Why I Would Have Voted Against the SBC’s “Truth and Unity” Amendment

TLDR: I would have voted against the “Truth and Unity” amendment despite supporting male-only elders because the proposal creates more confusion than clarity and oversimplifies complex issues of titles, functions, and authority. Greater nuance, charity, and humility should precede the 2027 vote.

This past week, the SBC messengers passed Al Mohler’s “Truth and Unity” constitutional amendment by a 75-25 margin. It will come before the messengers at the 2027 annual meeting in Indianapolis, and if it receives at least two-thirds support there, it will become part of the SBC constitution.

As someone who holds a generally complementarian view of gender roles, I nevertheless would have voted against this amendment. My opposition would not have stemmed from a desire to see women serving as elders or senior pastors in SBC churches. Rather, I believe the proposal creates more confusion than clarity and undermines the very unity it claims to advance. Here’s why.

Why This Amendment?

The amendment seeks to clarify that only men can serve as pastors in churches affiliated with the SBC—an affirmation already present in Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000: Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.1

Proponents argue this language is insufficient. The new amendment would more directly require the Credentials Committee to deem churches that employ women titled “pastor” and/or that permit women to preach to the assembled congregation as not being in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC. Such churches would therefore be removed from friendly cooperation, that is they would not be allowed to be part of the SBC.2

Here is the full text of Article III.1 of the SBC constitution, including the proposed amendment (III.1.6):

  1. The Convention will only deem a church to be in friendly cooperation with the Convention, and sympathetic with its purposes and work (i.e., a “cooperating” church as that term is used in the Convention’s governing documents) which:
    • 1 . Has a faith and practice which closely identifies with the Convention’s adopted statement of faith. (By way of example, churches which act to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior would be deemed not to be in cooperation with the Convention.)
    • 2. Has formally approved its intention to cooperate with the Southern Baptist Convention. (By way of example, the regular filing of the annual report requested by the Convention would be one indication of such cooperation.)
    • 3. Has made undesignated, financial contribution(s) through the Cooperative Program, and/or through the Convention’s Executive Committee for Convention causes, and/or to any Convention entity during the fiscal year preceding.
    • 4. Does not act in a manner inconsistent with the Convention’s beliefs regarding sexual abuse.
    • 5. Does not act to affirm, approve, or endorse discriminatory behavior on the basis of ethnicity.
    • 6. Does not act to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.3

Why Are Some Against This Amendment?

In addition to believing the amendment is unnecessary—given existing mechanisms the Credentials Committee has already used4—opponents argue that neither the amendment nor the underlying issue is as clear as supporters claim. That is my position.

If forced to label myself, I would say I am a complementarian. I believe God created men and women as equals who are, at times, given different roles. The biblical argument that the office of elder/pastor is limited to men (based primarily on 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6) is, to me, the most persuasive. I also believe a husband should lead in the home (though I’m less certain what that looks like in practice). However, complementarianism encompasses far more than these points, which is why I often prefer the term “soft complementarian.” And that’s part of the problem.

Many frame this debate as a strict dichotomy—egalitarianism versus complementarianism—which oversimplifies the issue. In reality, there are numerous complicated issues and various positions that can be held. So it is more of a continuum than two binary poles.

The deeper problem is that many fail to see this complexity. Instead, they make assumptions that place anyone who does not share their exact definitions and conclusions into the opposing camp.

Exploring the Complexity

What follows is not an argument for or against complementarianism, nor a case on who may or may not be a pastor.5 Rather, I offer a series of questions that illustrate why the issue is far more complicated than some claim. And this is why had I been a messenger, I would have voted against the amendment (again, not because I am an egalitarian or desire female elders in the SBC) because it assumes more than it states and creates more confusion than clarity. It fails to deliver the “truth” and “unity” its title promises in a way that all Southern Baptists of good faith can support.

