Catechesis and the Children’s Talk
For as long as I’ve been going to church, there has been during the morning service, a children’s talk (or sermon, address, message, whatever you want to call it!).
I’ve done hundreds of them over the years.
The Children’s Talk
The children’s talk is that 5 minute (plus or minus 2 minutes) slot in the service that is dedicated to communicating to the children, often prior to them going off to Sunday School.
Children’s talks seem to have been a feature of services for over 100 years both in the UK and the USA.
Alexander Macleod in 1880 suggested that:
“every morning service, for one ten minutes out of the ninety, let the minister be in direct contact with the souls of the children.”
J. G. Merrill two years earlier had published a collection of five minute sermons to children.
Henry B. Robins writing in 1918:
“The children’s sermon is an established feature in many an order of service, the children under twelve being dismissed at its conclusion, with the hymn just preceding the regular morning sermon.”
For a time I stopped including them in the morning service at Banstead Community Church (they are not an essential element of worship), but now am more convinced of their value, as I have ever been.
Why?
Firstly, it is a way of communicating to children that they are an important part of church life, they are valuable to Jesus, and that they can know and understand God’s Word.
Secondly, it is not just for children. It is for the whole church to learn together. Maybe the children’s talk is better described as the church family talk or an all-age talk. I haven’t come up with a better name for it, yet.
Thirdly, with a number in the congregation at church being elderly and no longer able to focus (or in a few cases stay awake) for the whole 30 minute sermon, the children’s talk has become their sermon.
Catechising the Whole Church
One other reason why I think the children’s talk is a valuable part of a worship service is that it gives an opportunity to catechise the whole church.
“Catechesis is the church’s ministry of grounding and growing God’s people in the Gospel and its implications for doctrine, devotion, duty, and delight.”
(J. I. Packer)
What are some of the ways this can be done?
By working line by line through a historic creed, like the Apostles’ Creed.
By working through a ‘catechism’ using the Q&A format or taking truth summarised by it.
By doing a summary of each book of the Bible.
By doing a Bible Overview (telling the whole story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to new creation).
By doing a thematic series on traditional areas of catechesis like the Lord’s Prayer and the 10 Commandments, or others like the Beatitudes and the Fruit of the Spirit.
By doing a doctrinal series based on the church’s confession of faith or by working paragraph by paragraph through a historic one like 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.
By doing a practical series on the two ways to live, the way of life and the way of death using the book of Proverbs or taking the relevant section from the Didache.
By giving a biographical talk on a figure from church history and pulling out one thing we can learn from their life to encourage us to follow Christ.
By taking a hymn that you regularly sing in church and pointing out the truths from God’s Word it contains.
By using events highlighted on the church calendar (Easter to do a series on the atonement; Advent to do a series on the incarnation or Jesus’ return).
A Simple Structure
I used a simple structure for the children’s talks I give. Two words I have in mind are ‘Grab’ and ‘Hit’. I want to grab the attention of the children (and adults) by asking for answers to questions, or by giving them something to look at. Then I want to hit them with a truth found in God’s Word.
You can find the scripts for Children’s Talks I’ve done over the years HERE, and the more recent ones focused on Catechising the Whole Church HERE.
Field Notes
A reminder that every Saturday I send out a Substack with 10 links from around the web worth checking out and the latest resources I’ve produced at Blog of Dan (my online Notion page).