What do you think?
Rate this book
The Story We Tell Our Children: Gospel Formation in a World of Counterfeit Imitation
Children are always listening. From campfire stories of old to today’s constant stream of screens, the narratives they absorb shape their identity, worldview, and faith. Too often, counterfeit stories win children’s hearts, much like Stockholm syndrome, where hostages grow attached to their captors. By the time most kids turn 13, these cultural narratives have already formed their lifelong beliefs.
In The Story We Tell Our Children, Matt Markins, President and CEO of Awana, calls pastors, ministry leaders, and child discipleship advocates to action. He exposes how churches can unintentionally offer a “Bible Lite Strategy” that emphasizes good behavior without anchoring kids in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This book will sharpen your vision and provide practical ways to disciple kids in the one story that is both true and life-giving: the Gospel.
In The Story We Tell Our Children, Matt Markins, President and CEO of Awana, calls pastors, ministry leaders, and child discipleship advocates to action. He exposes how churches can unintentionally offer a “Bible Lite Strategy” that emphasizes good behavior without anchoring kids in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This book will sharpen your vision and provide practical ways to disciple kids in the one story that is both true and life-giving: the Gospel.
84 pages, Paperback
Published October 15, 2025
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Matt Markins
10 books2 followersMATT MARKINS serves on the Global Leadership Team at Awana as the Vice President of Ministry Resources as well as the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy. Prior to joining the Awana executive leadership team, Matt served in leadership roles with Thomas Nelson Publishers, Randall House Publishers and was the co-founder of the D6 Conference (a discipleship and family ministry community). Matt's ministry in organizational leadership has been marked by leading and influencing change from within by casting vision, forging strategic partnerships, nurturing healthy culture, developing organizational alignment and implementing sustainable plans toward ministry effectiveness, health and growth. He and his wife Katie have been volunteering and growing in children's ministry for more than twenty years. As Nashville transplants, they live and play in the Chicago suburbs with their two sons tolerating dreadful winters, but soaking up refreshingly mild weather the other seven months of the year.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 26, 2025
“Once upon a time, we told stories. Real stories wrapped in the glow of a crackling fire, full of dragons and heroes, serpents and knights, danger and beauty. Stories shaped communities long before screens ever did. They lived on cave walls, papyrus sheets, or a whispered rumor traveling from house to house “like the initial spark of a candlelight sunrise service.”
Who is listening to the stories we tell? Our children are! “They crouched behind stone walls, craned their necks through hedges, and stood on apple crates to hear what adults were “fussin’ about.” Children absorb “clues and cues”—the words we say, the tone we use, the stories we live. Little stories grow into big stories.
In The Story We Tell Our Children, Matt Markins shares the story his wife Katie heard as a child: “I’m not good enough.” It wasn’t taught outright, yet it shaped her sense of self. That is how catechistic rhythms form identity. We hear the same story and begin to believe it even if it isn’t true. Children absorb stories informally—overheard conversations, cultural messages, trauma, or the emotional climate of our homes.
Barna observed: “What you believe by the time you are 13 is what you will die believing.” Childhood stories shape us. They paint our skies, fill our dreams, and fuse with identity to the point that the stories we hear become the reality by which we see everything else. Childhood stories → shape worldview → which becomes identity. If those stories are counterfeit, the identity that grows from them will be counterfeit too.
When children receive truths, morals, and encouragement but not the larger arc of the story of redemption, it creates what Matt calls a “Bible Lite strategy.” Kids learn to be kind, make good choices, and behave well, but without the story those values belong to. They receive fragments of truth disconnected from Creation, the Fall, Rescue, and Renewal, with culture filling in the gaps. Discipleship must be rooted in the full gospel story, not inspirational messages that lack weight. Counterfeit stories make counterfeit disciples.
The gospel is the one true story that resets identity and heals the soul. Yet so many children cling to counterfeit stories even when the gospel is right in front of them. They grow to love the things that keep them captive.
Matt recounts the 1973 Stockholm bank robbery, where hostages bonded with their captors and refused to press charges. Experts say hostages interpret small acts of kindness as significant benevolence, forming emotional dependence. Our kids are being held captive by counterfeit stories—and many have grown to love their captors. The stories they hear are these: “You are loved for what you do.” “You are only as valuable as likes or follows.”
There is another story that frees rather than enslaves. The Gospel is the truest story of reality we can offer our children. Story is the gospel way. Story invites us into its life. The Gospel is the truest story of reality. It places Jesus at the very center of all things. So tell your kids stories. Tell them the story in which every story finds its home. The story of God’s love for them in Christ.