Questions to Consider

  • Are “pastor” and “elder” the same office? Are all elders pastors and all pastors elders? If so, does the Bible support this clearly and strongly enough to deem a church unbiblical for having a female “Women’s Pastor” who exercises no governing authority over the church and does not preach to the corporate gathering?
  • Are the title, office, and function of pastor/elder inseparably fused? Can someone be called “pastor” without holding the office or performing its functions? Can someone hold the title and office but not exercise the functions? Conversely, can someone function as a pastor without the title or office? If these three elements are inseparable, what is the clear scriptural case for that conclusion?
  • What are the specific functions of a pastor/elder? If it is more than one, why does the amendment single out preaching?6 Is preaching the only function that cannot be shared by non-pastors? For example, can a non-pastor visit the sick or help administer the ordinances? if this is the only non-sharable function, why is that and what is the scriptural case?
  • Authority lies at the heart of this discussion. What exactly is the pastor/elder’s authority? Authority to do what, and over whom? What makes this authority unique?
  • Some argue that preaching is inherently an authoritative act reserved for pastors/elders. What exactly is authoritative about it? If preaching is authoritative, how do we justify churches that regularly allow non-elder, non-staff men to preach? Is teaching different? If so, why?
  • If preaching is the definitive function of a pastor/elder, must every pastor preach? How should we view male staff pastors (executive pastors, worship pastors, etc.) who rarely or never preach? If this is the definitive function, how frequently should a pastor preach to fulfill this calling? If a pastor’s job description prioritizes anything above preaching (e.g., missions), how does that reconcile with it as the primary function?
  • Is “pastor” also a spiritual gift beyond the office (see Ephesians 4:11–12)? If not, why is it the only office listed alongside apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers—while the other office (deacon) is omitted?
  • What does the amendment mean by “affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function”? If this means not having a female pastor on staff, why not say that clearly? Would partnering with a church that has a female pastor to do a community mission project be “affirming” or “endorsing” a female in that office? Would allowing a woman to visit shut ins or help administer a baptism be “affirming,” “appointing,” or “endorsing” the function?
  • Must a pastor be married, per the literal reading of 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6? If not, why do we treat that qualification differently from the inference that a pastor must be male because he must have “one wife”?

Some of My Answers

For what it’s worth, here is where I land:

  • Elders, of which a lead pastor should be one, are to be men.
  • Not all pastors on staff are the same, and not all pastors are elders. The lead/senior pastor is of a different class than staff pastors. The SBC would be better to acknowledge this, or it should move toward limiting “pastor” being used in this sense as part of this discussion.
  • The authority of a pastor/elder primarily concerns determining the “official” doctrine of a local church and exercising church discipline.
  • Preaching is not an inherently authoritative act. Authority rests in the Word of God, not the preacher.
  • The title, office, and function of “pastor” are not inseparably fused. While I would not do it myself, titling a non-elder staff member “pastor” may not be unfaithful to Scripture. Many see this title as one meaning “shepherd,” not “elder.”
  • Preaching is one function of a pastor/elder, but shepherding—caring for the flock—is primary.
  • If this amendment passes, the SBC should apply equal scrutiny to churches with male pastors who are not fulfilling the biblical office and functions.
  • If the SBC wants to codify that no woman may have the title of pastor or preach, that can be stated in a much clearer way. Rather, if it desires a more comprehensive position on women in leadership, it should expand the discussion to include many (or perhaps all) of the questions above.

Conclusion

In the end, I recognize that these positions must be held with charity, grace, and humility. Two believers can share a common commitment to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture and reach different positions. Indeed, Southern Baptists should be able to disagree on the application of certain texts and the wisdom of specific constitutional measures without immediately questioning one another’s orthodoxy. My hope is that the SBC continues to wrestle honestly with these questions over the next twelve months and vote next June accordingly for the good of the church and the glory of Christ.

