Our interim pastor at Holy Communion, Steve Samuelsen, does so many things well . . . but what I like the most is how effective he is at drawing young children into a church service. One of his favorite means to do that is to bring the children up front for a children’s sermon in which he will explain to them something about the service or maybe some feature of the sanctuary itself. It springs from the assumption that the church belongs as much to the little kids as it does to the rest of us. . . and it also springs from the idea that kids are likely to enjoy church more if they know what’s going on and why- and also if they’re treated like they’re truly a part of the community. Like they really matter. And of course, they do. Or they should.
Today was one of the best examples of this. We had a baptism at the first service, but for some reason it was listed very early in the service, rather than in its typical slot after the sermon. At first I thought it was a typo, but then I realized that Pastor Steve had placed it that early in the service because the children would still be in church – having not yet left for Sunday Sunday – and it would be possible to bring them up front to watch the baptism up close. And Pastor Steve did a masterful job of explaining all of the various elements of the baptismal rite, as he did them, and you could tell that they were hanging on his every word and taking in every action and gesture.
It brought back memories of the first time I saw a pastor do this in the course of a worship service. No, it wasn’t my own dad- I actually have no recollection of him ever doing this, although that doesn’t mean he didn’t- but rather Pastor Paul Hasvold, the gentleman who succeeded him at Good Shepherd in Decorah. I worshipped there from time to time while I was at Luther (and occasionally played the organ there) and it was on one of those Sunday mornings that a baptism occurred- and Pastor Hasvold invited all of the children to come forward and watch. It was a neat gesture, and I quickly learned that this was no special occasion- but in fact he pretty much always did that when there were baptisms. He rightfully thought that there was no better way to get those children thinking about their own respective baptisms than to watch someone else’s.
Several weeks ago, the subject of his children’s sermon was flowers- specifically the flowers that are placed beside the altar, typically in memory of someone who has died or in honor of a birthday or anniversary. (That particular day, the flowers on the altar were in memory of Dan Bednar, whose family donated the money which allowed my CD “God gives me Wings” to be made. At one point, Pastor Steve had Dan’s mom and dad stand as he explained why they had placed those flowers on the altar, and it was a really sweet if also sad moment.) That’s exactly the kind of thing that young children are unlikely to notice or think about at all – but the truth is that there are probably a few adults out in the pews who don’t think about it either- which is a reminder that the children’s sermon is almost always a learning moment for more than just the kids that come up front. In fact, I suppose one of the beauties of a children’s sermon is that it allows the pastor to explore certain very elementary basics that might be awkward to explore in the main sermon- which a lot of people in the pews might nevertheless need to know. But something else I really appreciate about Pastor Steve is that when he delivers his children’s sermons, there is never that moment when the words start getting longer and it becomes clear that he’s no longer really talking to the children but in fact is aiming this “children’s sermon” at the adults in the room. Pastor Steve really knows how to talk to children, and to the rest of us for that matter.
And by the way, Pastor Steve sometimes manages to sneak in some fabulous humor in his children’s sermons. At the start of the children’s sermon which he gave the day of the big Packers-Bears playoff game, he noticed that among the kids there was a mix of Packers and Bears apparel, and he said something about how while both teams are perfectly fine, it was important to remember that “one does find the name Aaron in the Bible…. but you won’t find the name Jay!” (The adults in the sanctuary laughed at that a bit more than the kids did.)
So bravo to Pastor Steve and to any pastor who refuse to leave our children behind when it comes to church.
pictured above: Pastor Steve in the midst of Sunday’s baptism service.