Taking sermon notes is a crucial skill to develop. Crucial? I think so, and here’s why:
Even the most focused of us fight the temptation to let our minds wander during a sermon.
Listening to a sermon is spiritual work. We have an Enemy that opposes spiritual work, and distraction is one of his favorite strategies.
Writing enhances recall. The more senses we can engage while learning, the better. Writing notes adds touch and sight to sound when listening to a sermon.
Sermon notes help meditation on God’s Word later in the week. Reviewing what one wrote during a sermon helps stretch the benefit of hearing God’s Word into days instead of moments.
If taking notes is a crucial discipline to develop, we should introduce our children to the practice as soon as possible. That’s why my church makes children’s sermon note pages available to the kids in our church (we also provide handouts for the adults, but they are much more boring).
I added some of what we provide in the Sharables Section of the WARBC website. You can find them in the Children’s Ministry folder. If you can use them, please do! And if you have sermon note pages you make available to children, upload yours so others can benefit!