  1. https://bfm.sbc.net/bfm2000/ ↩︎
  2. Some have claimed this violates the Baptist principle of church autonomy. Technically, it does not. The SBC cannot dictate a church’s doctrine or practice, but it does have the right to determine which churches it considers aligned with its identity and mission. A church may continue calling a woman “pastor” or allowing women to preach; it simply would not remain part of the Southern Baptist Convention. ↩︎
  3. https://www.sbc.net/about/what-we-do/legal-documentation/constitution/ ↩︎
  4. Churches have recently been declared not in friendly cooperation for having women on staff with the title “pastor.” ↩︎
  5. I should also note that I am not an expert on this matter. I have studied it and thought about it quite a bit, but I am not a scholar on this subject. ↩︎
  6. “Specifically” does not isolate preaching as the only function, but rather points to that one above any and all others. ↩︎

It Matters Parenting Conference

TLDR: The slide decks presented at the “It Matters Parenting Conference at Hershey Free Church, Hershey, PA, on February 28, 2026.

Feel free to view and/or download these slide decks to follow along during the workshop, to review later, or to share with other parents to help them in their family discipleship journey.

Who Am I: Helping Our Kids Discover Their True Identity

Who Am I Slide DeckDownload

Act Like Jesus: Pursuing Biblical Morality without Falling into Unbiblical Moralism

Act Like Jesus – Moralism – Slide DeckDownload

The Joy of AI Feature Images

Some of the Rejected Images from the Teaching Kids Theology series

TLDR: AI-generated images aren’t quite there yet. Here are some of my favorite rejected AI feature images from the posts in this series.

Like it or not, AI is upon us. And while there can and should be rigorous debate about its use (ethics, legality, etc.), it can be an amazingly helpful tool. You likely noticed that all the images in the Teaching Kids Theology series were AI-generated, a feature of the WordPress platform that I use. At times, I have used free image-sharing sites, but that takes quite a bit of time and sometimes you can’t quite find what you are looking for. So, I decided to give the AI images a try. For the most part, I was fine with the images generated—but what you see are far from the first ones I was given. I had to toy with my prompts and even then, there were times when I felt like there wasn’t much I in AI. But the process did give me a good laugh at times. Below are some of my favorite rejected images. Enjoy!

How to Handle Tough Questions

Teaching Kids Theology Part 16

TLDR: One barrier to some teachers and parents encouraging questions is not knowing how to respond when a child asks a tough question, especially one we cannot answer. There are a few basic ways we can respond in these times.

As teachers or parents discipling children, one of the best things we can do is establish an environment that welcomes questions because questions are an on-ramp to learning. And learning is the path to coming to trust in Jesus and live like Jesus. That’s why using a catechism in discipleship is so helpful; it establishes that questions aren’t only welcome, they’re critical.

However, many teachers or parents are hesitant to give a green light for kids asking questions for a simple reason: What if the child asks a tough question that I can’t answer? That’s an understandable concern, but it isn’t an insurmountable concern. The key is to be prepared and know how you can respond. Here are five suggested ways to respond when a child asks you a challenging question:

“What do you think?”

No matter if you know the answer to a question or not, it’s almost always good to turn the question back around to the child and let them take a stab at answering it. This not only helps them develop their thinking, but it also gives you a little more insight into where they are, which in turn gives you more opportunities to have deeper a vdiscussion. But there’s a side benefit to doing this: It gives you a little more time to think so you can respond in the best way.

“Here’s the answer.”

There are times when a child asks a question, even a tough one, and you’re confident of the answer. There’s nothing wrong with just giving a straightforward answer in these times. This is especially true when the Bible is absolutely clear on a subject. This could be done right away, or it can be done after you invite the child to try to answer the question themself first.

“Here’s what I think.”

This response is so important, but so often neglected. We need to be very careful to help our kids understand that there are answers we know are right and then there are answers we think are right. This could be because we haven’t researched the answer fully, or it could be because people have different views on the answer. For example, if a child asks a question about eschatology, there are several different interpretations of that subject, and we can’t be sure which is correct. In those times, we want to abstain from saying, “here’s the one true answer,” and instead respond in a posture of “there are a few ways people answer that, and here’s what I think.” If possible, it’s helpful to share the opposing views too in a respectful way.

