Most of my ministry, I have been concerned about how we have divided our age groups out into separate ministries and seldom find all ages together to worship… or do anything together for that matter. We have all these grandious programs for each age group and then we call ourselves a “Family” church. This is NOT family. This is anti-family.
Children learn how to grow and behave by watching those around them. If they only ever see how children their age behave, how will they behave? Will they grow? I think not. I think of the days of the one room school house. Little ones, looked up to the “Big” kids, couldn’t wait to get to do the things they do. The “big” kids helped the little ones when needed. The little ones were being exposed to greater concepts, then by the time they were to learn the concept themselves, it came easily because they had already heard it before.
Secondly, How can a family grow together spiritually, if they are all under the ministry of different teachers, maybe different idealogies. How can a parent reinforce what is taught at church, if they don’t know what the child was taught?
A family church is one where families worship together and does many of their other activities together. It is one where children are exposed to people of all ages so that they can watch and learn. Where did we ever get the idea that we can put a child in a group of children all his same age until they are 12 years old and then suddenly, throw them into a worship service and expect them to know how to behave and to participate in worship? How are they going to know how to truelly worship and glean from the service for their spiritual benefit? I feel they need to be taught (from birth) to be in the service …participating in the service.
So … now we have all these “family” churches. How do we transition to a truelly Family Church. I am still struggling with the answer, but I am trying to come up with solutions. This is a tough thing to do when you have a church that has been keeping the children separate and you are trying to integrate the children into the service. Many adults now do not want to be bothered with children in the service. Yes, you will have disruptions. Yes, it hard to do. Sometimes, we may not get much out of the service ourselves, especially when we have children who have never been required to sit through a service.
Here are a few ideas I have: (I hope you’ll share your ideas too)
1) Have your children come into the worship service for the first portion of the service. They can at least see and learn to sing and worship and give offerings. They can learn to stay focused for this short portion. They have to do much more than this in school, so why not in church?
2) Have a “Family Day” once a month. On this Sunday, children remain in the worship service with their parents for the whole service. Encourage parents to ‘help’ their children participate and listen during the entire service. The pastor (senior or children’s) could offer a children’s sermon on this Sunday. Perhaps a section of the sanctuary could be designated for families only.
3) Offer children’s bulletins. Have a lay out where they can record what happens in the service. Have them list the songs that were sung and at least one main point from the sermon. At times I have offered prizes to the children if they will show a completed form at the end of the service.
4) If you can’t work it out to have the children in the main sanctuary for worship, then invite other adults to come in and share with them. Do this often. Children need to really know people from church other than a few other kids. Our seniors have so much to offer and we are not taking advantage of their wisdom. (Maybe, if the children know the older people personally, they would be less likely to run through the crowds practically knocking an elderly person down.)
5) Plan activities for the children that include the whole family. No more “drop and go” (babysitting) events.
And here is why I started this whole blog entry in the first place ….
6) Visitation …. Last Wednesday, I arranged to have all our children picked up after school and we headed to the retirement center to visit one of our shut-in couples. They were thrilled when we all showed up. (To tell the truth, the kids were excited too! How cool to have the children’s director pick you up at school). I was concerned that the children would all sit their silently so, I took along some question cards from our board game Life Stories. The questions are to get you to share about your life. I couldn’t get the children to quit talking. They all wanted to answer every question. We all had a ball! We’ll definately, do this again!
Please, share you ideas for all of us!
Mandy
LifeStories, Christian Version
Bring family & friends together to recall and share their LifeStories. An enjoyable pastime with surprising and revealing results, this storytelling game is a way to warm up a family gathering, rekindle a friendship or renew histories. While playing this game, generations of family and friends will talk, laugh and share opinions together as they recall memories, reveal hopes and dreams in response to stimulating questions. An ingenious game that opens a pathway to each other’s heart and soul. LifeStories encourages self-expression, affirmation, creative thinking, problem solving and team work! Includes 3 additional card decks with questions related to the Christian faith. Ages 6 to 106, 2 to 8 Players
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
![060130: God"s Design for Sex Series, 4 Books: Revised](http://ag.christianbook.com/g/tiny/0/060130.gif "060130: God"s Design for Sex Series, 4 Books: Revised")
Tomorrow is my birthday. I’ll be 47 years old. Some my age might be hesitant to share that information. But I am thrilled that I have finally arrived at the age where most are hoping to still look young. You see, I’ve always looked young for my age and have ‘hated’ it. I have been waiting 20 years to get to the point where people think I am younger than I really am.