Unforgettable Children’s Sermons

Posted On August 7, 2022

Children’s sermons came to my mind as I was painting the end of my house the other day. I thought how comparing my painting experience to protecting and growing our faith could be a children’s sermon.

I’ve given a lot of them through the years and usually got my ideas while painting or mowing the lawn. Those quiet times are good for listening to God and observing my surroundings.

My cousin, Denny, said he often came up with his ideas while driving a tractor in the field.

New Preacher; Children’s Sermons Become a New Tradition

All my life, I’ve gone to the same small country church. When I was a kid, we never had children’s sermons. I don’t remember having very dynamic ministers that really spoke to the youth of the church. They were usually older, with no children of their own still at home. Quite frankly, I found the services uninspiring. Thankfully, I did have good Sunday School teachers, bible school teachers and youth group leaders that kept my interest. http://mypgumc.org

Our church went through a revival with the arrival of Rev. Jerry Willer. He and his wife, Donna, brought new ideas and a great deal of enthusiasm to our church and with their leadership, we grew in numbers by leaps and bounds.

He started the tradition of having children’s sermons during worship service. It was a time where all the children were called up to the front of the church and he would give a lesson geared toward their understanding and interests.

After awhile, he asked for members of the congregation to take turns presenting the children’s sermon. I was fairly shy and had no intention of going up in front of the church to take my turn! It so happens though, that during this time period, I felt the Lord strongly telling me to give my testimony at church. I pushed back with an emphatic “No” every time I felt Him calling me to do this. Finally, after many sleepless nights of arguing with God, I decided to sign up for a children’s sermon, hoping that would satisfy God.

There’s Only Two

I don’t remember what I prepared for the children’s sermon, but I didn’t end up saying whatever it was. When the day came, I was a complete wreck from nerves. Just before the service started, I observed that there were only two children in attendance. I rushed up to the pastor and explained that I was not going to give the children’s sermon that day because there were only two kids there.

Surprisingly, Jerry did not argue or try to change my mind. He just said, “Okay. But when it is time for the children’s sermon, get up and tell why you are not giving it,” and he walked off. Oh boy, what a way to put me in my place! Of course, I couldn’t do that!

So, when it was time for children’s sermon, I went up with the two children, Michelle and Brian, and told them about my dilemma and explained that even one child was important enough to talk to about the love of Jesus. I don’t know what all I said, but I didn’t feel nervous at all and received many compliments about the sermon after church.

Whew, thankfully I came through that ordeal and hoped I had satisfied God. NOT!! I still felt the call to give my testimony and kept saying NO!!

Very Observant of his Congregation

One evening during refreshments after a church event, Jerry approached me and said that it appeared something had been on my mind. He asked, “Is God working on you and wanting you to do something you don’t want to do?” Unbelievable! How could he have figured that out? I believe it’s because he was very aware of each of us and our personalities and he was in tune with God’s will.

I hesitantly replied that as a matter of fact, that was exactly what was going on. Upon further questioning, I told him that I felt God was calling me to give my testimony at church. Without hesitation, Jerry turned to a church leader, Paul, and said, “I think she could speak this coming Sunday, don’t you, Paul?” Paul agreed and within seconds, to my dismay, my pastor decided that I would be the speaker the following Sunday and walked off to visit with others!

Turns Out, I Enjoy Speaking in Church

After giving my testimony, I was a changed person. God immediately took away my fear of public speaking. I actually began enjoying giving children’s sermons and signed up often. Also, whenever anyone would arrive at church and had forgotten that they had signed up, I would go up in their place. God always gave me something to say at the last minute.

Children’s Sermons are Long Remembered

Children’s Sermons are easier for me to remember than the pastor’s messages. Perhaps it’s because my church has had some wonderful storytellers. As the tradition continued, more and more people started signing up to give them. It was a wonderful way for many in the congregation to share their faith in an easier manner than standing up in front and giving a testimony.

The adults looked forward to the children’s sermons as much as the children.

Soft Spoken but Sincere

Several ladies of the congregation come to my mind when I think of children’s sermons of the past. Two of them, Alma and Annabelle, were very soft spoken but they held the children’s attention with their sweet stories told basically through their memories of their own childhood. The children of the church probably would have never gotten to know these ladies if they hadn’t given children’s sermons.

Funny and Talented

Two other ladies also come to mind. My mother, Mildred, and her cousin, Verna. Mother usually injected humor into her stories and Verna wove her artistic talent into the bible stories.

I especially remember the time Mother brought her “odd menagerie” of toys as props for her story. She had a furry yellow bird marionette, a singing cardinal, a talking fish, a paddle that had chickens pecking when you swung it around and what we always called a “do nothing” toy.

Verna, an exceptional artist, drew pictures of people and animals as she told her stories.

My Favorite Children’s Sermons

Mine

One of my favorite children’s sermons that I gave involved several adult participants. At the time, we had a very large group of children and they could sometimes get pretty distracting during the service. I found a children’s book that talked about how children should behave in church.

My idea was to read the book during the sermon while adults became the distraction. I asked Denny, Debbie and Ruthie to do things that would distract the kids while I was reading. I did not tell them what to do so I was just as distracted (and very surprised) by their actions.

Debbie and Ruthie dropped hymnals on the floor and played with the window blinds. That didn’t compare to Denny, though. He leaped over the front alter rail a couple of times. Then he went out the door located at the front of the sanctuary. Seconds later, he opened the door a crack and yelled, “Boo!”

