Following up on the "Object Lesson" article...

When is a rock still "just a rock" to a child?

...the Problem with (some) Object Lessons and Children's Sermons

The problem with objects and metaphors in our lessons is that, developmentally speaking, young children have a difficult time understanding that a rock can be like God. To very young children, saying "God is like a rock" can mean "God is hard, round, and hurts when thrown."

The Education research says that the human brain is built to compare one thing to another and arrive at deeper understanding. But it requires experience and guidance, and some children come to it later than others. 

In many ways, Sunday School is teaching children "how to do metaphors."

Worship is another way we teacher metaphors. For example, we put a table up front and set it with special objects and call it "Jesus' Table."  Young children will wonder "where is Jesus?" But as they learn, they will learn that his presence is unseen, but the bread and cup remind us of who he is and what he does for us.

Ours is a metaphor-rich faith.  Some parents don't encourage that kind of "deep" thinking. And some teachers only teach information, rather than transformationally.   Imagine teaching the memory verse "consider the lilies of the field," without teaching them HOW to consider what Jesus is getting at?  Imagine teaching them how to to "take and eat, this is my body broken for you," without teaching them why Jesus' body was broken, and how that brokenness turned into healing.

Fumbling an Object Lesson

I frequently see pastors fumble the object lesson "ball" in children's sermons. 

The mistake: They choose objects that require too much of a metaphorical leap for the average age of students seated on the chancel steps (which tends to be very young in most churches). OR, they choose WEAK OBJECTS that don't really convey the spoken words coming out of their mouth (so they keep on talking).

Example:  

Our pastor recently showed a broken mirror to children and said, "You are like this broken mirror. You are supposed to reflect the image of God, but your sin has broken your mirror."  To which a child concretely and erroneously asked, "how did that mirror get broken?"  Everybody laughed, but the pastor's point was lost over that child's head.

The problem was that he had three metaphors going on with one object:  we are like a mirror, we are broken (which was supposed to be the main point), we can't reflect God's glory. And he never explained the challenging concepts of "what does it mean to reflect God's glory?" and "how can God restore the mirror?"

The Pastor would have been better off doing something like the following:

See this picture of us? I took it last week, remember? Sin, our bad choices and bad attitudes, tears us apart (give examples of sins). It tears apart friendships and churches and families.  (Tear up the picture as you say these things.) Do you think that's what God wants for us? No, God wants to restore and repair us. And forgiveness is the way God makes us whole. Forgiveness is like God's mending tape. On the cross, God forgives our sins (put a piece of tape on each student) and now we are to use that gift of forgiveness to turn around and mend what's wrong or broken in our lives. 

Will you help me restore this picture?  (Hand out the picture pieces, have them assemble it, then use their tape to mend it. Conclude by saying, "and there's no problem so big or so bad that applying God's forgiveness can't mend it. ---then walk around all your students with the tape reeling out of the dispense, taping them all together. If you run out, pull another tape dispenser and keep going!) 

A better metaphor object for "reflecting God's glory to others" would have been the simpler and more fun idea of wrapping a student in tin foil, and then having the other students shine flashlight on him to light him up. I would have then asked the kids what things does God want us to reflect or "give" to others (love, forgiveness, help) and written those on cards and taped them to our foil-wrapped student. The visual and simpler metaphors work better, especially for younger students, and are more FUN (and "fun" is a great memory hook).

"Broken mirror" is just too high of a concept as the young boy pointed out.

(The end result is not only a missed opportunity, but parents who think the pastor can't relate to children, and a pastor who eventually looks for ways to get out of doing children's sermons, or sacking them from worship altogether.}

BTW:  Objects don't have to be metaphors. A rock can just be a rock!  Objects can simply be great storytelling visuals to promote student attention.

Puppets are props, not metaphors. They can simply be fun to look at, and that focuses the mind on what they say. I've done children's sermons using Barbie dolls and footballs, where the doll was a puppet that I spoke through, and the football was simply a prop in the story of the boy I was telling. Kids love that stuff.

This is the secret behind all great teaching: creating visuals, and not just with your words, but also with your movements, props, foods, pictures, games, etc. ...and with children, getting them on their feet and into the story, too.