 |  |       | CHILDREN'S MINISTRY
Connecting with Children
by O. Suthern Sims, Jr.
Seeing the world through the eyes of children is a magnificent experience. Children view life filled with a sense of wonder, awe, and curiosity. They have a seemingly innate desire to know, to discover, to investigate their surroundings, to learn what and why. This desire is as true about spiritual matters as it is about the physical world. Children want to know who God is and where God is. They want to know about the beginning and ending of the world, and they want to know that what adults tell them about God is true. Children demand answers to some of life’s most difficult questions.
As they grow, children will raise questions regarding faith and what they hear during worship. The worship services children attend, therefore, should be carefully planned to welcome and include the children in ways they can understand. Worship experiences should be seen as corporate actions in which children are participants with adults, while recognizing that children will not perceive information on the same level and with the same understanding as adults. The very youngest children can gain meaning from worship, using their senses of sight, sound, smell, touch, and even the affective feelings that come from being in worship with their parents and church family. As children absorb the atmosphere of the worship experience, they store memories that may not yet be understood but that may be recalled at a later time with comprehension.
As children worship with the members of their church, the children are learning about God and simultaneously expressing their relationship to God. They must be allowed to interact with the gospel at their own level of understanding, recognizing that all people have different responses according to their individual stage of development. It is also important for children to be allowed to ask questions. Adults should, then, listen carefully for the meaning of the questions, answering in terms that are relevant to the experience of children. Questions are normal, and answers should be given in simple, kind, and truthful terms that can be easily translated into the life experiences of children.
One of the most important means of communication with children in worship today is the children’s sermon. This simple yet complex instrument can be a potential way to include children in the service and to make them feel welcome as participants. It is more than a time to learn facts; it is a way to experience the insights of the Scripture. Those who use children’s sermons effectively actually enhance the worship service by ministering to the entire worshiping body of believers while talking to the children in language they can understand.
Children are unique individuals and should neither be ignored during worship nor treated as “little adults.” Communication with children should occur in authentic terms that relate to their stages of development and experiences. The task of those who teach children is to recognize and understand these stages and use appropriate methodologies, such as children’s sermons, to minister effectively to them as individuals.
Children’s sermons can make children feel welcome, foster a warm relationship between presenter and children, and teach biblical truths in simple terms. In addition, youth and adults in the congregation are “silent learners” who can usually benefit from children’s sermons.
Presenters of children’s sermons can better connect with children by understanding basic human developmental needs and applying effective communication skills. It is essential to keep in mind that:
• Both biology and environment influence overall development.
• Early experiences, social interactions, positive parent-child relationships, and moral development affect future development.
• Moral development is related to perception, memory, and judgment—all of which tend to be qualitative in nature.
• Developmental processes are contextually related, thereby requiring teaching slightly ahead of one’s experiences and understanding.
• Self-image is important to development.
• Needs are useful in understanding motivation and behavior.
• The role of faith is a contributor to development.
• Behavior affects the environment; environment affects behavior.
• Behavior is frequently imitated by children; consequently, what one does in front of children is more important than what one says.
Awareness of these principles of human development can help presenters incorporate age- and language-appropriate lessons that incorporate concrete, familiar experiences.
From Creating and Leading Children’s Sermons: A Developmental Approach, by O. Suthern Sims, Jr.
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