Pastor, you tell the story

Back from our beach vacation, we hadn't been in the house five minutes when my nine-year-old daughter blurted out, "I have to call Pastor Baer right now!"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because," she stated, "I haven't talked to him in two whole weeks!"

That is when I realized that my child had found a connection with our pastor her pastor. He was no longer just her parents' pastor. He was also hers.

This is the power that any pastor can wield from the pulpit. For most children, pastors are unapproachable. They're like God. The pastor is someone their parents look up to, respect, sit in front of every week. When he is coming to visit, it is for the sake of their pastor that they make sure the house is "perfect."

Therefore, connecting with the children in your congregation is critical. It is an opportunity that none should pass up lightly. And it can, basically at least, be done in only five minutes per week.

You say, "It's not that easy." Ah, but it is! It can be done in five minutes during the main worship service. How? By you, the pastor, telling the children's story yourself each week.It's a five-minute effort that will continue to be some of the best time you ever spend.

Here are five reasons why the pastor should tell the children's story and not some one from the congregation:

1. You build immediate credibility and trust with your congregation. Statistics show that people no longer automatically trust their pastor. The fact that a pastor has integrity is no longer a "given." Thus, pastors have to earn the respect and trust that people give them. Telling the children's story is one of the fastest ways of bringing down those historical barriers. It allows the pastor to show a creative and fun side that immediately wins people and makes him or her "likable."

2. Adults like a pastor who likes their children. If a child connects with the pastor and is treated as a viable member of the congregation, the parents will not leave the church. In fact, parents will attend church because their children want to. In this important sense, children can grow a congregation faster than many types of evangelistic endeavor.

3. You can control the amount of time you have in the pulpit. How many times have you gotten up to preach at ten minutes to noon because the children's story lasted 20 minutes? How many times have you lost your pulpit time to members who used the children's story time as a platform for their own agenda?

Dr. Jerry Spencer, past president of Southern Baptist Convention, states, "Pastors hate giving up their pulpit time to anyone. If I could stress one thing, it would be that telling the children's story themselves would give them extra time to be up front. They would have the children's time and the adult's time and they could control more of the podium."

4. You can control the content. You can choose to let the children's story be an introduction to your sermon or thematically relate to your sermon. Then, the story no longer becomes just another item in the church bulletin. It has a specific purpose, as part of the divine worship service, and helps you build your point through a method that reaches every age group. Everyone loves a good story. In fact, most people will remember the stories you told during the sermon before they will remember the content of your sermon.

5. You can reach adults through the "back door" without pointing to them directly. You can address touchy subjects such as gossiping or dishonesty without being offensive!

Jesus' example

"But..." I already know your first objection. You have three churches and don't have time to give a full sermon, much less do the children's story!

Seventy-five percent of all pastors have two or more churches. In fact, 40 percent have three or more, and 15 percent have four or more.

Dr. Lynn Hill, Cumberland District Superintendent of the Methodist Church, states, "The more churches a pastor has, the greater the need to connect with the children in his con gregation." He would rather have the pastors in his district give a 25-minute sermon (instead of 30 minutes) and spend the other five minutes connect ing with the children.

John Loor, Jr., president of the Montana Conference, says, "If a pas tor doesn't want to give up five minutes of his pulpit time to the children in his congregation, he is basically saying, The children don't matter.'"

"In His work as a public teacher, Christ never lost sight of the children. When wearied with the bustle and confusion of the crowded city, tired of contact with crafty and hypocritical men, His spirit found rest and peace in the society of innocent little children. His presence never repelled them. His large heart of love could comprehend their trials and necessities, and find happiness in their simple joys; and He took them in His arms and blessed them."¹

The Creator of the universe set the example for today's pastors by not let ting the important duties of preaching, teaching, and healing come in the way of His ministry to children. "'Let the little children come to me  and don't prevent them. For such is the Kingdom of Heaven'" (Matt. 19:14, TLB).

Jesus not only welcomed the children but taught and preached in simple ways, so that both adults and children could understand Him. "In parables and comparisons He found the best method of communicating divine truth. In simple language, using figures and illustrations drawn from the natural world, He opened spiritual truth to His hearers. ... In this way He was able to make suffi cient impression upon the heart so that afterward His hearers could look upon the thing with which He con nected His lesson, and recall the words of the divine Teacher."²

Jesus loved children. It is the privilege and the duty of pastors to do the same. Pastors cannot afford not to tell the children's story! There are times when, without question, it is the most crucial element of pastoral duty. Children need to see and know Jesus through the pastor. Pastors represent Jesus. What children experience early in life will stay with them forever.