Information

Bible Basics is a fully digital and free program for children’s church services and Sunday school.

✔ True to the Bible
✔ Attentive to the child
✔ Free, and digitally available
✔ Suitable for small as well as large groups

This children’s service material has been developed by the Bible Society for the Netherlands and Flanders. We think it is important that both the Bible and the child are taken seriously. That is why we follow these two principles:

Focus on the Bible and the world of the Bible

The stories in the Bible are very powerful. They each tell their own story, which is passed on from generation to generation.

In our material, we remain close to the stories from the Bible. The retellings of the stories for the youngest children still try to be as true to the Bible as possible. The older children hear the story directly from the Bible. We recommend children’s ministry workers to use the text from the Good News Translation. This text is also included in the programs. Of course, you can also use another translation to read from.

We offer additional information about the story, the time and the culture of the Bible. This is how we let the stories come alive for the children.

Focus on the child

Children have a strong ability to think about stories from the Bible and their meaning themselves. They often have ideas and questions concerning the stories. That is why it is important to really look at and listen to the children: What do they like, or think is beautiful? What are they curious about? What do they think about what happens in the stories?

It is important to take the children seriously when you are talking about the Bible together.

This is why:

• Our material is created to match the religious and educational goals of the Children’s Theology. In the programs there is room for all children and their individual way of thinking.
• The programs are designed to match the language, level of intelligence and the perception of 4-8-year-olds and 8-12-year-olds.
• We have taken into account the fact that children have different (learning)preferences. The information and the tasks are very diverse. In this way, children are engaged in different ways.

Elements

Every program consists of the following elements:

✔ Explanation and context of the bible passage
✔ Overview of the materials needed for the assignments and activities
✔ Activities for the start of the service
✔ The Bible story of the week in two versions: a retelling of the story for the 4-8-year-olds and the Bible text for the 8-12-year-olds
✔ Facts
✔ Colorful illustrations
✔ Discussion questions to understand the story and to experience the relevance for their own life
✔ Puzzles, crafts and experiments
✔ A short prayer
✔ Suggestions for a children’s moment in the regular service