Children in the worship service

well thank you saturne,

that's what we are attempting to do!

 

Hi bapmom,

My wife and I only have four, so I guess you win.

Seriously, I really don't have a quarrel with anyone who wants to provide a children's church or who wants to take advantage of one because they think it is better for their children, even though that is not my own preference. My real objections are two: those who insist that my children ought not be with me during worship, the assumption being that because they are children they will be a nuisance or a distraction to someone; and parents who see their own children as a nuisance and therefore want someone else to miss worship so that they (the parents) are not distracted. I made that last post in a hurry and should have taken the time to better explain what I meant. Sorry about that.

 

I understand.

btw, where did you get your avatar and I assume its digitally manipulated?

 

I think I got it in an email a while back, but I can't remember for sure.

 

Our children's worship service is on Sunday night, at the church, while adults are in cell groups, from 6-8 p.m. The youth group meets together for worship at the same time. Both services are designed to teach the kids what worship is all about, and how to worship, and they appear to be quite effective. On Sunday morning, parents of kids below kindergarten have the option to put their kids in child care, above that age, they come into the regular service.

 

They may not be totally understanding it, but to me it seems as if it's a method of learning, and important to have.
A child learns like the basics of life by living it. They always start out "sloppy".
They get fed a tiny bit at a time and learn to eat on their own. They're not separated from adults until they are really good at it. (some people do, but I believe it's reprehensible)
They're not kept away from the bathroom until they are old enough to use it perfecty.
They're not kept away from people who walk until they can walk too.
They're made familiar with all that stuff from the very start, and in my opinion for a Christian family, worship and gathering with believers is another basic need and part of learning.

Yes, there's family worship 24/7, and church is just an extension of that. It's gathering with other believers to continue that with added benefits of deeper learning and communing with other believers. It should be a...whaddya call it? A culmination of what you've been doing all week, so to take the height of worship and change it to a segregated thing bothers me. There is so much symbolism in the scripture concerning family, pictures of family, pictures of the church as a family, that on the day when the whole family gathers....it just seems extra-strange to mess up that picture on that day.
Alone adult time is good, I just don't think that the day of the gathering of the saints is a good time for it.
I can't imagine that at the final gathering the children are gonna all be gathered on one side and the kids on the other so we won't be distracted in our worship of the Savior.

Now for the avatar. I made that into an avator from a full photo a few years ago and it got on the net.
I don't recall the origin of the photo, but I really don't believe it is digitally manipulated. I had a large number of photos (I was doing a pro-life website at the time) and if I recall correctly, that particular photo was of an infant that died during an attempt at in-utero surgery. There is a website out there somewhere that also had the full photo, and they have it couple with the photo of the unborn infant (not the same infant) clasping the surgeon's hand during an in-utero surgical procedure for (once again if I remember right) an attempt to correct a failure of the baby's spine to close completely. Tai-Sach's? Spelling? Someone's gotta know...
Anyhow I hope I'm wrong and the baby lived!

Anyhow, I've got the full size pic still on my computer somewhere. I'm not sure how to get it on here, but if you want it send me your email and I'll send it that way cuz I know I can attach it!

 

I am going to send my five year old to university next year. Why waste time with kindergarten. They can get a jump start by joining the adults in school. Never could figure out why school is graded anyway.....

Cheers,

Jim

PS..the five year old is mythical

 

God and university are just so totally different that I don't get why you're making that connection. Makes as much sense as saying "if you're gonna drink orange juice, you may as well walk three feet with your shoelace untied".

God's word is good, no matter what the age. The God effect. Like the Mozart effect, only better. :thumbs: Even better? Let them hear Mozart AND see the Christian life in its completeness, and do it from the beginning.