Little People Big Word is dedicated to helping those who work with children deliver the best children’s sermon possible. To that end, here are some thoughts on all things related to children’s sermons:
- Pray for the children of your church and the message you will deliver. This is an opportunity to reach children in a special way and it needs to be bathed in prayer.
- Children’s sermons are part of worship and all of worship should glorify God and be done with excellence, so take time to prepare. Remember, one of the ways we show what is important is by the time we invest, so invest some time in your children’s sermons.
- Always begin a children’s sermon by greeting the kids. It’s important for them to know you’re excited they are in church and have come forward for the children’s sermon.
- The best posture for a children’s sermon is for you to face the children, sitting or standing depending on the sermon. In fact, I prefer to sit with the children because it puts me on their level. Even though adults get a lot of the message too, the children’s sermons is still for kids.
- Be enthusiastic! Teach the children’s sermon as though you are telling the very best and most exciting story ever — because you are! Facial expressions, voice tone, and mannerisms go a long way to help a children’s sermon reach kids.
- Close your children’s sermon with a prayer. Include a thanksgiving for kids and recap in a few words the main point of the sermon. Don’t forget to instruct the children to close their eyes and fold their hands together.
- Be brief! If you drag out your sermon, then kids will get bored and that leads to chaos. Try to keep your sermon under three minutes, which includes the greeting and prayer.
- Unless you want to open the flood gates, avoid open ended questions. This will help you stick to the point and help kids catch the idea.
- If things get out of control, go straight to the closing prayer! Rather than try to reign things in, which is often impossible, draw the kids together in prayer with your usual habit of “Let’s pray! Close your eyes and fold your hands…” and go into the prayer where you can summarize what you intended to share in the children’s sermon.
