Getting our Kids to Jesus Or Not……
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When visiting a church this past weekend I once again saw the blindness of the people of God. I wondered if anyone else noticed. This particular church is pretty laid back. The service begins with a few songs and a prayer to allow for the late comers. I have heard this spoken by the greeters that the first 10 minutes of the service is for people to get their coffee and to dwindle in to the service. After the first 10 minutes (the couple of songs and prayer) the congregation sings one more song and then breaks for greeting time and to send the children to their classrooms. The children’s Sunday school hour is during the worship service.
This particular Sunday there was a guest speaker. Just as the congregation was being told to greet one another and the children could be dismissed to their rooms the title of the sermon and the scripture reference were displayed on the power point screen.
Getting our Kids to Jesus
Matthew 19:13-14 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
My husband and I simply laughed but it was not because it was funny! Do people not see???? Do they not understand??? Do they just not care??? Do they seek comfort for themselves over the task and calling of raising godly offspring rather than simply passing the baton along???
Just as the message of getting our children to Jesus and the scripture speaking of letting the children come and not being hindered lights the overhead board, there was a mass exodus of parents escorting their children from the worship service and returning with coffee cup in hand and chatting with one another (even after the music to call us back to worship was being played).
Some may be saying, “Well, they were going to learn about Jesus.” I do not have a big problem with Sunday school classes or the like, but I do, however, take issue with that comment in this context. Why does a church plan the children’s Sunday school hour during the worship hour? Why must the children’s lessons conflict with the worship time? When are the parents to teach their children how to approach the Lord Jesus in corporate worship? Why is it not important to worship the Lord as a family unit? This seems to me to be a hindrance in permitting the children to come unto the Lord.
Most importantly, why did everyone seem oblivious to what they were doing? While looking at the message of “getting our children to God”, rather than embracing the opportunity to worship the Lord of Lords and King of Kings together with their children they rushed them off and out of their hair so they could have an experience all to themselves. What does that teach?
Many questions and thoughts to ponder upon. Anyone else feel the sadness as I do or do you just see me as over reacting?
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Tags: children, Christianity, church, Conviction, culture, Family, Pondering, worship Posted in Christianity, Conservative, Conviction, Family, Pondering, Train Up a Child, children, worship
September 14th, 2009 at 6:35 am
I totally agree! I don’t have kids yet, but I do believe that parents can set no greater example in corporate worship than to worship WITH their children!
September 14th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I agree. Cedric and I have always believed the children should be with us in the worship service and I grew up that way also. Steven went to church with his cousin yesterday. They go to a large methodist church with a traditional service, a praise service, several different sunday school classes and a youth activity service (or something like that). Steven came home and just keep telling me he didn’t understand why they didn’t have communion or why they didn’t worship as a family, while everyone was off in different areas in the church and didn’t see each other until they were leaving. He missed singing the psalms and hymns and didn’t understand while other kids his age in the class seemed to be talking to each other rather than listening to what was being taught. Even my 14 yo sees why children should be in worship with the family. With having young siblings he knows they can sometime be a distraction and sometime have to be taken out whether to go to the bathroom or to be disciplined or an infant that needs to go out to be changed or feed. But still he gets why they should be there. Interesting thing my cousin told me was that they are really trying to encourage people to come to worship together as a family (yet everyone splits up when they get there).
Michelle B.´s last blog ..Back to School Giveaway
September 14th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Yes, a bit ironic haviang that very come up while the children are being ushered away! I’m very conservative I’m afraid, I can’t get past the cups of coffee and dawdling in late
BTW Krisitne, I have looked on FB but no recent news of your friend Barb. Is she dooing okay? and her family?
September 14th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
That’s just so sad.
And they wonder why so many “Christian” youths leave the church when they graduate high school. Probably because they’ve never belonged to the church… only to their various programs. When they graduate from the Rah-rah high school youth group and are suddenly expected to relate as adults (and things are less structured to cater to their entertainment) they quit.
And if the kids are going to Sunday School while the adults are in the service, then the adults aren’t going to Sunday School either.
Hang in there,
Julie
Julie´s last blog ..AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH :0)
September 15th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Oops, sorry about the spelling!
“a bit ironic having that verse come up” is what it should have read.
Ruby´s last blog ..Legalism
September 15th, 2009 at 3:00 am
Unfortunately, it sounds as though the adults could use a lesson in how to approach a Holy God. It isn’t done in shorts, flip flops and a second cup of coffee. Time and space to not permit me to express my concern regarding the current condition of the church.
Suffice it to say that many have a much too casual relationship with Christ. I gotta stop before I go toooo far down this road. Have a wonderful week.
DrillerAA´s last blog ..Ruby Tuesday
September 15th, 2009 at 4:10 am
The church in America is indeed very sad. Our family has been persecuted many times in church for keeping our children in the service with us. We are very noticeable as there are so few children in the sanctuary. We also homeschool which makes a lot of church people nervous. Anyway this could get long and drawn out about the disparities of the common day church, but I just wanted you to know that we are a family with open eyes and a very burdened heart.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:41 am
In our church in Tartu (Estonia) we used to have Sunday School on every second Sunday and before that there was always a 15-minute worship and a sermon especially for kids so that even the littlest ones were able to understood and only after that they went to their classes. I am not sure how it is done this year, because we have so many kids in Sunday School that they won’t fit into the schoolrooms anymore (I think some age groups come on the 1st and 3rd Sunday and some on the 2th and 4th Sunday of every month) – isn’t it a blessing?
