jesus called us to repent. Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Go Deeper

1. Seeing differences in people is not always bad. It can even be good when it leads us to see others as part of God’s glory. Yet, using differences as a way to look down on people is sin. This type of behavior breaks relationships and divides us in neg-ative ways. Discuss this. (Hint: Think about judgement as being a way to conclude that one person is better than another. Remember Philippians 2:3-4 from Conver-sation 1.)

2. What, if any, racism do you see in our world today?

3. What racism to you know about in our own American history?

4. Why do you think racism still exists today?

5. Read more accounts in the Bible that speak to prejudice and racism. Discuss.

• The Parable of the Good Samaritan- Luke 10: 25-37. Mention that the Samar-itans and Jews disliked each other, yet Jesus called them and he calls us to love our neighbor.

• Jonah. He refused to go to Nineveh and preach to a people he thought wicked and undeserving—people of a different religion and race, considered the ene-

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mies of Israel. God shows Jonah that he loves the people Jonah disliked.

6. For another example of being called to repentance, read Acts 17: 24-31 and discuss.

Keep it Going

Children’s Books: God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell

The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler

Activity:

Coloring Book of Famous Black People in HistoryCraft Kit (includes the book: The Color of Us by Karen Katz)

Adult Resources: 12 Years a Slave (film)Hidden Figures (film)

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CONVERSATION FOUR

Conversation 4: Jesus Makes All Things New

Jesus Makes All Things New teaches about God wanting to forgive all sins and heal all hearts of all people. Human hearts can be made new. We can learn to love people—all people—as Christ loves all. This conversation also introduces language to normalize talking about race.

Ready your Hearts

Read Colossians 1:15-23. Think about these comments and questions:

1. Who is Christ the image of?

2. How is Christ supreme in creation? (vv. 15-17)

3. How is Christ supreme in redemption? (vv. 18-20) What did Jesus do on the cross?

4. Remember the four broken relationships caused by the sin in Eden. Those broken relationships are with ourselves, with God, with each other and with creation. Jesus is reconciling all of our broken relationships. Reconciling means restoring broken relationships. Reconciliation is biblical justice. Jesus works to reconcile all things to himself and to us. Because Jesus is the supreme authority, he can do the work of reconciliation. He reconciles relationships both in us and through us. What do you think about the work of reconciliation?

Start the Conversation

In another conversation we learned about Paul reminding Peter of how the gospel is meant for all people. The gospel can save everyone. The gospel saves through Christ alone. Show a picture of the torn veil. Let’s look at this picture together.

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Ask Questions

1. Describe what this picture shows.

2. When do you think the curtain became torn? Why was the curtain torn?

Orient Our Hearts

1. Many years before Jesus died, God’s people, the Israelites, built a temple as a place to worship God. In this temple, there was an inner part called the Most Holy Place. God was especially present in the Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place also contained the Ark of the Covenant. A very thick and heavy curtain separated the Most Holy Place from the other parts of the temple. The curtain represented the barrier—the broken relationships—between God and his people. The broken rela-tionships happened because of the sin in Eden. When Adam and Eve ate the for-bidden fruit, sin broke our relationships with ourselves, with God, with each other and with the creation. The curtain—also called a veil— represented this separa-tion. Only the high priest of Israel could enter the Most Holy Place. The high priest could enter the Most Holy Place only on one special day each year.

2. Guess what happened at the Most Holy Place when Jesus died on the cross. The curtain tore in half! (Read Matthew 27:51) The thick and heavy curtain ripped in two from top to bottom. This tearing of the curtain represents Jesus restoring our relationship with God. By opening the curtain, Jesus creates a way for all people of all skin colors to enter into the Most Holy Place. Jesus takes away our guilt caused by our sins. He repairs our broken relationship with God. His sacrifice opens a peaceful path between God and all people. Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place, by the blood of Jesus, by a new living way opened for us through the curtain, that is his body.”

3. In our previous conversation, we talked about how all people hold sin in their hearts. When we repent of our sin and accept the healing Jesus made for us, the spirit of Christ removes the guilt of sin and sets us free. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is now no con-demnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”

Just as all humans are made in God’s image, all who trust in Jesus are made new and cleansed of their sins. Jesus reconciled us to God. Reconcile means to fix broken relationships. (Colossians 1:19-22) Being reconciled gives us freedom and ability to love. We can love the creation made by God and the people—all of the people—made by God. All broken relationships can be repaired through Jesus.

4. Colossians 3:10-15 tells us we are chosen and can clothe ourselves with compas-sion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:10 also says we

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should bear with one another and forgive each other. Bearing means walking together and helping each other. Forgiving means forgetting our anger and bad feelings toward each other. We can forgive just like God forgives us.

5. Listen to this story about the crippled person in Luke 5:17-26. In this story what did Jesus heal first? Why did you forgive his sins first? Jesus is most concerned with our hearts. He wants to heal our hearts more than anything else. All people need heart healing. Jesus heals hearts in all people. He forgives all of our sins—past, present, and future. Isn’t his grace amazing?!!

