I hope the title of this caught your attention. Is He for it? Is it a distraction? Do they disrupt the sermon? All questions that might come to mind with a title like that. Let me just say from the get go… I love it when kids are in the worship services.
I have been to churches where kids aren’t welcome. I remember one Sunday when Jennifer and I visited a church with our 4 kids. We were promptly stopped at the door and told that the kids couldn’t come into the worship service and that they would need to go to kids ministry classes. We promptly left.
Why bring all of this up? Because last Sunday was such a joyful day for me here at the church that I pastor, some of the joys are more obvious and some less. Let me set the scene for you in case you don’t attend the church where I serve. Yesterday’s service was absolutely wonderful. We had 7 child dedications (really parent dedications) and 7 baptisms. Because of the opportunity there is to see a visible picture of the gospel when someone gets baptized, we cancel our Trinity Kid’s Sunday morning classes and have the kids sit in service with their parents. For some this is a regular habit and for others it’s new, especially if they have younger kids.
As we introduced the child dedication part of the service I read Deuteronomy 6:4-7.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to you children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ”
We remind the parents during the dedication that by God’s design they are the primary tool for discipleship in the lives of their children. One of the great ways that we can do this is to worship together with our kids. It brought joy to my heart to see kids with their parents, excited for the service, wanting to see what happened. Let me share with you some of my favorite moments…
Yesterday we baptized a 5th grader. As he entered the water to meet his dad (one of the pastors), there were other kids in the front row. They were excited, standing and moving to places where they could see. Not only did they see someone they know publicly proclaiming his trust in Jesus, but they saw the picture that baptism is meant to be. The picture that we, through faith, are identified with the death and resurrection of Christ.
Another instance involved my son. After the first service, while the host was still wrapping things up, he leaned over to me and said, “Dad, can I skip?” I asked him, “Skip what?” He responded by saying he wanted to “skip kids church so I could stay in the service.” When I informed him that there was no kids church because we wanted kids to participate in worship he told me how glad he was.
Another boy in the second service was so excited about what was going on that he and his mother came down to the front row to watch. He even used her cell phone to record some video of what was going on in the service. What an incredible moment for one of our kids to be excited and enthusiastic about the service. As we started the baptisms I reminded the church that baptism wasn’t just something the individual was doing, but that baptism was a whole church act and required whole church participation. What an amazing picture this boy was of the enthusiasm we should all feel as he joyfully participated in the service. I’m grateful for his example to us all.
I also noticed a mother in second service who patiently and gently taught her son how to sit through the service and participate. Occasionally, she offered some correction too.
These instances, and many others, left me feeling such joy as we wrapped up the worship services yesterday morning. To be clear, I’m not saying it’s wrong to send your children to kid’s ministries… after all, we do offer them. But I love seeing families worship together, especially when they then go off to their classes during one of the other services.
I don’t want to undermine the importance of baptism and dedications, but it would be easy to overlook the joy of some other things that happened yesterday. if we aren’t paying attention it could be easy to miss some other joyful things that happened in the life of the church yesterday too. Things like kids in services, lingering conversations while having cake to celebrate those who were baptized.
I often have parents apologize to me if their kids make any noise during a service, or if their kids are prone to walk around, or in any way act like kids. I also get people who ask me if kids in the service is a distraction to me while I preach… the answer is a resounding no! The sound of kids in our worship services brings joy to my heart.
So parents… keep bringing your kids. Keep letting them see you worship. Keep letting them participate in the life and worship of the church. Keep discipling them. Keep talking to them about God in your house, on the way, when you lie down, when you rise, and especially when you go to church!
What a great day it was yesterday. My heart was full. Glory to God! Thank you Trinity, God loves you and so do I!
Want to read more about this? I would highly commend an article to you, there is audio as well, that you can read/listen to by clicking here.