Taking little children into the main worship room is another issue that our church unfortunately has. There is a second room for those with babies and those who come too late, so that they could follow the sermon without disturbing anybody – but some people don’t teach their older children to sit still in church, either, so actually families often only come on Sunday School Sundays. That is really sad…
On the other hand, we hardly ever see shorts and flip-flops in church because of the weather… and there is no such thing like drinking coffee in the main room!
Julie: we also have a special program for young people in college age (on Thursday nights, I think) and so we get many university students who are in town only during the week and attend Sunday worship at their hometowns – but quite often they also come on Sundays. If there is no such program for 18+ at your church, maybe it would be a good idea to try it?
EstonianWife´s last blog ..About 9/11
September 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Wow…. I keep thinking about all of the teachers and helpers leading those kids classes. When do they worship?
It had to have been very ironic to see the mass exodus of children at the same time the message of “bringing them to Jesus” was being flashed on the Big Screen!
I love Julie’s point of post-high school age not staying involved in church because they were never really a part of the church itself… just its programs. That is sad, but an excellent point. Makes me glad for our small, conservative church where children have as much interaction with adults as they do other children!!
Amy´s last blog ..Children’s Books Blog Hop
September 15th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I don’t know. Corporate worship is important, and so is fellowship. Mingling over coffee is part of that. Our church had a similar problem with the stragglers and chatters, but we addressed it by extending the time in between services to give everyone that time for fellowship they were obviously seeking and still start service on time.
Otherwise, I agree with you for the most part. I don’t know that I hang the whole future of the church on this. The pilgrims sat their children at the back of the church where they wouldn’t be a disruption and someone with a long rod was charged with keeping them quiet. I suppose they learned something sitting there during sermon, but it wasn’t seated with their parents, either.
It really depends more on what the parents are expecting Sunday to Sunday, I think, as far as whether or not those children will walk away from the faith.
Dana´s last blog ..Going to the fair…the book fair!
September 15th, 2009 at 11:50 am
I agree that fellowship is important but I do not believe that during the worship service we should be fellowshipping with one another, we should instead be focused on worshiping the savior. Time for fellowship (chit chatting and laughing with coffee) can be after or before. Especially not during scripture reading and prayer.
I firmly do believe that the parents should be the ones to teach their children to sit in church, listen, and worship…so I do disagree with the approach you say the puritans took in regards to this particular situation. It is the parents who should be “holding the rod of authority” here not someone else, in my opinion.
September 17th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
We completely agree! We have been attending our church for only about 6 weeks and the first 4 everyone kept telling us about the “children’s church” during the service. They finally stopped telling us when they realized that our children stay with us during the service
We were very polite about it but it was just very odd.
Autumn Beck´s last blog ..A rare sight
September 19th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I don’t think socializing should be taking place during service, either. Just that it is important, and I think sometimes the tendency is to ignore that. It is a human need, and we should fulfill that with our church brethren.
I don’t think the Puritans had it right either. My only point was that how to cope with children in service is a very old problem.
Dana´s last blog ..Interruption Academy
September 19th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
In total agreement with you here Dana!!
September 21st, 2009 at 7:21 am
I find the whole experience sad for you. I havea hard time with people who bring drinks into the worship service unless needed for medical reasons.
We didn’t allow our son to participate in Bible Hour when he was young because we wanted him to learn to sit with us and listen. Now we belong to a church that has Bible hour for 3 – 3rd graders during the sermon, the kids stay in until after communion. We have allowed our son, now that he’s a teen to participate as one of the teachers. We did this because we felt it was important to also teach him about respecting authority such as our elders who have chosen for our church to have Bible Hour.
I find it amusing also that the people didn’t seem to get it. So many people today seem to think worship is all about what do I get out of it or how was I entertained not that we are there as the body of Christ to show glory to God.
Be blessed,
Terri Sue
Terri Sue´s last blog ..First Days
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:23 am
I feel sadness as you do. Frankly, we CANNOT get our children to Jesus when we view worship and Bible study time as OURS (as in OUR time to be away from the responsibility of our children so we can learn alone) and not as ours (as in our responsibility to learn the Scriptures and teach our children and function as a family before a Great and Mighty Elohim).
And, if I may go a step further. I am greatly saddened, because, many times, in getting our children to Jesus, we miss getting them before a Holy God who desires to be their Heavenly Father. He did not send his son as Messiah to take away from the relationship we must have with him, yet it seems that is the main focus in most churches today.
Thanks Kristine. Another great thought to ponder.
Be blessed this week!!
Jacque´s last blog ..The Duties of Parents: Holy Discipline
September 25th, 2009 at 5:41 am
I didn’t read the rest of the comments, but as a culture who has learned to have our children babysat at every opportunity and do very little as a family unit, this is simply what we are used to. It takes a real paradigm shift to get away from this. Great post and food for thought for those who just blindly follow this way of “worshiping.”
~Amy @ Raising Arrows
Amy´s last blog ..A Season of Love
October 4th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
My dh has been pastor of a small reformed Baptist church in VA for 8 months. The only children attending were our own when we first came. I had trained them to sit in church at our past church and I was so thankful, because it would have been me missing most services to teach them a class. Now we have 3-4 other children regularly attending and today we had 3 more visitors. I offered nursery for any child under 5. I am thankful to say that the parents were comfortable keeping them in service. The 3-4 children that have been attending for a couple of months are starting to get more antsy in service and comfortable with us and would probably be willing to go out for a class. However, I am trying to show the parents how important it is that there children stay with them for these very reasons mentioned already! I am so thankful God opened my eyes to the beauty of sitting as a family and worshipping as an entire church family! I think part of the solution is having a pastor that isn’t bothered by the extra shuffling and sometimes exiting/reentering as parents teach their child to sit quietly!