Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Dueling Sermons

Mike puts a lot of work and creativity into his sermons. One of the things he does is to have photos on the big screen that help solidify his points. A lot of times they are funny. Our church secretary helps find some really great photos. She prepares the slides to go along with the sermon. Once it is all set, it is not something that is easily changed at the last minute.

Recently, I was asked to do our children's sermon at work. All the kids are invited down front and a little lesson is given. It is nice if it kind of goes along with Mike's sermon so I asked Mike what he would be preaching about. He told me it would be on the 10 Commandments. That's all I asked and that is all he told me.

I prepared my sermon for the kids without telling Mike about it. The children's sermon comes shortly before the regular sermon. Here's what I did.  I discussed rules I didn't like when I was young (no jumping on the bed), rules that are useful for safety (speed limits) and silly rules. For the silly rules I went online to a site that listed some ridiculous laws. I chose the ones that I thought kids would enjoy. 

In Baltimore, Maryland it is illegal to take a lion to the movies. In Kentucky it is illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket. In New York a man cannot be seen in public while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match. Those were enjoyable. One of my favorites... In Oklahoma it is illegal to have a sleeping donkey in your bathtub after 7:00 p.m. How did that come about?!

I then moved the discussion on to some of the 10 Commandments that ARE important. We are to honor our parents, refrain from stealing and we are not to use God's name as a swear word. It went well. All good points I think. Of course, I ended by telling them I didn't find any rules that stated kids couldn't eat candy at church. I handed out Smarties and all was well. 

THEN...

It was time for Mike's sermon. Guess what?! We'd had the same idea and EVEN WENT TO THE SAME WEBSITE FOR OUR SILLY LAWS!  Mike couldn't just change his sermon as the slide show was already in place. Poor guy! I stole his best lines! He had the great photos, though.


I felt bad at first. I would not have intentionally done anything to lesson his sermon points. Maybe I didn't, though. Maybe it just helped reinforce. It was kind of funny, though, don't you think?

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