I was reading Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortland and he made a passing reference to the pastor and theologian of the Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, preaching to the children in his church.
This was the first time I had heard that. It doesn’t fit how we usually think about the man who preached ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’ - he is far too serious surely? It turns out that was normal for Edwards to preach, while everyone was there, to one particular age group. Harvard’s collection of the Works of Jonathan Edwards has counted 3 sermons just for 1-14 year olds between 1739 and 1742 - which is one a year. That doesn’t sound like very many but it is three times as many sermons as he preached specifically to the elderly or to the middle aged. (I should mention that his normal practice seems to have been to preach to everyone there and attempting to apply it to a wide range of his congregants.) It shows how much Edwards valued the children.
We so often say we want our kids and our youth to feel part of the church, but we have difficulty putting that into action - I’m including myself in this. Edwards shows us one way to do this, one way to show them that they are loved and that they’re wanted in your church is to have the pastors (or vicars or elders) teach them. There are a bunch of ways that this could be done:
Have a pastor teach in Sunday School as a one off
Have a children’s talk in your Sunday Services
Preach a sermon for just the kids in your normal service
Have an elder give their testimony at a kids event
Get church leaders involved in after school clubs
Have preachers on the Sunday School rota
What have you already tried and which of these ideas appeal to you?
If you’re inspired by Jonathan Edward’s example then you should read Ricky Njoto’s article on Three Things Jonathan Edwards Teaches Us About Youth Ministry.