Most children have a hard time listening to a sermon because
sermon are boring. But they are not boring because the pastor is necessarily
boring speaker. Usually it's because a sermon consists primarily of
stage-four (abstract) concepts-which only those who have made the
shift from concrete to formal operations can understand. Even if a
child-or anyone who had not made the shift to formal operations
were listening closely, he or she would probably not comprehend the
meaning of what was being said.
It's common for pastors to include a children's sermon
somewhere in the church service to alleviate this problem. It is
intended to communicate with children on their level-the level of concrete operations. Unfortunately, a common mistake that is made in children's sermons is the use of object lessons and parables that require formal operational thinking to understand. Object lessons and parables, while they are very concrete, are metaphorical in nature. The
represent an abstract idea. For someone to make the leap from the object to what it represents requires the ability to think on an abstract level. It is ironic that we commonly use object lessons with children (who haven't yet developed the ability to appreciate them), and we stop
using them just when people have developed the ability to understand
them-at adulthood. We assume that they are too juvenile for older people.
But that is not the case. Most adults enjoy and prefer sermons that are well-illustrated with stories and
concrete examples. Jesus used parables and object lessons continually in his teaching. Junior highers, especially, love object lessons and stories because they begin with the familiar (concrete operations) and move them into the realm of their new thinking abilities-the abstract.
It is also important to recognize that
a person who has reached the stage of
formal operations may become bored when she is forced to limit herself to concrete thinking. No real intellectual challenge is offered when stage-four thinkers are asked to memorize religious facts or to accept everything they are taught without questioning. While it is always good to begin with some concrete learning, it is important to allow junior highers to do some abstract
thinking as well. Junior highers are ready to ask questions and to "learn about their
learning."
In many mainline denominations,
junior highers are given the opportunity to go through the process of
confirmation, a series of classes (often taught by the pastor or a priest)
that instruct students in the basics of the Christian faith. While these
classes are beneficial as a traditional rite of passage, they frequently
become tedious and counterproductive because they limit students to
the memorization of religious facts and dogma. While young
adolescents do need to learn what we believe as Christians, they also
need to explore their faith, ask questions, and discover why we believe
what we do. Unless kids are given the opportunity to do this kind of
thinking, they will not only find their Christian education boring and
irrelevant, but they will be unlikely to embrace their faith as their own.
