At the Chancel Steps: Talking with the Children of the Congregation

By Lowell Uda

As a pastor, I love to sit with the children of the congregation on the chancel steps and have a conversation with them. I try to recognize each child by name, to look into their eyes, to listen to and to learn something about her or him. I try to be spontaneous in responding to what the child brings forth. I also try to be responsive to the child within myself. This book contains some of the strategies I have used in talking with children at the chancel steps.

I may have thought about what I'd like to say to the children on a given morning, but I welcome interruptions, what they'd like to talk about. Such interruptions are the joy of the chancel steps.

The best way I've found to give control of the conversation to the children is to use a mystery box, a twelve-by-six-by-six shoebox covered with attractive wrapping paper. I ask a child to take the mystery box home and bring it back next Sunday with something in it. That something can't be something alive that might bite me. My task is to learn more about the object and off-the-cuff make a children's sermon out of it. It's fun for the children and even for the adults in the congregation. I was stumped, or tongue-tied only once, when an adult computer expert got a child to put a motherboard into the mystery box. I missed a great opportunity to talk about mothers as the center of all living.

I also like to use puppets. I'm no ventriloquist, but the children don't mind. They are fascinated by the puppet, whether a rabbit, or lamb, or bear. It allows the children and the pastor to be playful, as God is imaginative and playful.

If you are a pastor or a layperson working with children, you're welcome to use any of the ideas in this e-book with the children of your congregation. The ideas belong to the children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rice Universe Publishing
• Release date: Jun 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301341825

Lowell Uda

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, I have taught English at the U. of Hawaii and the U. of Montana, and worked in Montana state government. After that I became a United Methodist minister, pastoring churches in Colorado and Montana. My short story, “The Cherry Tree,” won first prize in the 2011 Common Review Short Story Prize contest. Stories, poems, and creative nonfiction of mine have appeared in literary and other magazines, including The North American Review, the Hawaii Review, the Chariton Review, and, most recently, A River and Sound Review, Written River, The Whirlwind Review, 5x5, Assisi, In Our Own Voice, Divide: Journal of Literature, Arts and Ideas, Poems Across the Big Sky, Moonrabbit Review, and The Other Side.Sincerely yours,

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At the Chancel Steps: Talking with the Children of the Congregation

By Lowell Uda

Published by Rice Universe Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright Lowell Uda 2013

Cover Design by Lowell Uda

Cover Photo by John Baker-Batsel

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

For the Children of the Congregations I Have Served as Pastor

and for Clergy and Lay Whose Special Calling Is Working with Children

At the Chancel Steps: Talking with the Children

of the Congregation

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Again and Again

The Mad Mouse

The Bite That Turned into a Kiss

Joan's Garden

A Secret Place

Like Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree

Boss of Me

The King Who Loved Orange Juice and the Prophet Who Loved Sugar Cookies

Ready, Set, Wait, Part I

Ready, Set, Wait, Part II

Agnes Day, Lamb of God

Agnes Day Sings Again

Agnes Day Is Sad, then Happy

Agnes Day Finishes Her Song

Meeting Joe

Appendix

Brief Bio of the Author

Other Books by Lowell Uda at Smashwords

Where to Find Lowell Uda Online

At the Chancel Steps: Talking