By Lesley Barker PhD
This blog is about how children’s ministry leaders and pastors can utilize ideas and examples from the Christian history of Kentucky to inspire the children in their churches and Sunday Schools. Our emphasis on finding, researching and discussing the lives of famous Kentucky Christians, for instance, can easily and quickly become a featured moment at children’s classes and services. Men like Harland Sanders, Carl Brashear and women like Dottie Rambo and Effie Waller Smith were famous Kentucky Christians. Each of them articulated a clear commitment to Jesus Christ that changed their lives. Each of them is remembered today for the difference they made to the community. The Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project is generating posters that quickly summarize the lives of these famous Kentuckians. For the next several weeks, a different Kentuckian's life will be featured on this blog that you can use in your programs. Just print the picture. The images used are from the public domain such as found on Wikipedia, for example. This week the blog features Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Harlan Sanders
When you introduce children to Harland Sanders, they will
immediately recognize the colonel. Probably they will each remember having
eaten at one of his restaurants or having seen a KFC commercial on television.
However, when they learn that he surrendered his life to Jesus Christ when he
was older than many of their grandparents and then that he dedicated his business to God’s
kingdom, the children may be inspired to emulate him. He lived in Kentucky. He was
raised by a single mother. He only finished the eighth grade. But he more than
succeeded by hard work and godly living even before he gave his heart to God. He
had some very public failures but he always got up and courageously continued
to serve people. His life is an inspiration.
His life is also a modern example of faith in Jesus Christ.
He rode cars, not donkeys like the kings of Israel. He struggled with cussing.
His picture is on billboards and television sets. His recipes are for down-home
Kentucky cooking. Children can connect with his life. You can connect his life
to the promises and related stories found in the Bible. Harland Sanders fed
everyone who came to his little restaurant at the gas station in Corbin just
like the disciples fed everyone in the crowd twice. Harland Sanders built nice
hotels for tired travelers to sleep in just like the Good Samaritan paid for
the wounded man to stay in an inn. Remember that there was no room in the inn
at Bethlehem when Mary was having baby Jesus. Harland Sanders taught lots of
people how to fry chicken and open restaurants so that they could prosper. Do
you think that is a little bit like what Jesus was doing when he spent three
years teaching his disciples to do the good works they had seen him doing?
Harland Sanders gave a lot of money to the church after he became a Christian.
He wanted his money to be used to spread the Christian message. Do the children
think Harland Sanders was a Christian? He was from Kentucky. Do the children
think Harland Sanders was famous? Do they want to live their lives so that after
they grow old and go to heaven people will talk about them and say that they
were famous Kentucky Christians like Harland Sanders? These are some ideas for connecting the life
story of one Kentuckian to the children attending your church or Sunday School.
This blog and the Kentucky Faith & Public History Education Project
This blog will introduce you to other famous Kentucky
Christians as well as to other resources from Kentucky’s Christian history that
may be useful in your children’s ministry. The Kentucky Faith & Public
History Education Project is building an outdoor walking trail in Paris, Kentucky, that you can
bring your children and youth groups to visit (coming soon- watch for details).
This will include information about the Christian faith and its history in
Kentucky. An interactive eye-spy game with clues hidden along the trail will
keep your students engaged until they arrive at a re-imagined early nineteenth
century camp meeting (expected in the fall of 2021). In addition, the Project is
publishing a series of easy-reader chapter books about famous Kentucky
Christians. These are available as paperbacks and as e-books on Amazon with a new book expected to be
released every few months.
Please help us find more famous Kentucky Christians
Are you aware of a person from your community who should be
featured as one of Kentucky’s famous Christians? Let us know about them by
emailing us at kyfaithpublichistory@gmail.com
or by posting a comment to this blog. The qualifications are: the person lived,
worked or was born in Kentucky; they gave a clear testimony of faith in Jesus
Christ; they accomplished something that helped other people and/or expanded
the reach of the Christian message; they are in heaven now, having finished
their earthly race.
