Christ In Winter: FOLLOWING THE KIDS’ TIME STAR [F, 1-9-26]

Friday, January 9, 2026

FOLLOWING THE KIDS’ TIME STAR [F, 1-9-26]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—FOLLOWING THE KIDS’ TIME STAR [F, 1-9-26]

It’s Epiphany season, and well, we understand the mother who said, “If three strangers showed up with spices and said that my child is tender and mild, I’d be worried.” Even more, I’m sure, if the strangers were trying to smoke a rubber cigar.

But I digress…Epiphany is in great part about that star. And kids time in worship. [Yes, there’s a connection. Look at the last paragraph.] To do kids’ time in worship well, you don’t follow an outline; you follow the star.

Not long ago, I was in a group of people who have discovered livestream worship, not just in their own local churches, but all over the nation, even the world. Some of them “go” to worship in several different places each week. Not surprisingly, they do a lot of “compare and contrast.”

The subject of our conversation turned to the now-mandatory kids’ time in those worship services, and the way different preachers/leaders do it.

The main complaint I hear, about the people who lead kids’ time, is this: they are too well prepared.

That sounds counter-intuitive, but I understand. Some of the best times I had with children’s time in worship was when I was appointed to a new church and inherited the “what’s in the bag” method.

Each Sunday a different child would take home the cloth bag we used for kids’ time. They would bring it back the next Sunday with some object in it. I had no idea what it was until the kids were seated around me and I was handed the bag. Then I did a children’s homily based on whatever was in the bag—a thermometer or light bulb or salt shaker or toilet paper… [Yes, there are attempts to create chaos for the preacher, which I suspect the adults of a household are involved in. That’s a good thing, kids and adults at home thinking about church together.]

It’s a lot of fun and much easier than it sounds. You don’t “preach” about the spoon or Pokémon card or dog biscuit. It’s just the starting point for a mental and spiritual journey. All such journeys lead to God. Everybody in the congregation enjoys seeing how the preacher finally gets to God from that unexpected starting place.

The main point: the preacher has to improvise. No idea ahead of time what the starting place will be, and only the star in the East to lead the way.

Most preachers are prepared for children’s time, on the same theme that is later being laid on “the big kids.” A kids time should never have more than one point, but preachers feel naked with only one point. So they have lots of points, that have to be in correct succession, so the preachers have to ignore or put off questions that get the points out of sequence. They use a bunch of words that kids don’t understand, and then end with a lame joke that is really directed at the adults present.

The preacher interacts primarily with his/her subject and its correct presentation, and with the adults, but not with the children. Regardless of how squirrely they get, how many raised hands are not acknowledged, the preacher plows on to the finish, because that is what she/he is prepared to do.

If you’re not prepared, you have to pay attention to the kids, and how they are responding. You go where the kids lead you, and you end not because you are finished with what you prepared, but because the kids are through listening.

When those kids came up for children’s time with Jesus [Matthew 19:14], the ushers tried to keep them back because they knew Jesus hadn’t prepared for kids’ time. But Jesus said, “Let them come.” A good preacher is always prepared to pay attention to the children, especially when not prepared.