“I don’t know. Let’s find that out together.”

If a child stumps you with a question—which is highly likely; kids are great at asking questions that we adults are usually too afraid to ask—don’t panic! It’s okay that we don’t know everything, and it’s important to let the child know that. So begin with the clear statement that you simply don’t know the answer. Some teachers and parents are afraid that this will diminish trust in the child, but it’s the opposite. Being quick to admit you don’t know something strengthens the times when you give an answer. But it also teaches the child that they too can’t know everything and helps them begin to be okay with that. However, as often as you can, follow this up by inviting the child to partner with you to look for the answer. This provides you with the wonderful opportunity to dive into God’s Word as you also help the child learn how to study it more deeply to find answers.

“I don’t know. And really, no one knows that.”

At times, a child will ask a question that no one can answer. It might be a question speculating on why God did something or why He didn’t do something. Or, it might be a question that brushes up against some of the great mysteries of the faith, like the nature of the Trinity or how Jesus could be fully God and fully human at the same time. In these times, start again by being clear that you don’t know the answer to the question, but then broaden it to clarify that no one really knows. Feel free to discuss some of your thoughts or what can be known close to the question (e.g., we don’t fully understand the Trinity, but we know for sure that there is one God in three Persons—Father, Son, and Spirit), but stop short of trying to resolve a question that cannot be answered (this is why we shouldn’t use any picture of the Trinity such as an egg or a clover; they all end up teaching error). Just like it’s important that a child understands that you don’t have all the answers, it’s just as important that they learn that they won’t have all the answers either. What we want to help them do is be comfortable in these mysteries of the faith.

If you are looking for a resource to help you grow as a theologian and to help you teach your children theology, Faith Foundations is for you. These ninety-nine devotions use an ancient tool called a catechism to teach the core doctrines of the faith. Each devotion features a Bible reading, a devotion, several engaging questions, a Jesus connection, and a suggested family activity. Faith Foundations is now available for purchase.

Teaching Kids about the Church and Last Things

Teaching Kids Theology Part 15

TLDR: The doctrine of the church and the doctrine of last things are interwoven; the church exists to continue Jesus’ ministry until he returns. This mission includes children, who share the same calling of living on mission for Christ wherever they go.

Perhaps one of the most startling statements God made in the Bible is what he told Adam in Eden, that it wasn’t good for him to be alone (Genesis 2:18).1 It’s jarring really. On the heels of the refrain “it was good” that courses throughout Genesis 1, God deems something not good. And that should stop us in our tracks. Adam had God, of course, but God had more in mind for Adam. God knew Adam needed a companion.

In Genesis 2, we see that God hard-wired us for relationship, primarily with him but with each other too. And while that often manifests itself in the form of marriage and family, God has given us another crucial relationship in the church, a relationship that all believers partake in.

When we think of the church, we can think of it in two ways. First, it’s all believers of all time. This is often called the universal or invisible church. Second, the church is the believers in one specific time and place who gather regularly. This is called the local or visible church. The church isn’t perfect, but Jesus died for the church, loves the church, and he is returning for the church one day.

The doctrine of the church is a field called ecclesiology, and the doctrine of Jesus’ return or of last things, is an area of study called eschatology. These two doctrines are tightly intertwined. The church exists to complete the mission that Jesus began two thousand years ago as we wait for his return. What started out as a handful of believing Jews in and around Jerusalem has spread around the world, but as long as the sun rises in the east and there are people who haven’t trusted in Christ, we have work to do.

