How a Children's Minister Prepares to Preach a Sermon

Well, today is over and after nine years as a children's minister, I have officially preached my first sermon. Actually I did it twice...one for each service. The actual delivery of the sermon wasn't what killed me, it was the trying to figure out what to talk about and then how to take what was in my head and put it in an arrangement that would make sense to the kids, teens, parents, young marrieds, seniors, regular attenders and visitors. I knew I didn't want to do some fluffy lesson that would be light and not impact people. I had on my heart a message, but wasn't really sure if I wanted to do it. I tried and tried to find something else to do. Friday and Saturday I really tried to nail down what I was going to do. What was my lesson writing strategy? Friday night I was still struggling, so I hopped on my motorcycle and rode down to United for coffee. Then, when my coffe was gone, around 9:30 pm I headed home to put somethings down on paper. But on the way home I decided, I really didn't want to go home, so a quick right turn and I was on my way to Hastings to look for a biography of Abe Lincoln. Why? I don't know. I watched a show about him while I was home sick last week and wanted to see what was really true, besides, I didn't want to go home. Well, I found my book and looked around a while and headed home. I made it this time some time after 11 pm. Not much got written down that night. Saturday, I decided I needed to get out of the house, so I grabbed my Bible, a notebook and mounting my trusty V-Star, I headed to the park. Two hours later I had several pages of notes, and nothing to work with. So, off to the church I went. Maybe some time in my office would get my juices going. Nope. I went and stood on the stage and looked at the empty auditorium....and nothing. Back in my office, I was looking at the Goliath action figure I had just bought. He was ugly and mean looking. Unlike the flannel graph Goliath I had grown up with. That's kind of why I bought him. Finally, I had an idea. David lived out what I wanted people to think about. "How does your life reflect what you believe?" Or simply how are you living? Like the world or like a Christian? Now, throw in a sword, some toys, a magic trick, power point slides and the lesson was done...about 1:30am. I hope my lesson made people think, that was it's purpose. I'm glad I decided to preach, and I kind of enjoyed it....but don't tell anyone. But for now, I think I'll stick with the kid audiences. I love working with an audience I can interact with (I think it was a bit of a stretch for some when I asked them to talk with the person beside them for a moment this morning). My lessons are much more alive and it keeps me on my toes when I can stop and ask a question- you gotta know what you're talking about because you never know what they're going to say or ask. It was definetly a learning experience and people seemed to enjoy it. Maybe I'll do it again in another nine years. :)