How the Super Hero Craze Can Point Your Kids to Christ

I was at the craft store this week and noticed Wonder Woman washi tape. Washi tape, seriously. Super hero mania is literally everywhere.

As parents, we want to hook our kids into the messages of Christ, and help them connect with these messages in a real, true, and honest way. But, how when they are obsessed with characters with superhuman powers?

Believe it or not, super heroes can be your hook.

Hear me out here.

Jesus was the original super hero. He performed miracles and walked on water and defied death. He didn’t have a cape or fly through the air, but He did a lot of super amazing things that no one else has ever been able to do.

But how do we connect Jesus, this character from the Bible that they’ve never seen as a super hero, to the super hero mania that grips our kids? How do we make Him come alive through words on a page?

Enter Bible Force, a graphic novel Bible storybook for kids, tweens, and teens.

Bible Force is super cool, portraying the Bible characters we all know in a full-color, graphic novel style. The people are drawn in a dramatic-art style to look like super heroes, and the text is written in a way that makes them seem larger than life.

Think about these examples:

• Noah built a great ark that saved humans and animals from death.
• Joseph rescued a whole nation of people from starvation.
• Moses parted the Red Sea and led his people to freedom.
• Samson knocked down an entire building using just his own hands.
• Esther, an orphan, became queen of Persia and saved her people from persecution.
• And of course, Jesus, who needs no explanation.

These stories and almost 150 others are found in the pages of Bible Force, making it fun to read for kids and parents alike. The most prominent characters are also featured in Hero Profiles, bringing home the message that these people were true super heroes.

My one hesitation in presenting the people of the Bible as super heroes is that they weren’t really super (aside from Jesus). They were ordinary, right? Just like you and me, but with the power of God behind them. Bible Force allows you to bring this message home as well as you discuss the stories with your child. You can talk about how Samson was just a man who put on his pants one leg at a time and who ate and drank and slept just like they do. But God gave him supernatural power unlike any man before or since. He was incredible, but it was only because God made him that way.

Unlike Superman or Batman, whose powers are completely unattainable to our kids, Samson was set apart as special because of God. And God can make our kids special and set apart as well.

In that way, we can teach our children that they too can be super heroes worthy of Bible stories. You might want to extend this message by sharing more modern examples of Christian super heroes, like the following:

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was a preacher and proponent of the civil rights movement in America
• Abraham Lincoln who abolished slavery and united the nation
• Katie Davis who was 22 when she adopted 14 Ugandan girls in need of a home
• Mother Theresa who devoted her life to caring for the poorest of the poor in India and was sainted after her death in 1997
• Ben Carson who is an American neuroscientist who was the first to successfully separate conjoined twins
• Wernher von Braun who was a scientist who designed the rockets that took American men to the moon
• Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross that provides aid during and after all kinds of disasters across the globe
• Millard Fuller who founded Habitat for Humanity that provides homes for low income families in the US
• William Booth who founded the Salvation Army which provides aid to needy people and families around the world
• David Bussau who came up with the idea of micro-finance which lends small amounts of money to people living in poverty (mostly outside of the US) to allow them to start businesses to provide for their families. This concept was recognized by the World Bank as the single most effective contribution to the fight against worldwide poverty.
• Charles Loring Brace who was the founder of the foster care system in the US
• Thomas Hogan who founded The Humane Society which fights against animal abuse
• Billy Graham who reached millions of people around the world for Christ.
• Tim Tebow who is a famous Christian athlete, playing both football and baseball.

I could go on and on and on about important Christian “super heroes” in modern times. There have been so many great ones. A quick Google search for important Christians or Christian celebrities will give you more fodder than you could ever discuss with your kids.

My point is this: if you can hook your kids on Jesus using Bible Force, the first graphic novel style Bible storybook, and then bring them around to modern Christians making important impacts on their lives, they will see that they too can be super heroes for Jesus.

Your Turn

Do your kids love super heroes? What natural ways can you make connections to Jesus in connection with your children’s interests? We’d love to hear from you!

Take a look inside…