My heart hurts when I am browsing church websites (yes, some people actually DO use your websites, churches, so step it UP) and I come across something like this:
"Parents opting to bring Children into the main worship:
If you bring children into the Adult worship we ask that you respect the people seated around you by IMMEDIATELY taking your child to the lobby or to Promiseland. NOTE: Parents with children may be asked by our ushers to take their children out of the auditorium during the service should they become a distraction. Please let your kids experience Promiseland!"
We want our child to worship with us. If you blatantly tell me the above type of statement, I am heartbroken. No, I'm not going to stay in a worship space with my child flailing and screaming... but she might make noise by babbling back at the pastor's message or by dropping her sippy cup or by clapping her own sweet little hands.
We want a church that wants to let us worship with our child... where it isn't odd or uncomfortable for us to do so. When did the church become a place where families worshipped in compartmentalized ways throughout a building? Yes, Sunday School or some equivalent is a great way to learn and grow on your own age level BUT isn't that COMPLEMENTARY to worshipping as a whole family unit?
I also don't understand why SO many churches are still using the Sunday School hour (or whatever hour you call this) as the same time to offer the more contemporary (only using this word because it most easily denotes non-traditional) worship service. I, AGAIN, want to choose to worship with my child and my husband in the type of worship that we feel led in AND still have the opportunity for both my child and for us as a couple to attend "classes" or "groups" at a separate time with others.
If you actually read this (lol, and for that I say thanks for bearing with me and my small ranting), pray for us as we look for where God wants us to be as a family when it comes to the church setting. It is completely JOYFUL that I get to stay at home with our sweet daughter, Jillien. But it has definitely been a hard transition to walk away from the church we grew to love and serve when I left my job as youth director there and now try to find where we are meant to land next.
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Oh girl! I wish you lived near me. I go to a contemporary Baptist Church. Our church encourages little ones to attend the main worship, and then they are dismissed afterward to their classes. For ages 0-4 they have the option to go ahead and drop the kids off, but many of the little ones attend worship with the rest of us, Zoey included. All the kids are in worship. We also don't do "Sunday School", we have the children's ministry during the pastor's sermon, but adults have Wednesday night seminars they can attend instead of on Sunday morning. I know you'll find a place to call home. :) I do wish you lived near me though! Look for something in the Acts29 Network... they're generally a more contemporary setting: http://www.acts29network.org/churches/#state:Texas
ReplyDeleteHey!!! This is Marcy, I used to go to school with your hubby... check out http://www.riverpointechurch.org
ReplyDeleteThey TOTALLY embrace the children there. The pastor and his wife even go so far as to take the child from their parents and bring them up on stage with them while they do announcements and say that they are their "little helper"... lol They absolutely love kids there.
They also have a worship dance ministry for all ages from 2-adult... and they perform some powerful stuff letting the tiny ones dance with them even if they're not perfect at it yet... it's SOOOO sweet and the kiddos absolutely love it!! Many of our mommies bring their kids into the service. :oD
I think this extends even beyond infant/child stage. I think that the current system of youth ministry, in which kids are taken out of the pews and given alternative entertainment, brings about a rift in the family. Back in the day, there was one service. Kids, Teens, and Adults all sat together and learned. I'm not saying we need to go back to that, but that things are now out of balance in the other direction.
ReplyDeleteHummm. You are provoking me to think. I do like the idea of children being in the worship service but in the past I attended a church where all kids (even five and under) were meant to sit with the adults and they were bored out of their minds. They were demanded to behave themselves and as they got older they had to share something they got out of the message but I never saw any fruit out of these children. (Mind you it was a very legalistic church). I find that it's very difficult for most children to sit still during an hour service of a pastor teaching. Unfortunately kids in our age are so overloaded with entertainment that they lack the ability to do so and then they are a major distraction to everyone else. I have seen an amazing blessing for my children in children's ministry. (Their worship is separate from ours). Although I choose to be the primary teacher to my children of God's word I see that my five year old is learning so much and thoroughly enjoys His Sunday School class. My three year old just started learning more and he loves it too. I get to reinforce everything they learned at church by the paperwork they bring home and whatever other creative way I choose too. I love it and I feel it is much more focused on their age level so that they understand.
ReplyDeleteJust some thoughts.
Love you,
Charise