- It separates families during worship. More and more in contemporary society it is difficult for families to find time to be together. What are we saying about the importance of family time when we separate families during worship?
- It ghettoizes children's ministry. In most congregations the primary responsibility for children's ministry falls to a small group of people. Are we prepared to thank these people for doing such an important job by removing them from worship as well?
- It degrades worship. We worship the way that we do for a reason. There is a flow to worship. It stands together as a unit. We should not encourage people to leave for certain parts of worship.
- Worship is for everyone. There are a variety of creative ways to include children in worship.
- Depending on the timing of children's church it can cause them to be excluded from the Sacrament.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Children in worship
Because of some comments in class the other night I have been thinking about children in worship. Several churches have introduced what they call "children's church." Although there are numerous manifestations of this program by and large what they do is remove children from worship for a portion of the service and conduct some sort of Christian ed. There are a number of reasons why this is a dangerous idea:
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1 comment:
Amen. Unless that kid is crying, then punt him/her to the nursery, lol. I think my sup. had an interesting comment when he said in baptismal class, "You're kid's crying upsets you more than the people around you." That may not always be the case, cuz I know some grumpy old people that like to make noise about everything (other issues), but a crying/noisy kid does not have to disrupt the flow of service.
On a side note, I wonder if it would be possible to ask people to leave their cell phones outside of the sanctuary once worship starts, or at least during "adult worship time."
On a more related note, I think you'd like this Catechesis of the Good shepherd class for youngins. It introduces kids to the worship during Sunday School time, which then resonates when they see things in worship that they know.
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