Train Children through Sermons
By Jeanne Dennis
Can you really train children through sermons aimed at adults? With so many churches continuing to stream services, children who are used to children’s church don’t have to miss out on great teaching.
Streaming sermons or attending adult church is a great opportunity to help your children practice how to learn from a sermon.
How To Get Children to Pay Attention
Getting children to pay attention is your first job. Depending on the age of your child, you might try some of these suggestions:
- Let them know you’re going to ask them later what the preacher said.
- Give them a nice notebook for taking notes or drawing pictures about the sermon.
- Provide colorful markers, pencils, or crayons, and encourage them to get creative in how they record what they hear.
- Tell them you want them to write or draw about what the preacher says during the sermon.
- They may also write or draw about how the sermon applies to their lives.
Challenge Them to Identify the Points
Let the children know that a sermon usually has a certain number of points, often three.
- Let them know you’re going to see who can identify the main points. Make this like a game.
- Then challenge them after church, perhaps during a meal. Ask, “Who can tell me what the preacher said?”
- Older children should be able to list the main points. Knowing they will have to answer this question should make them pay more attention during the sermon.
How to discuss a sermon as a family
Remember to make your sermon discussions fun and interesting instead of like a test in school. Then your children will more likely look forward to the times when you review what the preacher taught.
- Ask what they understood and what they didn’t understand.
- Explain points that confused them in an age-appropriate way.
- Ask them how they can use what they learned this week.
- Tell them how you plan to use what you learned.
Using Sermon Notes in Family Devotions
It’s important to keep the whole family learning together all week. At least once during the week, go over the verses covered in the sermon.
- Review the points discussed.
- Ask if anything this week has made them think about the verses the preacher read.
- Let them share about anything that reminded them of one or more sermon points.
- Allow everyone to discuss how God helped you use what you learned.
- Have the children draw or write about how the sermon applied to their lives this week.
- Talk about how you can continue to grow closer to God this week.
End in prayer thanking God for what He has done and asking Him for help the rest of the week.
Have your children use their notebooks not just for sermon notes and pictures, but also to record prayer requests and God’s answers. This way their notebooks can become personal journals of their faith journey during this time.
These notebooks might even become keepsakes that will remind them later how God has worked in their lives.
Sermons as Treasures
Even sermons aimed at adults can become treasure troves for training children in the faith. Talking about them as a family can grow you closer together and individually closer to God.
© 2020 Jeanne Dennis