Stories in Church Services for Children[1]

“Stories are better than sermonettes. A five-minute story, well told, from the pulpit often outweighs an hour’s discourse. Children under twelve rarely learn through abstract terms. Such explanations bore them, since they are first incomprehensible, and after a story are superfluous. Stories are better than object-lessons, since stories appeal both to the intellect and the emotions. Suppose a minister holds in his hands a watch and observes that if it goes wrong it has to be remedied from the inside, so also if a child goes wrong he has to be altered in the heart. This is clear so far as it goes, but it does not instruct a child how to adjust his heart any more than it teaches him how to be a watch-repairer. But suppose the minister tells a story of how ‘once upon a time’ a boy failed to be obedient until he fell in love with his mother. He then deals with the problem practically, directly, and naturally. The boy is full of interest, and the minister is religiously educating and inspiring. Story illustration is essentially the art of explaining the unknown by the familiar, an untried experience by an experience already gained, as Jesus used agricultural parables for peasants and fishing experiences to unenlightened fishermen.”

A number of ministers I know are telling five-minute stories from their pulpits each Sunday morning to the delight of both young and old; at the same time enriching their service of worship and solving, as far as it can be solved under present conditions, the vexed problem of how to get children to remain to the preaching service of the church. Others are successful in weaving into their shortened discourses choice stories which hold attention and illume and enforce the truth presented.