This children's sermon brought to you by. . .

So first off, I think it is kind of funny, that due to other things going on at church, I haven't been assigned to do a children's sermon since I started this blog.
(That is just an aside, now to the real post. . .)


THE CHILDREN'S SERMON AS COMMERCIAL
So since it has happened twice this week that someone has suggested using the children's message time as a commercial for some event at church, it seems as though I'd better use my space here to talk through why this bothers me so much.

Let me first say, that the people who asked me to do these "ad" children's sermons, are good, well grounded people who I both like and respect. All parties were very understanding when I said that I wasn't comfortable with using that time to "plug" an upcoming activity.

I do think that there are times when children's sermons are great opportunities to get information to the kids or to build excitement around a new project or program. It is when things are aimed more at talking to adults than kids that I start to get a little nervous about the use of this time.

I know that adults "listen in" on children's sermons. I'm glad that they do, and I am very grateful when people share that a sermon has been meaningful to them or spoken to them, but I am a wee bit protective about the three minutes when the kids are gathered up at the front steps. When I am preparing my children's sermons, I usually spend some time in silent prayer reflecting on the idea, "what do I want the kids to take away from this time?" Although sometimes it is program related ("I want them to be excited for our mid-week program to start"), more often, it is related to my hopes for how they will understand a story, how they will think about their faith in relation to others or how they can learn more about some aspect of their faith. It seems hard to accomplish these goals when we are simply "plugging" the next event.

So that is where I am now. We'll see what comes of these requests.

Anyone reading have any thoughts on this one?

(Actually--anyone reading?? :-))