The children didn’t hear a word of the little book I read to them. After asking my “helpers” to take a seat, I explained that when children don’t behave during church just as my helpers didn’t, it is hard for the adults to pay attention to the minister. They all got the point.

Perhaps, the funniest thing about it, was the pastor’s father. He was visiting our church for the first time. He told his son later that he just thought Denny had a mental problem and we had all learned to cope with it.

Denny’s

Probably everyone’s favorite children’s sermons were given by Denny, the disruptor just mentioned. He is a remarkable storyteller with a wonderful imagination. The first one I remember him giving kept all the kids and adults totally enthralled. The gist of it went like this–

When he was a kid, he and his brother, Joe, went to the Smokey Mountains with their parents. They stopped at a restaurant for lunch. Upon exiting the car, they saw two bear cubs tied to a tree. Their parents warned them not to go near the bear cubs.

They went inside to eat. Denny and Joe quickly ate and then asked if they could go outside to play. Forgetting about the bear cubs, their parents let them go out. They immediately went to play with the cubs. Very soon, the mother bear appeared out of the woods.

At this point, Denny went into a very descriptive, hilarious and scary narrative about the momma bear going after them and them hiding under the car. The bear tore all the doors off the car before it gave up catching them and ran off.

All of the children believed his story (and I think a few adults wondered if it could possibly be true). The moral to his story was to always listen to your parents and the kids came away believing that was a good idea! FYI, no such bear incident took place.

Other times, Denny wrote poems he shared. He wrote one about the time we had communion by intinction. Normally, we each got a wafer and our own individual cup for communion. The pastor explained that communion by intinction is where we get a piece of bread and dip it in a communal cup that is passed around.

We kneeled around the altar. When Kent got his bread, he immediately ate it. Noticing this, the lady next to him (I think it was Arabella), handed him a piece of hers. Kent ate it. This happened a couple more times before he realized he was to keep the bread to dip in the cup.

Lessons not Forgotten

With a variety of people giving the children’s sermons, lessons were shared about bible stories, the history of our church and personal stories and testimonies. They were a great way to get many people involved in the worship services. They were also a good way for the children to learn about, get to know and admire many of these people.

We followed this tradition for about 40 years. Unfortunately, the last few years, it was becoming difficult to get people to sign up for the sermons. Now we have a youth pastor who gives them. He does a wonderful job but I find myself wishing that members of the congregation would take their turns. As one of our youth, Mason, said last summer at a youth meeting, “I miss the children’s sermons where different people would give them. I always looked forward to them and would sometimes come to church just to see who was giving it that day.”

There’s Always a Lesson in our Daily Lives

Back to my recent children’s sermon idea. It was along the lines of where I would compare the process of replacing a broken window with cedar siding, having to paint it with primer and then adding two coats of paint.

• The window was letting in unwanted air. When we are broken, we let in sinful ideas
• The cedar siding didn’t have to be painted but it would look better. Once we are saved, we don’t have to do anything else, but how others see us is important for our mission to be fishers of men.
• The primer is needed to keep marks from bleeding through and seals the wood so it needs less paint. Studying God’s word seals our beliefs and keeps sin from bleeding through.
• Two coats of paint gave better coverage than one. Once we’ve accepted Christ, our work is not done. Our best coverage is the armor of God to protect us from sin.
• The necessary tools of painting are varied. We need the bible, fellowship with other believers, etc. Love of Lord

A Children’s Sermon Poem based on a true story

by Denny

The Trouble with Doin’ Good

The weather had been cold to say the very least.
Fifteen below in Hatton, T'was hard on man and beast.

Now Christmas was a comin', The year was '89.
Our wreaths had all been hung. The church was lookin' fine.

A program was all set. The songs had all been chosen.
All was at the ready, 'cept our water, it was frozen!

I came 'cause Glenn had said, he'd checked the water line,
And where the thing was frozen, he couldn't find a sign.

I took ol' Brother Joe. We'd help in some fine way.
So folks could flush the stools on Christmas program day.

One line went through the wall Into a closet space.
The smell gave us a hint that mice were in this place.

I peered around a box and there the problem lay--
A hole chewed through the wall let in the light of day.

Ah, soon t'was plain to see, the problem was a squirrel.
Judging from the hole's size, she was a big ol' girl!

We took a chunk of wood and nailed it o'er the hole.
We're smarter than a squirrel! Of course we'll reach our goal!

To warm the closet up, a heater would be fine. 
We placed it right beside that frozen water line.

We took a break just then. We'd not be gone too long.
The squirrel was now locked out. Ah, nothing would go wrong!

We stepped across the way and told them of our feat.
So clever we had been to leave it all so neat!

I ate a chunk of cake. Then wandered 'cross the lawn,
To check the water pipes in hopes the ice was gone.

T'would all have been so lovely, t'would all have been so fine,
If then I hadn't found that broken water line!

I stepped in on the carpet, and water filled my shoe.
I sloshed on to the closet, Oh, what was I to do?

It sprayed up to the roof and came a drippin' down.
All the junk in the place was floatin' 'round and 'round!

I hunted for the valve, Oh, where was Brother Joe?
At last I found the thing and stopped the water flow.

They ripped the carpet up. The bad was thrown away.
And what the trustees thought of us, they wouldn't say.

The moral of this tale is true. In winter or in summer,
A farmer works real cheap, but you should call a plumber!

Time for you to Share

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