I know Jesus sent the disciples in pairs of two, but on this particular day, I was in a group of three.

My two “evangelistic partners” didn’t want to follow the rules. For example, when approaching a home, you should always walk on the sidewalk (not on the yard), but my associates were all over the yards. You should also approach a house without laughing, but my fellow soul winners giggled every time they saw concrete gnomes.

My teammates were two of my daughters, ages six and four. Due to the age of my children, we weren’t getting into in-depth conversations, but were simply introducing them to evangelism.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 teaches the importance of training children in the ways of the Lord. Though there isn’t a direct command to teach children “evangelism,” it does command to teach children “…when you walk along the road.” Since the Great Commission is a major teaching of Jesus, why not “walk the road” with your kiddos and teach the Commission by example?

Listed below are three examples of how you can show your children the importance of evangelism.

Neighborhood mission trips. You can take your children door-to-door. You will be surprised at people’s positive response to the presence of little ones — and how much the little ones will enjoy it. My oldest daughter, now 10, has canvassed with our church many times. Once, during lunch after a day of canvassing, she approached a restaurant worker and gave him a tract (all by herself). Consider going door-to-door with your kids.

Pray for your server during family outings. When dining out, your server will bring your meal to the table. After the server delivers the meal, ask him or her if there is anything you can pray about for them. When it’s time to pray, ask one of your children if they would like to pray for the food and the server. Not only will this show respect for those in the food service industry, but it will teach your children the importance of praying for people.

Have missionaries in your home. We are blessed to have friends that serve with the International Mission Board (IMB). Recently they were home on furlough and we had their family over for a meal. Naturally, our kids played with their kids. Our kids asked their kids what their home was like, what kind of food eat and why were they living there. We also have one of their prayer cards hanging on our refrigerator. We want our children to know the importance of taking the gospel to the nations.

These are just a few ideas to teach your children the importance of the Great Commission. I would love to hear other ideas you have that teach your children the importance of evangelism. You can reach me at kenny.rager@kybaptist.org.

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Kenny Rager is a church evangelism strategist for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, covering the western half of Kentucky.