That work will end one day though. One day—no one knows when it will be—Jesus will return to earth. The first time he came as the suffering servant; when he returns, he will come as the conquering king. And on that day, Jesus will end all that is wrong. Sin, rebellion, suffering, and death will be no more. He will repair and restore everything that sin broke. Every wrong will be made right. This is a great day of hope—but only for those who have trusted in Jesus, his church. For all others, this will be a day of great mourning. Our calling is to follow Christ’s guidance to do whatever we can to make that latter group as small as possible—prayerfully non-existent.

As you talk through these doctrines with your kids, be sure to cast a two-way vision: The return of Jesus fills us with great hope, but it should also compel us to live out the mission he gave us—while there is time. Each follower of Jesus—including a believing child—is part of the church and takes part in its shared mission to reach the world with the gospel. As such, help your children understand that they have a role to play in and through the church. Don’t let them see themselves as Junior Christians, or as a B Team. God wants so much more for them!

If you are looking for a resource to help you grow as a theologian and to help you teach your children theology, Faith Foundations is for you. These ninety-nine devotions use an ancient tool called a catechism to teach the core doctrines of the faith. Each devotion features a Bible reading, a devotion, several engaging questions, a Jesus connection, and a suggested family activity. Faith Foundations is now available for purchase.

  1. This blog post is a slightly adapted excerpt from Faith Foundations. (Brian Dembowczyk, Faith Foundations: 99 Devotions to Help Your Family Know, Love, & Act Like Jesus. Downers Grove: IVP, 2025.) ↩︎

Teaching Kids about Christian Living

Teaching Kids Theology Part 14

TLDR: The gospel is not only the pathway to salvation; it’s the connective thread that runs through our daily life. Everything we do should be informed by our faith in Jesus.

Far too often, people can focus almost exclusively on the gospel leading up to the point of salvation.1 That’s critical, of course. We want and need to present the gospel to a person so that he or she places faith in Jesus and is saved. But the problem is that there’s far more to the gospel than that. If the act of salvation were our ultimate goal, then wouldn’t it make sense for God to take us to our perfect home to be with him the instant we trust in Jesus? But he doesn’t. He leaves us here on a broken earth. Why? The reason is two-fold.

First, we’re left here so that he can use us to help others come to saving faith through Jesus too.

Second, we’re left here because God made us to do far more than just be saved. He created us to glorify him, to love him, to worship him, to serve him, and to obey him. That’s our design. And when we do that, we experience the abundant living Jesus promised (John 10:10).

God made us to do far more than just be saved.

Applying the gospel to daily life is called practical theology. It’s just what it sounds like: theology that’s practical, or theology that we can “touch.” This area is all about every-day, real-world, hands-on truths that we can live out wherever we are as we do whatever we do. For our kids, this can include school, sports, hobbies, the neighborhood, and more. Wherever your children go and whatever they do falls within the realm of practical theology—living out their faith.

Practical theology can’t stand alone though. It only makes sense if it stands upon the foundation of other doctrine of salvation. We can’t live the way God made us to live if we don’t have our sin problem dealt with, and that can only happen through Jesus. This is critical for us to stress as we teach our kids about how to live out their faith. If we try to do this in our own power, we’re going to fail and get frustrated. But, when we trust in Jesus, he makes us new in him, and when we’re relying on the Holy Spirit who’s been given to us, we can live exactly how we were made to live. We won’t be able to do this perfectly on this side of eternity, but we will find ourselves growing gradually to live more like Christ day by day.

As you talk with your kids about living out the faith, raise a high bar! Don’t let your family settle for less than God’s best. But at the same time, be sure that grace and patience saturates your family as well. God calls us to live for him and expects us to do that. But he also lovingly comes alongside us to help us do what he expects of us, and he pours his limitless grace and mercy over us as we move, sometimes ploddingly, in that direction.

If you are looking for a resource to help you grow as a theologian and to help you teach your children theology, Faith Foundations is for you. These ninety-nine devotions use an ancient tool called a catechism to teach the core doctrines of the faith. Each devotion features a Bible reading, a devotion, several engaging questions, a Jesus connection, and a suggested family activity. Faith Foundations is now available for purchase.

