"Preaching Is for Kids, Too"
Leigh Schlitter
With a little extra help, children can comprehend what comes from the pulpit. Two examples:
One morning while walking down the aisle to begin the worship service, Pastor Sanford Morgan noticed Nancy Dyke taking out an ink pen and a notebook full of cartoons. After the service, Morgan, pastor of Bethel Reformed Church in Harvey Hills, Illinois, asked the purpose of the notebook.
"That's how I keep my four children paying attention during the sermon," the mother replied. "I draw pictures to go along with what you're preaching."
Morgan immediately began to see greater possibilities, and for the next two years, Dyke became the illustrator for a large group of children. They clustered around her large drawing pad near the front pews.
"Every Sunday before the service," says the pastor, "I would meet with Nancy to go over the basic points of my sermon. A lot of her cartoons, though, were thought up on the spot as we went along."
A sermon on how Christians can change the world, for example, started out with mentions of recent great achievements in our world; Dyke sketched a moon rocket blasting off. When Morgan followed by asking if exciting things were happening at church too, she drew two sets of stick figures, one exuberant, the other snoring. Later on came a simple diagram showing the Cross emanating power (wavy lines) through the Christian to the outside world.
Most of the drawings included brief captions as well. After the church service was over, the pictures were hung in the lobby for members to view.
This idea was accepted quickly by both children and adults, and excitement grew. The only complications:
1. Preschool children grew restless too easily. "We should have limited it to older children," says Dyke.
2. The up-front location ...
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