Babies and Young Children In Church Services

[Thousand Hills]

What is the policy at your church on babies and young children staying with their parents during the service? Is it up to the parent, are they strongly encouraged to use the nursery facilities (if available)? What about first time visitors?

 

[Reformed]

Parents retain responsibility for and authority over their children. There is nothing wrong with cry rooms or utilizing a nursery. If a child is acting up, and the parent cannot bring them under control, then it is prudent for a parent to remove the child from the worship service. If the parents have their children under control then they should not be pressured to put their children in the nursery, Sunday school, or children's church.

P.S. Besides the fact that there is no warrant in Scripture to separate ages in worship.

 

[Thousand Hills]

Parents retain responsibility for and authority over their children. There is nothing wrong with cry rooms or utilizing a nursery. If a child is acting up, and the parent cannot bring them under control, then it is prudent for a parent to remove the child from the worship service. If the parents have their children under control then they should not be pressured to put their children in the nursery, Sunday school, or children's church.

P.S. Besides the fact that there is no warrant in Scripture to separate ages in worship.

Is your church completely Family Integrated? What do you think about that movement?

 

[Reformed]

Is your church completely Family Integrated? What do you think about that movement?

No. We are not family integrated. I do not support the Family Integrated Church Movement, the NCFIC, or Vision Forum. It is my opinion that they go beyond scriptural warrant in many areas. That said, where there is scriptural warrant on an issue related to family, I accept it. There is no scriptural warrant for separating ages in worship. For that reason our church does not separate families in worship.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

No. We are not family integrated. I do not support the Family Integrated Church Movement, the NCFIC, or Vision Forum. It is my opinion that they go beyond scriptural warrant in many areas. That said, where there is scriptural warrant on an issue related to family, I accept it. There is no scriptural warrant for separating ages in worship. For that reason our church does not separate families in worship.

Do you separate them in Sunday School? Do you separate them in Bible Study? If so, do you see a scriptural warrant for that separation?

 

[annsni]

We have Sunday school for kids basically prek4 through 6th grades. We did have a nursery for infants if parents wanted to utilize it but we didn't need it for a long time so we didn't have it. But we now have a mom with a 10 month old and she's been bringing her daughter into the service. We don't have a facility right now that is conducive to having a nursery (the room we're getting for the children in the hotel is very small and we can't easily divide it like we used to in the room we used to get) so having the baby in the room with us is fine. She fusses a little but never is loud or disruptive. If she were screaming, I would expect any mom would bring their child out of the service so as to not distract others. I'd just like to be able to give her the opportunity to fully focus on the service rather than having to watch her child and as soon as we can, we will try to accommodate her with a nursery.

 

[Reformed]

Do you separate them in Sunday School? Do you separate them in Bible Study? If so, do you see a scriptural warrant for that separation?

We have one Sunday school class for all ages. Our mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting is for all ages.

 

[JohnDeereFan]

What is the policy at your church on babies and young children staying with their parents during the service? Is it up to the parent, are they strongly encouraged to use the nursery facilities (if available)? What about first time visitors?

We have a nursery if a parent would rather leave their child there, but we encourage families to stay together during the service.

We believe in an age-integrated church and do not segregate by age. We believe that the Biblical model is for children to be around the older saints to observe them and to learn from them.

 

[Revmitchell]

Parents can keep their children if they desire. That is their choice. We cannot tell people what to do. However we make children's church and nursery available. That is what is best it lets the children be taught at an age appropriate level and allows them to actually enjoy learning about the Lord.

 

[Jerome]

EWF, don't the Primitives separate the family in seating at worship?
Used to be, most everybody did:



P.E. Burroughs, The Baptist People, p. 45:

Among the English Baptists of the seventeenth century some interesting customs prevailed, which were likewise to be found in America in the eighteenth and even the nineteenth centuries. The men sat on one side of the meeting house, while the women sat on the other side.

Robert J. Dinkin, "Seating the Meeting House in Early Massachusetts," New England Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Sep., 1970), p. 457:

In a few instances children were seated in accordance with their family's standing, but most frequently they were assigned gallery seats, the rear seats, or the stairs.

The History of the European Family: Family life in the Long Nineteenth Century 1789-1913, p. 215:

women [sitting] next to their husbands in church. . .reflected modern norms about gender relations.

19th Century Southern Methodist Bishop George Foster Pierce decried family seating as a modern and unwelcome innovation:

I avow myself in favor of the old rule. 'Let the men and the women sit apart in all our congregations' It may be pleasant and convenient for families to occupy the same pew, but pleasure and convenience ought to be given up for the sake of religious interest.

 

[HAMel]

At our church we require the parents to leave their children in their respective cars and then, assign one to serve as the Parking Lot Attendant.

...that's just how we do it in Hicksville seeing as how we're so ignorant in the back woods.


JUST KIDDING FOLKS - JUST KIDDING. No parking lot attendant! No requirement to leave said kids in the car! JUST KIDDING!!!

Everyone of all ages are welcome in our church. If a baby goes to screaming the mother simply gets up and retreats or the Stiff Necks are shown the door.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

What is the policy at your church on babies and young children staying with their parents during the service? Is it up to the parent, are they strongly encouraged to use the nursery facilities (if available)? What about first time visitors?

We have a secure nursery, licensed, with security background checks done for all volunteers. Anyone should feel safe leaving their children there, and are encouraged to do so. Older children, from perhaps four on up, are "optional" -- there's a place for them, but if the parents want them in the service, they should be there. For that matter, if they want to bring the infants in, no one is going to stop them. I've seen babies sleep through our entire service. Not sure how Pastor Derrick feels about that, but I'm sure he's fine with it, much more so than if one of the adults does the same.

If a baby goes to screaming the mother simply gets up and retreats or the Stiff Necks are shown the door.

Same as ours, and at most, I would venture to guess.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

We have one Sunday school class for all ages. Our mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting is for all ages.

Wow....thats purdy good. Ive not seen that in quite some time.

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

EWF, don't the Primitives separate the family in seating at worship?
Used to be, most everybody did:

That hasn't been my experience.

 

[Thousand Hills]

At our church we require the parents to leave their children in their respective cars and then, assign one to serve as the Parking Lot Attendant.

I know you are jesting, but might not be a bad idea for those folks that AMEN!! everything.

Pastor: This Wednesday were' having a pot luck.
That guy: AMEN!!

Pastor: Please remember sister Bertha that had hip surgery.
That guy: AMEN!!

Choir Director: Please turn to page 492, 1st and 5th stanzas
That guy: AMEN!!

 

[Dan Todd]

Our church is very small in number - but we've had children's church for many years. We let them go to children's church - generally till they are old enough to understand what is going on in regular church.

 

[salzer mtn]

I know of a church that the pastor insisted that every child under four years old be in the nursery. I have seen the pastors wife go to visitors with children under four and tell them she would take their child to the nursery. Guess what ? all this changed when the pastor and his wife became grand parents.

 

[HAMel]

...all this changed when the pastor and his wife became grand parents.

salzer mtn, isn't it strange when one finds themselves walking in another's shoes?

 

[Salty]

We have one Sunday school class for all ages. Our mid-week Bible study and prayer meeting is for all ages.

So does everyone in your church send their kids to the same public school that only has one class (for all grades) and only one teacher?

back woods.

... If a baby goes to screaming the mother simply gets up and retreats or the Stiff Necks are shown the door.

Just to clarify - if a mother will not take a screaming child out of the worship service, what action do the ushers take- and if they politely ask her to take the child out - and she refuses - then waht?