Forgotten Book

Before I blog more about Children's Spirituality I'm going to backtrack. I have a book on my shelf called You Can Preach to the Kids, Too by Carolyn Brown Abingdon Press: Nashville 1997 ISBN 0-687-06157-1. I forgot to put this on the list. This was one of the first books I read. It's written for pastors. I read it and marveled at her insights but put it away because I'm not a pastor. But I think her insights are for teachers and parents, too.

She says, "Dr. Cavaletti insists that children have a God-given hunger for mystery and holy silence. She claims ... children respond to the opportunity to listen and to think quietly." (p. 18) People I've talked to about this who work with young children, what I've read, and my own experience say that sharing the stories of scripture is multi-generational. The experience of sharing the stories of scripture with children, and giving their imagination room to wonder affect the adult story-teller as much as the child (and adult) who listens.

She's not talking about as much about the story as the sermon here but she is talking about children in worship:

She asks, ". . . why preach to the children?"
1) "...they need to experience hearing and thinking about God's Word as part of the congregation of God's people."
2) "...they need to hear God's Word from the leader of their [faith community] . . ."
3) "...they need to hear that their lives and ... problems are part of the life and concerns of the whole congregation of God's people."
4) ". . .God loves them and needs them to do the work of the Kingdom NOW. [as opposed to waiting until you grow up.] It is one thing to study the Word in Sunday School. It is another to be called, through preaching, to live out that Word as one of God's people." (page 19)

Elementary school-aged children are already turned outward. They want to participate. They want to understand. As teenagers they'll focus on themselves again, and on the world of peers. There are two different windows of opportunity here. (page 19)

She goes on to look at the pros and cons of the "children's sermon." With great insight she tells why the problems outweigh the benefits but continues "If you must..." She talks about vocabulary, experiences required to understand a concept, things that offend children but not adults, child-specific experiences (adult memories), how children hear, how children follow, using kid-friendly illustrations that are "concrete" as opposed to leaping into the abstract, using props, including seatwork or sermon art to keep kids focused, helping parents learn how to keep children focused. Less than 200 pages. Very reader friendly.