Who is listening to the stories we tell? Our children are! “They crouched behind stone walls, craned their necks through hedges, and stood on apple crates to hear what adults were “fussin’ about.” Children absorb “clues and cues”—the words we say, the tone we use, the stories we live. Little stories grow into big stories.
In The Story We Tell Our Children, Matt Markins shares the story his wife Katie heard as a child: “I’m not good enough.” It wasn’t taught outright, yet it shaped her sense of self. That is how catechistic rhythms form identity. We hear the same story and begin to believe it even if it isn’t true. Children absorb stories informally—overheard conversations, cultural messages, trauma, or the emotional climate of our homes.
Barna observed: “What you believe by the time you are 13 is what you will die believing.” Childhood stories shape us. They paint our skies, fill our dreams, and fuse with identity to the point that the stories we hear become the reality by which we see everything else. Childhood stories → shape worldview → which becomes identity. If those stories are counterfeit, the identity that grows from them will be counterfeit too.
When children receive truths, morals, and encouragement but not the larger arc of the story of redemption, it creates what Matt calls a “Bible Lite strategy.” Kids learn to be kind, make good choices, and behave well, but without the story those values belong to. They receive fragments of truth disconnected from Creation, the Fall, Rescue, and Renewal, with culture filling in the gaps. Discipleship must be rooted in the full gospel story, not inspirational messages that lack weight. Counterfeit stories make counterfeit disciples.
The gospel is the one true story that resets identity and heals the soul. Yet so many children cling to counterfeit stories even when the gospel is right in front of them. They grow to love the things that keep them captive.
Matt recounts the 1973 Stockholm bank robbery, where hostages bonded with their captors and refused to press charges. Experts say hostages interpret small acts of kindness as significant benevolence, forming emotional dependence. Our kids are being held captive by counterfeit stories—and many have grown to love their captors. The stories they hear are these: “You are loved for what you do.” “You are only as valuable as likes or follows.”
There is another story that frees rather than enslaves. The Gospel is the truest story of reality we can offer our children. Story is the gospel way. Story invites us into its life. The Gospel is the truest story of reality. It places Jesus at the very center of all things. So tell your kids stories. Tell them the story in which every story finds its home. The story of God’s love for them in Christ.
January 21, 2026
This book does a great job naming the world our kids are growing up in and the counterfeit stories they are constantly absorbing, while offering a clear and hopeful way forward for the church. What I appreciated most is how honestly Markins addresses the cultural moment without fear or alarm. Instead, I felt energized and better equipped to tell the one true story every child needs to hear.
The Story We Tell Our Children is both thoughtful and practical. It helped me recognize the moments when I default to a Bible-lite approach with my own kids and in ministry, choosing simplicity and incomplete stories over truth. This book has sharpened my awareness and given me language and clarity to intentionally choose the deeper, truer story that forms lasting faith.
That shift has impacted how I serve in ministry, how I volunteer with elementary kids at my church, and how I parent at home. Rather than looking for quick fixes, this book continually points back to the larger Gospel story and invites us to live it out consistently.
This is a timely and encouraging read for anyone who cares about the next generation. I walked away feeling challenged, hopeful, and more aware of the responsibility and opportunity we have to shape faith that lasts by telling a truer story rooted in hope, truth, and the love of Jesus.
The Story We Tell Our Children is both thoughtful and practical. It helped me recognize the moments when I default to a Bible-lite approach with my own kids and in ministry, choosing simplicity and incomplete stories over truth. This book has sharpened my awareness and given me language and clarity to intentionally choose the deeper, truer story that forms lasting faith.
That shift has impacted how I serve in ministry, how I volunteer with elementary kids at my church, and how I parent at home. Rather than looking for quick fixes, this book continually points back to the larger Gospel story and invites us to live it out consistently.
This is a timely and encouraging read for anyone who cares about the next generation. I walked away feeling challenged, hopeful, and more aware of the responsibility and opportunity we have to shape faith that lasts by telling a truer story rooted in hope, truth, and the love of Jesus.
January 17, 2026
The Story We Tell Our Children by Matt Markins is a thoughtful and accessible book, especially for parents and ministry leaders who care about how kids understand the Bible. One of its strongest elements is the use of visuals and graphics, particularly the distinction between telling the whole story of Scripture versus a half story, which clearly shows how oversimplified or moralistic Bible teaching can misform children’s faith and expectations about life. Markins makes a convincing case that telling the wrong story can lead kids down unhealthy spiritual paths later on. While the ideas are meaningful, the book feels somewhat repetitive and stays mostly theoretical, offering limited practical tools or curriculum-level guidance. Still, it works well as a big-picture framework and a helpful reminder of how deeply formative the stories we tell children really are.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews