This article was originally titled "How Can We Nicely Kick Kids Out of Church?" However, I changed the title because the original title might encourage churches to exclude children from their Sunday worship gatherings.
A few weeks ago, I shared a post about a card a church had given out inviting parents who brought their kids to “enjoy the remainder of the service” in the lobby so others could “engage with the sermon.” This past week, another children’s ministry group I am a part of had a similar conversation regarding if a church is large and streaming on-line, what card they should hand out to parents if kids are loud in the main service.
Apparently this is a new thing? I had not heard of this practice of handing parents cards to invite them to leave the service until recently, but twice in one month made me decide to some digging. What I found was disheartening, at least for me. Read More
In the 1970s-1990s in mainstream Protestant churches—Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and Presbyterian there was movement to reintegrate children back into the Sunday worship gathering of the local church. For most of the history of the Church children of all ages have attended this gathering with their parents. Children who were segregated from adults into their own “children’s church” were found to not only have difficulty making the transition to the local church’s regular Sunday worship gathering but also when they became teenagers left the church in search of a church with Sunday worship gathering that offered a worship experience like the one that they had experienced in “children’s church.” Those who did not find a church that offered that kind of Sunday worship gathering dropped out of church. It was also found that the Christian faith could not be taught. It had to be “caught.” Children were more likely to catch it when they were around the whole church than a handful of volunteers. They were also more likely to own that faith when they were given an active role in the service rather than sat with their parents during the service. By an active role they were recruited to perform certain liturgical functions—light and extinguish the candles on the communion table or on stands flanking the table, carry torches and a processional cross in processions, swing a censor, assist the pastor or priest in preparing the bread and cup for communion, read Scripture, lead prayers of intercession, take the collection, sing in the choir, perform solos, perform instrumental music, and take on other age-appropriate responsibilities. In 2000-2001 I prepared an occasional paper for my diocese’s commission on music and liturgy on child-inclusive worship. It included ideas for not only involving children of all ages in the service but also ideas for making the music of the service more accessible to children such as using hymns and songs that had easy to remember tunes and lyrics as well as hymns and songs with refrains or repetitions in which the younger children could participate. I had been involved in the music and worship ministries of my parish as senior lay reader for fifteen years, having helped to launch the church as a mission in the mid-1980s. All the ideas had been field-tested. During the time that I was involved in the church’s music ministry, we made a concerted effort to plan the hymns, songs, and service music of the services with attention to the presence of a large number of children in the congregation. It is the third decade of the twenty-first century and church leaders are seeing young people leaving their churches. It appears that they have not learned from the experiences of the previous century. Separating adults and children is not the best way to keep young people in the Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment