Children's and youth services

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Me Died Blue

Puritan Board Post-Graduate
What's the opinion of people here with regard to churches having separate services for children and teens on Sunday mornings? Do you see it as legitimate "church" as set forth in the New Testament?

Chris
 
The Statement from our Elders written to defend the Biblical practice of "Family Integrated Worship" - http://users3.ev1.net/~maranathachurch/casefiw.html

The introduction to the article reads:
[quote:5d2a47cdbb]Over the past 50 years, the church has been mostly sleeping through what is perhaps the fiercest battle yet of an age-old war. The battle is being waged by the enemies of God against that fundamental unit of society instituted by God at creation: the family. Satan's goal in this battle is the destruction of your family. Family members are increasingly separated by today's structures (school, business, church), today's values (working moms, childcare, nursing homes), and today's technologies (TV, movies, music, video games). The family is disintegrating into unrelated components that no longer have much to do with one another. That the church is one of today's structures listed as emblematic of separating family members should come as a shock, but it is true. With all the other structures, values, and technologies separating family members most every waking hour of every day, the church, rather than succumbing to the external and internal pressures of conformity to the world, should be one institution where family members are actually encouraged to be a family. Sadly, many church calendars are filled with compartmentalized activities that separate the family throughout the week and then again during worship on Sunday mornings. Following the Biblical model, Maranatha! Community Church is strongly committed to encourage and facilitate the whole family, including babies, worshipping God together at church and at home. [/quote:5d2a47cdbb]

After we had drafted this article we came across Doug Phillips ministry and got ahold of his tape "The Role of Children in the Meeting of the Church." We highly recommend it and other resources from Vision Forum at http://www.visionforumministries.org/sections/ncfic/default.asp

See also http://users3.ev1.net/~maranathachurch/cfiw.html


Phillip
 
Thanks, Phillip. That was the way I was leaning in my thoughts, and it's nice to have another believer corroborate it in my mind. The main reason I was leaning against separate services in my mind is because of the covenantal nature of the family I see in the Bible. But are there any direct, clear Scriptures you could advise pointing people to in order to support this view, people who may not be very familiar with covenantal themes at all?

Thanks,

Chris

[Edited on 2-25-2004 by Me Died Blue]
 
Goooo Family!! It seems like there is a seperate compartment of the church for every member of the house. And it is very rare that I am around my family at any church functions other than Sunday. Argggg...

However, this does not mean that there should not be seperate fellowship time (with worship integrated in) for the kids.

Philip, do you ban youth fellowship/worship time apart from family presense?

[quote:6508b3f499]...today's technologies (TV, movies, music, video games).[/quote:6508b3f499]

I say we crush all TV's! Unless we can all agree to watch the same thing.

Rembrandt
 
"Following the Biblical model, Maranatha! Community Church is strongly committed to encourage and facilitate the whole family, including babies, worshipping God together at church and at home."

Pastor Way,

I was just wondering what the "including babies" means? Do you have a nursery in your church and if you don't how do you manage to keep the babies from distracting everyone else? I have an infant and a toddler and I can harldy keep them quiet for 5 minutes much less an hour long service. Just wondering....

Anne
 
For Scriptures, see the article from our elders! :tongue:

Any time we meet for worship, we are together as families. We do encourage the families in our church to fellowhsip with one another throughout the week, especially if they have kids the same age, etc. But every service of the church is for the entire family.

We do not offer anything that would divide the church up into groups of any kind.

Phillip
 
[quote:2a44fc0155]But every service of the church is for the entire family.[/quote:2a44fc0155]

what about youth fellowship gatherings during the week??
 
Pastor Way,

I just read the article, sorry I missed that the first time I read your post. I agree with what you have to say for the most part, thought I think it is awfully hard to not have a church nursery. After I had my first child, the church we attend did not have a nursey attendant. I basically missed about a year of services because I had a loud baby (who is now a loud toddler) who wouldn't sit in the service without distracting everyone else. The women in church eventually made up a nursery schedule so I can at least sit in on some of them. I am very grateful for that, as it is hard to grow in the Lord (much less feel spiritually depressed) without hearing the preaching of His Word!
 
We had already stated our position when the church was planted and then wrote this article after several weeks of prayer and Bible study when a few families in the church asked that very question.

We came away from it more committed than ever to having everyone in the family in worship.

We do not have a nursery (we meet in a rented facility and only have access to one room anyway, but even if we had the room we would not have a nursery.) We would, if we had the space, utilize a crying/nursing room at the back, but not totally separate from the sanctuary.

As for crying babies, we patiently teach parents how to teach their kids to sit in church and participate. Families with older kids assist, and the whole church has an attitude of helping rather than finding a quick fix of removing the kids to another part of the building for babysitting.

We also record each sermon so that families can have them on tape or CD to hear what they miss, and I write a weekly family worship devotional for the church that cooresponds with the messages I preach, further reinforcing the teaching of the Word.

One example, we have a family that when they joined our church had a 7 month old boy. They were unsure of our policy, but now support it wholeheartedly. That 7 month old was at first noisy and hard to control. Especially as he grew. But now he is now not quite 3, and he sits through church (10:30 am to 12:30PM), helps suggest hymns to sing (that he has been taught at home in family worship), sings along, says "Amen" at the end of every prayer, and can answer several catechism quetsions. His parents still don't believe it. But consistent loving discipline and exposure to routine will teach a child at a very early age how to act in church!

And a church that is open to helping parents is a true blessing.

As we asked in the article, what justification do we have to remove our children from hearing the preaching of the Word of God, the means of grace?

We now have more kids than adults in our worship service. And they are learning with us how to worship God in spirit and truth!

Phillip
 
I am glad you have such a supportive church and that families are able to worship together, I look forward to being able to do that someday. Unfortunately the situation we are in would make it more difficult, as my husband works every other Sunday, so I would be having to drag two kids out of the service (by myself) everytime one of them needed a diaper change or to be disciplined.

[Edited on 2-25-2004 by sailorswife]
 
I my two churches (past and current), the whole church meets together for the first part of the morning service. If a child is screaming then they can be taken just outside the back door where things can be heard on relay. As a whole this doesn't happen much.

But the youngest children go out just before the sermon. I would expect children aged about 10+ to be able to stay in and gain something from the sermon, and thats about the age they 'stay in'. The younger children go off and are taught together in a way appropriate to their age.

I agree that families should be all together for some time particularly in the prayer, praise and reading of the word. It is a joy to hear the cries of children when the family of God meets together.

I also believe in Children's Sunday School. This concept has almost died, but it is a seperate venture from the Morning or Evening Services, not held concurrently. Moreover it is a good evangelistic opportunity to bring in children from outside the fellowship, and as the adults are not involved in services at the same time there is the scope for many to help out with transport and so on. We have Children's Sunday School at 3pm - that's totally seperate from any provision in the morning and the evening - but it is an addition, not a replacement!
 
catechism questions

Pastor Way,
I was wondering when the child learned the catechism questions- during the service or at home? Thanks for your reply.
Erin
 
They learn it at home and when they come to church or if I see them in the week I will ask from time to time the questions they are working on and they will answer me.

Phillip
 
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