Possible Consequence of Children's Sermons
Don Johnson (not from Miami Vice) a pastor in No Cal has a great post on the Possible Consequences of Children's Sermons
Highlights for me:
"The children's sermons are very short and focus on one word or one truth and not a long, rambling discussion on things. It's not a time to play cute for the parents and mug for the congregation. It's for the kids. They matter. They count.
One of the ways I do a children's sermon is to set up a scenario where the kids need to help me out: count something, find something, discover something, fix something. Often I end up playing the fool. Well, last week I was illustrating Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:1-12 where he prays for minds, bodies and hearts by stacking interlocking rings on a pole. It's a common nursery toy. I mis-stacked them, backwards, much to the children's dismay. I just could not get them stacked right until one exasperated boy grabbed the stack from me with a snort and said: "Let me do it for you!" and stacked them properly, illustrating the truth that things need to go together in the right way.
But later Sunday afternoon I imagined a dinner-time conversation with the boy and his parents covering the topic of how really dumb pastors had to be. I mean, what is it that they do if they can't even stack rings in the right order?"
Highlights for me:
"The children's sermons are very short and focus on one word or one truth and not a long, rambling discussion on things. It's not a time to play cute for the parents and mug for the congregation. It's for the kids. They matter. They count.
One of the ways I do a children's sermon is to set up a scenario where the kids need to help me out: count something, find something, discover something, fix something. Often I end up playing the fool. Well, last week I was illustrating Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:1-12 where he prays for minds, bodies and hearts by stacking interlocking rings on a pole. It's a common nursery toy. I mis-stacked them, backwards, much to the children's dismay. I just could not get them stacked right until one exasperated boy grabbed the stack from me with a snort and said: "Let me do it for you!" and stacked them properly, illustrating the truth that things need to go together in the right way.
But later Sunday afternoon I imagined a dinner-time conversation with the boy and his parents covering the topic of how really dumb pastors had to be. I mean, what is it that they do if they can't even stack rings in the right order?"
Labels: youth ministry
posted by mark at
9:09 AM
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