Found some wonderful posts (thanks to Tricia) written by father and pastor Andy Fletcher, who advocates family-integrated worship and seems to have made it work wonderfully in his church. Check out Tricia’s post for some good comments, too.
Some clips:
it’s been over ten years since i pulled our kids from attending children’s church and the kid’s program in our old church. what began as a mere exercise in behavior has developed into a philosophical approach to uniting our family with the church during the worship service. now, i’ve even seen it work out into an entire church model (and on an even larger scale it is a model for ministry). as a pastor for a family-integrated church, realize that i am clearly biased in this discussion. i believe that keeping the entire church family together is important symbolically and practically…
…i understand that some people just want to worship with their kids…end of story. to their discredit, they don’t care about the behavior of their children or the potential distractions they cause for others in the church service. for them, the end justifies the means – it is all about the family being together – that’s it. it has been my experience that others choose different reasons to keep their kids with them (they model behavior for their kids, they are teaching their kids at a young age what it means to worship, etc.)….
…however, my point is that this is much more than just getting through a church service (it’s not point “a” to point “b”), it’s more than just an exercise of obedience for your children, and it’s more than just proving a point to those who don’t agree with you. if you are considering the family-integrated model for your family, there are many factors to consider, but i would suggest that at the top of the list is humility (i love the fruit that this has produced in the life of our family and our church, but it’s only to God’s glory…not ours)…[click here to read on]
Other follow-up posts to Fletch’s introduction:
When I read your last post it made me think of the mango times guy, I’m so glad you added these links!! I agree with family worship, but I always struggle with feeling sorry for Moms (and sometimes Dads) who seem to spend the entire service “parenting” and I worry that they are missing out on the whole worship experience. I think that will always be a “hang-up” for me, although it is my goal/desire to include my children in worship as part of the covenant family. Thanks again for the links.
Thanks for the links. I’ve actually created another series on this topic for a newsletter trying to answer the question: “what is family integrated worship?” They’ll be posted at theMangoTimes soon.
I’ve even addressed Kate’s concern about “missing out” on worship…
Fletch
family-integrated worship is much easier when one’s local congregation has this commitment and/or moving in this direction. Nothing like being countercultural among the religious and nothing like maintaining the “Puritan form of worship” (keeping a small child motionless and silent during a long sermon, although I know of no local congregations with sermons which approach the duration and academic attention of what was offered ‘back in the day) :-0 Jesus has much to share on the topic of the form of religion.
Fletch, thanks for chiming in. If you check back here, you might want to take a look at my last post, which has a nice discussion going on in the comments:
http://simplyserina.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/a-childs-place/
Kate, you have a valid concern. One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is corporate worship v. personal worship. If I’m worshiping and growing closer to God throughout the week, then Sunday morning becomes less about my only time to worship (which, I confess, sometimes it is) and more about a corporate and family time to come before God. And when my personal worship life is consistent, I feel less angst about “experiencing” every piece of Sunday’s worship service. (These thoughts are my own convictions, as I see that I should be pursuing God more faithfully throughout the week–this was not meant to criticize anyone else’s walk with God!)
While looking up ‘Parenting in the Pew’ resources, I came across an intergenerational worship resource page provided by Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, http://www.calvin.edu/worship/worshipers/intergen/intergen_bib.php If you’re not familiar with it, the larger site contains a lot of helpful materials.