Creating and Leading Children's Sermons: A Developmental Approach Sims, O. Suthern

Many people who present the childrens sermon in the Sunday morning worship service struggle with appropriate and significant homilies. Creating and Leading Childrens Sermons contains relevant information on human growth and development theory and how such relates to the preparation of sermons and other religious discussions for children.

In an effort to learn more about the use of the children's sermon in morning worship services in mainline Protestant churches, a study was conducted during the 1997-1998 academic year. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate, by use of a survey, the extent to which the Episcopal, Presbyterian USA, Southern Baptist, and United Methodist denominations in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia use childrens sermons in the Sunday morning worship service.

Following a section on preparing children's sermons to developmental guidelines, sixty (60) model childrens sermons and homilies are presented: forty (40) general topic sermons, thirteen (13) church words sermons, and seven (7) homilies for special days. The sermons seek to demonstrate the lessons learned in previous chapters.

O. Suthern Sims, Jr., is Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology in the School of Education and Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia.