The associate pastor was doing "Sermon in a sack" extremely well, but he was also doing the morning sermon...so I offered to take over the kids sermon for a while, to make his life easier.
You don't know what "Sermon in a sack" is? Let me explain.
The kids come to the front of the sanctuary, and one of them brings a sack. "Nothing living, nothing dead, and your parents can't help you" are the only requirements. Then they hand you the sack. You have to do a mini sermon, (1 to 2 minutes long) based just on what is in the sack.
How hard is that?
You have to see the item, and determine what it is (which can be tricky), and then show it to the audience, and then do a funny little message that incorporates that item into a mini-sermon.
Now, a person that is trained in religious doctrine will first and foremost be thinking of the message. Me? I am thinking of the laughs.
Luke, a super cute 4 year old kid, once brought in a pen. Pastor B picked it up, and started talking about it, and about what you could do with a pen. Then he clicked it. It wasn't JUST a pen, it also gave out a shock that was enough to knock a man down. He screamed like a little girl.
Since then, he has been cautious about giving the pen to Luke again.
This last Sunday I gave the sack to a little girl. After church, Judy called me over and said, "Here's your sack". The little girl had decided not to do the sermon in a sack. I saw Luke walking by. I gave the sack to him.
Now, by all rights, I should have found another kid and spread the opportunity around, but I gave it to him because I knew that he would be comedic gold.
Am I going for the most relevant message? OR am I going for the laughs?