  1. This blog post is a slightly adapted excerpt from Faith Foundations. (Brian Dembowczyk, Faith Foundations: 99 Devotions to Help Your Family Know, Love, & Act Like Jesus. Downers Grove: IVP, 2025.) ↩︎

Teaching Kids about the Bible

Teaching Kids Theology Part 13

TLDR: The Bible is an amazing gift from God that helps us learn about Him and come to know Him through Jesus. The starting point for this journey is learning the basics of this wonderful book.

The study of the Bible, an area of theology called bibliology, is somewhat unique from the other areas of theology in that it looks toward the Bible to understand what it says about itself.1 Some people would see this as circular reasoning and thus conclude it’s problematic. After all, how reliable can what the Bible says about itself be? But this would only be a problem if the Bible were a normal book. That, it most surely is not.

The word bible means book, but the Bible isn’t like any other book; it’s in a class by itself. And the primary reason for that is because of who wrote the Bible: God. The Bible was given to us by God, who used human authors to record exactly what he wanted written down and preserved. And because God is faithful and true, and because he cannot lie or make a mistake, that requires that the Bible be faithful and true and without any lies or mistakes. A perfect God cannot make something imperfect. This is why we can trust what the Bible says about itself. Ultimately, it isn’t the Bible saying what is true about the Bible; it’s God saying what is true about the Bible.

As you teach about the Bible, start broad and basic. Help your child understand the basics of the Bible that you might take for granted that they know and understand. The Bible is one book made up of sixty-six individual books, which were written by about forty human authors over a span of about 1,500 years—from about 1,400 BC to about AD 100.

The books are organized into two Testaments—the Old Testament describing everything before Jesus and the New Testament describing the life of Jesus and start of the early church. The books within those two Testaments—39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament—are organized by genre, or type. The Old Testament begins with the Pentateuch, or five books of the Law. Those are followed by the books of history, the writings, and then the prophets—the major and minor. The terms major and minor don’t speak to these books’ importance, but rather their length.

The New Testament begins with four Gospels, each looking at the life of Jesus from a slightly different perspective. Those are followed by a book of history and then the epistles. The epistles are often divided into the Pauline Epistles—those written by Paul—and the General Epistles—those written by others. The New Testament concludes with a book of apocalypse, the New Testament’s version of the Old Testament prophets.

Beyond this, help your child learn how chapters and verses work, and then other common features in a printed Bible, such as cross-references, translator notes, a table of contents, and concordances. While using a digital Bible is increasingly common, it is always helpful to understand how to navigate a printed Bible. This also might mean helping your child learn the order of the Bible books, a task greatly aided by using some memorization songs.

Even as you cover these basics, don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal of teaching our children about the Bible—it’s not so they learn about this special book as much as it’s so they learn about the special Author of the book. To know the Bible is to know God. And to know God is to know Jesus. And to know Jesus is to know how we can be saved and be in a relationship with Him.

If you are looking for a resource to help you grow as a theologian and to help you teach your children theology, Faith Foundations is for you. These ninety-nine devotions use an ancient tool called a catechism to teach the core doctrines of the faith. Each devotion features a Bible reading, a devotion, several engaging questions, a Jesus connection, and a suggested family activity. Faith Foundations is now available for purchase.

  1. The first two paragraphs of this blog post is a slightly adapted excerpt from Faith Foundations. (Brian Dembowczyk, Faith Foundations: 99 Devotions to Help Your Family Know, Love, & Act Like Jesus. Downers Grove: IVP, 2025.) ↩︎

Teaching Kids about Salvation

Teaching Kids Theology Part 12

TLDR: Salvation is, of course, one of the most important theological truths we can share with our children. However, there’s much more to it than a simple Gospel tract. Several key theological terms and questions should be explored.

Most people don’t realize it, but the area of systematic theology they likely know the most about is one called soteriology, the study of salvation.1 That’s because the most famous Bible verse—one that even many non-Christians know of—has got to be John 3:16, and that’s a verse all about salvation.

