Ethos and Practice
Our Ethos
We recognise the whole Bible as the word of God, and therefore without error, fully reliable, and authoritative. We believe the Bible is fully adequate for teaching Christian truth about every area of life.
Our starting point for preparing lessons is the Bible rather than the child. Whilst we recognise that the Bible must be presented in a way that children are able to understand, and made relevant to their lives, it is the Bible itself that we are concerned should be taught.
Two things follow from this approach:
- We adopt the policy of starting with those mainly narrative sections of the Bible which are most readily grasped by the youngest children, and then move on to include passages whose meaning is not so straightforward with older children and young people;
- We are concerned that the clear, main, thrust of the passage should be taught, rather than inferences and extensions of meaning. To some extent, our goal is to help children understand how to read the Bible for themselves, and to learn from it.
Our intention is that the whole programme, from ages 3 to 14, should cover a wide range of the Bible, so that a basic framework of Bible history is given, its main characters are introduced, the main events in our Lord's life and work are studied, and the fundamental truths of the Christian faith are taught.
Go Teach lessons have the following aims:
- The overriding purpose is to lay a foundation of Bible knowledge, which, by the blessing of the Holy Spirit, will not only prove immediately beneficial, but will have a lasting effect.
- We aim to produce lessons which, prayerfully taught, will bring God's word to bear on the hearts of children, and bring about a spiritual response. We do not understand Bible teaching to be a merely theoretical imparting of facts.
- We aim to present the gospel clearly, so that no child can misunderstand the way of salvation, or the call to repentance and faith. However, not every lesson is directly evangelistic, though most have a gospel application.
- We aim to encourage young believers to live in obedience to Jesus Christ, following Bible principles in their everyday lives.
- Whilst we believe that in Bible teaching we should make use of every help that is available from the educational world, we also believe that there is no substitute for faithfulness to the Bible and the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the purposes of the word of God.
Our Practice
Bible Version
All Go Teach materials were originally based on the New International Version of the Bible (1984). From 2021, all newly published materials have been based on the English Standard Version.[1]
Theology
Go Teach seeks to present Bible truth simply and plainly, but when issues of interpretation arise, it takes a ‘reformed’ and ‘non-charismatic’ stance, as those terms are generally understood.
Creation
The Genesis account of creation is taken as literal and historical.
Baptism
Baptism is understood to be the immersion in water of a believer in Jesus Christ, symbolising death to sin and new life.
The Lord’s Day
Go Teach takes a positive view of Sunday as the Lord’s Day—a day for rest from work, for worship of God, and for showing kindness to others.[2]
The Church
The church consists of all those, and only those, who have been born again by the Holy Spirit, who have repented of sin, and who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
The Last Things
Teaching will be confined to those aspects clearly revealed in Scripture, namely:
- the bodily return to earth of the Lord Jesus Christ on a day known only to God;
- the bodily resurrection of the dead;
- the judgement of all mankind;
- the everlasting misery of the lost;
- the everlasting joy of the redeemed in their Saviour’s presence.
No particular view of the millennium is taken or taught.
Visual Aids
Biblical characters are depicted in a realistic style. Christ is not normally depicted visually. The facial features, or uncovered hair, of Christ are not shown, except indistinctly of the baby in the manger. The same applies to Old Testament figures thought to be pre-incarnate appearances of the Lord. When deemed necessary, a rear view, a vague silhouette, or a hand or foot of such a figure (including Christ in the New Testament) may be shown. A dove at the baptism of Christ may be depicted.
[1] It is current practice to make all activities in children’s leaflets compatible with the Authorised Version, and to make all materials as helpful as possible to those who use the AV.
[2] For the believer, every day is the Lord’s. However, He is honoured by His people when they follow the pattern He ordained at creation, by using the day of resurrection of the Saviour, the first day of the week, to meet together in fellowship and to receive the ministry of God’s word. To do so, they avoid, as far as possible, those things that would impinge on such activities, and their performance in their Saviour’s name of ‘works of mercy’.