Go Deeper

1. According to the webinar by Be the Bridge, it is important to have our children learn the vocabulary of race and racism. For an interesting vocabulary exercise, on two pieces of paper make separate list of words—one list labeled Words of the World, the other list labeled Words of His Kingdom.On Words of the World paper, list words of race and racism used by the media, in textbooks, and in conversations. You can also add some of your own. On the Words of His Kingdom paper list words about God, his kingdom, and the gospel.

Your lists of words may look something like these: Words of the World might include white privilege, social injustice, prej-udice, KKK, slavery, civil rights, savages (talk about Native Americans here), discrimination, black lives matter, Jim Crow, segregation, white supremacy, holocaust, genocide.

Words of His Kingdom might include reconcile, love, grace, mercy, free-dom, good, righteous, forever, eternal, faithful, trustworthy, peace, securi-ty, patience, truth and rescuer.

Talk about the word lists. What do the Words of the World say about our culture? What do the Words of His Kingdom say about Jesus and his followers? The point of the exercise is describing words, not pitting the word lists against each other.

2. Additional Scriptures to study with your children: • Jesus sets an example with the Samaritan woman at the well. Read John 4. Talk

about how the Samaritans and the Jews did not like each other. Talk about how Jesus loves her.

• 1 Peter 1: 12-23. As Christ-followers, how are we set apart? How are we called to love on another?

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Keep it Going

Children’s Books:

God Blesses Me by Della Ross Ferreri

The Garden, The Curtain, and The Cross by Carl Laferton

Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall

Adult Resource:

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man with Emmanuel Acho and Chip and Joanna Gaines

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CONVERSATION FIVE

Conversation 5: The Good News, A New Mission

The Good News, A New Mission teaches about the church sharing the gospel with all people. Encourage your children to think about what it means to be image-bearers of the living God in a world in need of the healing and freeing love of Jesus.

Ready your Heart

Read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. Think about these comments and questions:

1. If we are in Christ, what are we?

2. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth. What is the ministry given to the Corinthian church and to our church?

3. What does it mean to be ambassadors for Christ?

4. How can the church—the body of Christ—be ambassadors for God in a world plagued by the prejudice and discrimination of racism?

Start the Conversation

Show a picture of a “Roman Soldier” wearing the armor of God.

Ask for a description.

(Use Ephesians 6: 10-18.)

We previously talked about being made new in Christ—being his image bearers. How can the armor help us as his image bearers? The armor helps us defend and stand strong against evil and spread reconciliation as his good news ambassadors.

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Ask Questions

1. What is the Gospel? (Use this definition to help guide your discussion: The gospel is good news. It says God, more holy than we can imagine, looked with compassion upon people more sinful than we would possibly admit. He sent Jesus his incar-nate son into history to establish his kingdom and reconcile the world to himself. Jesus, in immeasurable extravagant love, came to sacrificially die for us. His death and resurrection give us new and eternal life by faith through his grace. Animated by the Holy Spirit, this new life makes us members of God’s covenant family, plus participants as his ambassadors in the mission of his kingdom now on earth as it is and will be in heaven.)

2. Our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. What is the gospel of peace? (Hint: It’s the good news that Christ’s salvation brings peace with God, plus the possibility of peace with others and peace with the creation.)

3. Do you think we should keep this good news a secret? Explain ways we can share the good news of the gospel with all people.

Orient Our Hearts

1. Picture yourself wearing armor provided by God, with your feet prepared for the gospel of peace. And now imagine in addition to wearing armor, you are surround-ed by thousands of others equipped in the same armor. The others around you are part of God’s church. We are his people, his church, the body of Christ. 1 Peter 2:9-10 says, “…you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

2. Remember how we said racism is a result of our sin and our brokenness? Racism is one way we elevate ourselves higher over others. Racism fails to biblically value others. Racism places us—not God—first. Racism makes us little lords—lording ourselves over others because of their skin color. The sin of racism can impact all people—even people in Christ’s church, including you and me. But Jesus can free us from racism. He calls us out of darkness and into his wonderful light. He gives us new identities in him. He gives new eyes for seeing the world. And—walking with gospel feet prepared for peace—we as his church go as ambassadors, on his mission to extend light, peace and good news from him to the world.

3. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, apostle Paul defines our mission as one of reonciliation—working with Jesus through the power of His Holy Spirit to help restore or make right the broken relationships in our world. He says we are Christ’s ambassadors. As a soldier in God’s Kingdom, you work as an ambassador—a representative of his

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grace, peace and love. Through the Holy Spirit, God gives you spiritual armor. He equips you with the authority of a King. He sends you on a mission from the King to share with all people—the Good News of redemption and reconciliation.

4. With our God-given mission before us, how can we show love to our neighbors and to all of God’s people? (Matthew 28:18-20) How can we carry the gospel of peace to a world suffering broken relationships? How can we fight against the sin and consequences of racism? (Mark 12:29-31)

Go Deeper

1. Prejudice can show itself as favoritism. Prejudice can apply to more than just skin color and racism. Read James 2:1-13. What kind of favoritism is being described in these passages? Do we still show this kind of favoritism today? What do these vers-es show about our sinful nature? What are we valuing above God and his creation?

