Colette Volkema DeNooyer

Using the church year to teach the mighty acts of God

Dirk is five. He wiggles a lot in church. Sings some. Talks too much. And doesn't get much out of the sermon. Sometimes a musical instrument, a choir, or a change of banners and colors catches his attention—but not often enough. Usually worship is words and ideas rather than the concrete objects, people, and events that have meaning for children. So Dirk returns to his crayons.

In most congregations children are an important part of worship during the Advent and Christmas season: small children stand on tiptoe to light the candles in the Advent wreath; the children's choir joyfully heralds the news of the Savior's birth; the children reenact the nativity scene during an evening program. To exclude children from worship during Advent and Christmas would be unthinkable. Yet in many of these same congregations children are all but forgotten during Lent.

Philip E. Johnson. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1985, 120 pp., $7.95.

The popularity of children’s messages has fostered a whole genre of books written for pastors and others asked to demonstrate during worship that children are not second–class Christians.