7-year-old mesmerizes from the pulpit

• Samuel read a book about the creation at age 3
• Mother says he memorizes his 15-minute %27inspirational message%27
• He says he wants to be a doctor

JACKSON, Miss. -- He stands in the pulpit at Birmingham's Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church, sporting a pin-striped vest and tie. Nearby, a woman weeps and waves her hands.

The 5-year-old called his first sermon "Double for Your Trouble." It's about Job, a man who continued to have faith in God despite his trials and eventually was given more than he lost as a reward for his devotion.

"Job had nothing," says Samuel Martholomew Green, speaking confidently to the congregation as their voices reaffirm his message.

"He lost his land. He lost his animals. He lost his sons and daughters. But do you know what Job did? Job fell to his knees and began worshiping to God, saying, 'The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.' After all these bad things happened to Job, still he praised God."

Now 7, Samuel has since preached at more than 50 churches and community events. The Jackson youngster has his own public access television show, "Samuel M. Green Presents the Simple Truth." And he recently began taping six shows called "Tiny Tots for Jesus" for Three Angels Broadcasting Network, a Christian media ministry based in West Frankfort, Ill.

Justin Patterson, 24, the youth leader of Bolton's Brownsville Missionary Baptist Church, first saw the little preacher on YouTube. Then he decided to go see him in person.

"I couldn't believe someone so small had so much to say and give to the world," he says.

Samuel is the middle name of the little preacher's father, Louis S. Green III. But the boy's mother, Joann Green, named him after Samuel in the Bible.

Green, 52, a Medicare coordinator, and her husband, a retired surgical assistant, did not expect to have another child. Her eldest son, Cedric Walker, was 21 when Samuel was born. She often said if she had another baby, she would pattern his life after the biblical Samuel. She read scripture to him when she tucked him in and when he woke.

His grandmother began teaching him songs and nursery rhymes at 12 months. By age 3, he could read, and during children's story time at church, he confidently read a book about the creation.

Joann Green says Samuel's comfort level speaking in front of people definitely did not come from her or her husband.

"I am not a public speaker, and my husband is very bashful. He did not grow up around pastors. We are just a very spiritual family," Green says. "This is very unique, and sometimes, we are just amazed at some of the things Samuel says. We know without a shadow of a doubt that it is strictly from God."

Samuel remembers reading that creation story. "The real meaning of the creation story is that we should try to be like who we are and not like someone else because God made us, just like Adam and Eve. He made us exactly the way he wants us to be."

Samuel is a good kid, his mom says, but he isn't perfect.

"He gets in trouble for not following direction as he is told," Green says. "He'll get in trouble for not staying focused at school. He will sort of daydream. And sometimes he gets in trouble for leaving his toys around, not picking up and putting things away as he should."

Samuel skipped kindergarten and entered first grade at age 5 because he was so well prepared, his mother says. Math, reading and spelling are his favorite subjects.

A love of language comes in handy when reading the Bible and pondering spiritual messages.

"It's in my mind, and my teachers transport it onto paper, and I learn it from there," says the third-grader at College Drive Seventh-Day Adventist Christian School in Pearl.

"But the words, exactly on the paper, are what I said," he adds, pausing. "Well, sometimes it's hers," he says, referring to Beverly Curry-Coleman, his after-school teacher and the woman who helps him prepare his lengthy sermons. "Sometimes it's mine. But I don't want to take all the credit away from her."

Curry-Coleman says it usually takes Samuel about three days to memorize a 15-minute message.

"I do not refer to them as sermons," she says. "I write inspirational messages for Samuel, and I began doing this as a request from his mother. Whenever Samuel is asked to speak, I allow him to tell me what story in the Bible he wants to share with the congregation. Once the story has been selected, I write the message. Samuel, then, reads it and decides what changes he wants to make.

"If he wants to add anything, he will just do that when he is giving the message. Then there are times we do not write at all; we just discuss what he will present. However, all of his introductions he does before he begins his messages, I write them for him."

Thomas Kersen, an assistant professor of sociology at Jackson State University, said he would question the ability of someone so young to grasp the complex conceptual framework and history of what is being preached.

He cites psychologist James Fowler on religious cognitive development: "Quite often, these children are mimicking family and religious leaders and have little abstract understanding of what they are saying or what the rituals they are engaging in signify."

Curry-Coleman worries little about what others think.

"Do I feel a child can effectively lead or head a congregation, be a pastor over a church? No, I do not, because being a pastor is a very demanding job," she says. "But I also believe that God calls who he wants no matter what their age is."

"I have seen pastors actually be speechless once he is done," Curry-Coleman says. "They know he is not putting on an act or trying to imitate another preacher he has seen on TV or at church. I have witnessed little children who just wanted to shake his hand after he finishes his messages.

"Parents say they made sure they came so their children can see how wonderful he is and hope he will be able to inspire their child or grandchildren. After service, they stand around just to get a picture or his autograph."

Samuel, who enjoys playing sports, going to Jackson State sporting events and eating at Chuck E. Cheese's, doesn't watch TV evangelists. And, he adds, his parents have never forced him to preach. "It was my choice. I decided that I wanted to go up there and preach and be a youth inspirational speaker, because that's what I am."

Stanley Smith, one of Samuel's mentors and pastor of Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church, says Samuel is extremely intelligent. "Do I see the makings of a preacher? Only God knows. However, I do see him as a spiritual motivational speaker."

Phyllis Robinson, producer of "On Location TV Talk Show" on Comcast Cable Network, met Samuel after watching him appear on a TV morning show. She contacted his mother to request an interview.

"They were briefed on what our conversation would be minutes before the actual taping," Robinson says. "He responded to questions as if we had been over them in advance."

She offered him a show.

"I watched on his YouTube page some of his sermons, and not only was amazed about his relationship with God and being able to express it so well -- his delivery is really above average for a child his age, and he expresses no fear," Robinson says.

Samuel says there's another goal he wants to accomplish: He wants to be a doctor, "but not just a doctor -- a doctor who takes care of children."

And, as for sermons, his outlook is simple.

"Now you might be thinking, what can a little 7-year-old boy tell me about God and his word? Well, God has been using little children to deliver his word for a long time, and one of those children happened to be named Samuel."