by A. Roger Gobbel and Phillip C. Huber. John Knox Press, 1981. 106 pp.
Creative Designs is several cuts above most other books about children's sermons. The (Lutheran) authors begin (pp. 3-40) with a carefully reasoned explanation of the role of children in worship ("Not what we can do for children, but what we can do along with children"). The rest of the book is devoted to forty-three conversations (containing many questions) an adult can have with children as part of the worship service.
Some of these are object lessons (fairly good ones), but most others elaborate on a Scripture text, explain or practice a part of worship (both baptism and communion), or teach a hymn. Usually the authors attempt to integrate the conversation into the worship ser-vice. Half of the conversations are geared to the church year; the others are more general.