For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (NET)

Sin has broken our relationship with God and there’s nothing we can do about that. Notice there’s nothing we can do. But that’s not to say nothing can be done. God can certainly do something about our sin problem, and that’s exactly what he did. Our loving, gracious, merciful, majestic, wonderful, holy, powerful God made a way—the only way—through Jesus. Salvation is thus a breathtaking mixture of initial despair and lasting hope.

Part of teaching about salvation is introducing a child to several key theological terms. In general, we want to “bring down” the language for our kids to make it accessible and understandable. However, there are critical theological terms that we want our kids to learn and grow into.

  • Grace | This is God giving us something good that we don’t deserve. This can be anything good in life that we experience, but in the context of salvation, it focuses more on forgiveness.
  • Mercy | This is God not giving us something bad that we do deserve. In this way, it is the inverse of grace. Again, just like grace, mercy can mean God withholding anything bad in our lives, but in the context of salvation, it refers to God withholding His divine judgment and condemnation due to us because of our sin.
  • Atonement | The definition of this term is hidden within the word itself—”at one ment.” To be atoned is to be restored into relationship and fellowship. It is when two are separated for some reason and then brought back together. In the context of salvation, this, of course, points to how people are brought back into relationship with God through Christ. This atonement was pointed to in the Old Testament through the sacrifice system and especially the Day of Atonement detailed in Leviticus 16.
  • Regeneration | This means to be given new life. In the context of salvation, it concerns how we were dead in our sins but then once we trust in Christ, we are given new, eternal life.
  • Justification | Like atonement, the meaning of justification is embedded in the word itself—”just if I’d” never sinned. To be justified is to be made right. It’s to be declared fully forgiven by God. Because of our justification, we are spared from sin’s punishment.
  • Adoption | This concerns God taking us in to be part of his family. Thus, we go from being strangers and enemies of God to becoming his sons and daughters. In adoption, our prior debt of sin is taken from us and we become full, permanent heirs of his abundance of riches—namely himself and his kingdom.
  • Sanctification | This means to be made holy or to be set apart. Just like a sanctuary is a room set apart for worship, a Christian is set apart from the things of the world for a life of worship and service to God. Unlike most of the other terms in this list that happen instantaneously at conversion, sanctification is a gradual process by which we become more like Jesus.
  • Glorification | This has our future hope in mind when Jesus returns and makes all things right again. While we are sanctified day by day to look more like Jesus, we’ll never cease from sinning or obeying perfectly. However, when Jesus returns, we will be changed forevermore, and all our sin, weaknesses, and shortcomings will come to an end. We will be the full image bearers of God He meant us to be.

As we talk with our children about salvation, it’s also critical to address two key questions. The first concerns what has been called “the great exchange,” how Jesus has taken our sin from us and given us his righteousness in its place (2 Corinthians 5:21). While many of us understand the first part, that second part is often overlooked, but it’s just as important and glorious.

Finally, the idea of assurance needs to be explored from the perspective that no one who has truly trusted in Jesus and who has become a new creation can lose his or her salvation. Many believers live in fear that they can mess up somehow and lose their salvation but that’s not how God wants us to live. And that’s not how we want our kids to live. Instead, God wants our children to live with peace, joy, and confidence. And so do we. That’s the abundant living Jesus promised.

If you are looking for a resource to help you grow as a theologian and to help you teach your children theology, Faith Foundations is for you. These ninety-nine devotions use an ancient tool called a catechism to teach the core doctrines of the faith. Each devotion features a Bible reading, a devotion, several engaging questions, a Jesus connection, and a suggested family activity. Faith Foundations is now available for purchase.

  1. This blog post is an adapted excerpt from Faith Foundations. (Brian Dembowczyk, Faith Foundations: 99 Devotions to Help Your Family Know, Love, & Act Like Jesus. Downers Grove: IVP, 2025.) ↩︎