Sing to the Lord a new song

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Thursday, December 12th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Teaching the way of God to children.

Some adult Christians can study God’s word for years and never fully plumb the depths. So how can we teach children about the beauty and complexity of God and his word?

EICHER: In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

One man in Australia is teaching big ideas of theology to little children through music. Here’s WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis with that story.

MUSIC: [Flowers Fall]

AMY LEWIS, REPORTER: By day, Kingsley Davidson is a father, a husband, a bookkeeper, and a property manager. In his spare time, he writes songs.

KINGSLEY DAVIDSON: I started learning the guitar—or teaching myself the guitar—back when I was 18. And immediately started writing. And I had my, my Bible open, and just Scripture songs just seemed to come out of my heart and just out of my fingers, and away we go.

But Davidson’s own aspirations as a musician didn’t go as planned. At the time he was learning guitar, his family was part of a subculture in his church.

DAVIDSON: It was basically a holiness cult. So, and I think it had good motivations in its outset. But there were some serious flaws in their theology, in their understanding, in their practices.

At age 19, Davidson asked one of the group’s elders to look over some of his songs—to make sure they were biblically sound.

DAVIDSON: A month went by and I'm like, I haven't heard from him. So I chased him up about it. And he just said, “Kingsley, you shouldn't be doing that. You should be concentrating on your commerce degree.”

Instantly, his creativity shriveled up and he stopped writing songs. He became a bookkeeper and eventually left the group—but not the church. He didn’t write any songs for 17 years.

Then, in 2019, Davidson and his family moved from the crowds and concrete of Melbourne to the town of Forrest, Victoria. It’s a town in a temperate rainforest with a population of about 200 people.

SOUND: [OTWAYS BIRDS]

It’s definitely a slower pace of life—that allows for more creativity.

The Davidsons joined Geelong West Presbyterian Church. The pastor was teaching through the book of Colossians and asked Davidson to lead a Kids’ Talk before the sermon.

DAVIDSON: He was in Colossians one and verses around 15 to 27. It's an incredible passage where we get to see Jesus being the supreme ruler of, of heaven on earth. He's the image of the invisible God, just this magnificent passage about Christ.

Somehow he was supposed to communicate that to kids.

DAVIDSON: Not just 10 year olds, but six year olds, two year olds. And I'm like, how on earth? I can't even get my head around this passage. How am I going to convey this to children?

He felt like all he could do was write a song. It might help the kids at least remember some of the words and truths about Jesus.

DAVIDSON: And so I wrote this really, really basic echo song that went something like, Jesus is the image of God, and then the kids will reply, Jesus is the image of God.

MUSIC: [Jesus is the Image of God]

A month later, he was asked to do another Kids’ Talk. So he wrote another song. The kids and parents really enjoyed learning it.

DAVIDSON: A friend was visiting from our old church that day, and he, tongue in cheek like with a twinkle in his eye, he kind of said, “Kingsley, you may have found your calling.”

When Davidson got home from church, he looked ahead to the passage for the next week’s sermon to see if he could write another song.

DAVIDSON: In like, half an hour I had another one. I'm like, what's going on? What do I do with this?

What he did was keep writing.

DAVIDSON: Long story short, I then wrote 22 songs that span the entire book of Colossians. Most of which are rubbish, it must be said.

MUSIC: [Colossian Catechism] Who is the one we proclaim? Jesus Christ our Lord. Who is within us, at work sanctifying? He who was once on the cross for us dying, now resurrected his church unifying. Jesus Christ our Lord.

His first album is called Taste the New Testament. Some of his backup singers are the same children who heard that first kids’ talk.

DAVIDSON: So in a sense, I feel like God is restoring those 17 years with another flurry of songwriting. I've probably written 60 or 70 songs in the last three, four years.

But for Davidson, it’s not just about writing songs.

DAVIDSON: I want to help kids to actually relate with God, rightly. And that can only happen through Jesus. And we can only know Jesus through the Word.

Kingsley Davidson now coordinates all the church’s Kids’ Talks. He decided to write a new song for the five services of Advent.

AUDIO: Good morning, good morning everybody. The time has come for us to start.

He wants the kids to know that Jesus coming as a baby in a manger is just a part of God’s larger plan to save his people.

DAVIDSON: God doesn't have a plan B or a Plan C, he only has one plan. And that's his redemption plan. And that leads me to my song. Why did Jesus come to earth? What’s so good about his birth? Ancients would prophesy, angels light up the sky singing of Messiah’s worth. Such an unexpected plan. Son of God, now Son of Man. Perfectly designed before time began. This is God’s redemption plan. Whoa.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Forrest and Geelong, Australia.

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