The first Christians

Ages 6 to 8 Read together, then try alone · about 25 minutes

Read together

After Jesus's friends received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they began to share their faith. People in Jerusalem, and soon in other cities, joined them.

In Antioch, followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Paul and others travelled by land and sea to many cities.

Churches grew in many places: Rome, Alexandria, Syria, and Ethiopia. The first Christians met in homes, shared meals, prayed and cared for the poor.

Do it

1. On a map, find Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria and Ethiopia (Aksum). Draw lines between them.
2. Read Acts 2:42–47 together. What did the first Christians do each day?
3. Plan a “house church” meal: sharing bread, a Bible story and a song.
4. Find out about a church that began very early, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Coptic Church in Egypt, or the St Thomas Christians of India.

Talk about it

• How did the news spread so far?
• What would it be like to meet in a home?

For the grown-up

Christianity began in the Middle East and quickly spread to Africa, Asia and Europe. In the early centuries Christians were sometimes persecuted. Traditions say the apostle Thomas reached India, and in Acts 8 an Ethiopian official was baptised. Armenia is traditionally the first nation to make Christianity its state religion, in the early 300s. Some details come from tradition rather than from firm evidence.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Acts of the Apostles 2:42 to 47, 8:26 to 40 and 11:19 to 26
• Philip Jenkins, The Lost History of Christianity (HarperOne, 2008)
• F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2005), entries “Antioch”, “Ethiopian Church”, “Thomas, St” and “Armenian Church”

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.