2. How can we call out prejudice when we see it without being judgmental (or preju-diced ourselves) to those outside the church?

3. Think back to the ministry of reconciliation mentioned in the Ready Our Hearts section of this conversation. Remind your children about our God-given mission of reconciliation. Discuss how we as his church have not always done a good job with reconciliation, sometimes choosing comfort and security over reconciliation. Discuss how we can move forward in our mission of reconciliation as it relates to our own wealth, comfort, security and racism? Remember, the guidance from Jesus when he sent our disciples: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. There-fore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:9 - NIV).

Keep it Going

Children’s Books:

Thank You, Omu! By Oge Mora

Round is a Mooncake by Roseanne Thong

Activity:

• Bring out the bags containing torn pictures from the activity in Conversation 2. In that conversation we talked about sin breaking all of our relationships. But the story does not end with brokenness. God works in our lives to repair our fractured

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relationships. He does this by renewing us through the sacrifice, resurrection, love and spirit of Jesus.

• Using tape, piece the pictures back together. How does this symbolize the work of God repairing our shattered connections? Are the restored pictures as good as before we tore them into pieces? Explain how the repaired pictures are better than the torn pieces. While the pictures are symbolic, because of Jesus, we can have a real relationship with God even though there is still some sin and brokenness in our lives and in our world. Yet, one day all sin will be gone forever.

Toys:

• Community Helpers: example here • Lego Duplo: Families

Adult Resources:

Axis: A parent’s guide to racism in the United States—this resource provides great ideas for going deeper with older students

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CONVERSATION SIX

Conversation 6: Hope—God’s Kingdom Restored

Hope—God’s Kingdom Restored looks at how God’s restored kingdom appears in re-gards to human diversity. While the evils of racism remain very visible now, the future kingdom fully restores all broken relationships, including those related to skin color and race. As Christ-followers, we can begin to restore that reality today.

Ready Your Heart

Read Matthew 25:31-40. Think about these comments and questions: 1. Who is gathered before the throne? 2. How are we separated in the end? Is it according to our race and human differences?

Start the Conversation

Show a picture of all tribes and nations coming before the Lamb of God (Revelation 7:9-10).

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Ask Questions

1. Describe what you see in this picture.

2. This picture shows an event. Do you think this event has already happened or will happen someday? Why?

Orient Our Hearts

1. In our last conversation, we talked about how the Gospel is meant for all people of all nations. This is a picture of the future—of what happens when Jesus comes back and restores God’s rightful Kingdom here on earth.

2. Revelation 7:9-10 says, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multi-tude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, stand-ing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

3. If this is a picture of God’s restored kingdom, who is in His Kingdom? All races and all tribes. Remember, sin affects people from every race and tribe because we are all part of the one human race. All sinners who repent of their sin are offered forgiveness through Jesus. All people can have this inheritance.

4. All of these people are part of God’s family. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, we become part of this family. We are brothers and sisters, not because of our parents or our place of birth, but because of who we follow—Jesus. Jesus unites us in faith. We are all called to be fellow workers—ambassadors—in God’s kingdom.

5. One day, we will come together as one family, just as we read in Revelation. The worldly differences that we have talked about in these conversations and that sep-arate us now will no longer divide us.

6. Do you remember from our third conversation when we looked at the picture of the world? What divided the landmasses? (Hint: The seas.) Revelation 21:1 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.” The sea is gone! We are no longer separated, but together as one. What a wonderful thought! We are brought together and unified in Christ—first, spiritually and one day, even physically.

Go Deeper

1. What now? How can we continue to examine our own hearts and ask God to reveal 35

to us our sins? Let’s start here at home. As brothers and sisters, how should we treat one another? Do you want to say you are sorry and ask for forgiveness for any bad things you have said or done to your brothers and sisters in this home? Do you want to change the ways you treat your brothers and sisters?

2. We talked about how, as Christ-followers, we are part of an even larger family. We have huge numbers of brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you want to say you are sorry and ask for forgiveness for any bad things that we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, have said or done to one another today or in the past? Do you want to change the ways you treat your brothers and sisters in Christ?

3. We talked about how, as Christ-followers, we are called to help restore God’s King-dom here on Earth until He comes again. As part of God’s family, how can we show love and have relationships with all people, remembering all people are created in God’s image?

4. Remember this verse: “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”- Jeremiah 29:12-13. As a family, seek Jesus and pray to be shown how we can love and have relationships with people of another race, religion, color, or social status.

5. Read more about the importance of being brothers and sisters. Discuss Matthew 12:46-50 and 1 Corinthians 1:10-17. Read and discuss this article.

Keep it Going

Children’s Books:

Let’s Dance by Valerie Bolling

Have You Seen Elephant? By David Barrow

Art Supplies:

Construction Paper: here or hereCrayons: here or here Markers: hereColored Pencils: herePopsicle Stick People: herePaint: here

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Adult Resource:

Be the Bridge: This website provides a lot of resources (I recommend their two-part webinar on Talking to Kids about Race)

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