THE CHURCH AROUND THE WORLD

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I’m sending you’” (John 20:21, NIV*).

This unit will help the children:• Appreciate what it is to be a missionary and how the gospel began to spread• Understand that God does not have favorite people, but he loves everyone equally, in every corner of the world, and he wants them to know the gospel of Jesus Christ• Know that in Antioch, the followers of Jesus were called “Christians” for the first time• Understand that the church is part of God’s plan to bring the Good News to the whole world.

The biblical passages of this unit allow us to show that from the beginning, the Church of Jesus Christ was persecuted and attacked with much hatred. Despite all that, not only has the Church survived, it has spread throughout the world. Throughout history, God has raised up courageous and passionate people who, even at the cost of their own lives, have proclaimed Christ and announced the Good News. The most important thing is that as these people fulfilled the mandate of God, the hand of the Lord was with them. His power manifested itself by endorsing his words with signs, wonders and miracles. Many people became followers of Christ. Our students will learn that the world is corrupt and that sin seems to dominate things, but the Church of Jesus Christ remains a reserve of morality and decency which, being supported and led by God, has the power to fight against sin and to change lost lives into new and clean lives.