Children in church: worshipping together... why?
Photo from our 2019 church weekend away.
It’s Sunday morning and as our service begins, there sitting amongst the adults, in the building or at home watching the livestream … are children. And what exactly are they doing there?! Just killing time waiting to head out for Sunday Club activities? Feeling fidgety, distracting those around them, raising the blood pressure of self-conscious parents trying to keep them quiet?! If we’re honest, there’ll be elements of all that going on – being family together is rarely neat and tidy! But they’re also there, gathered with us, because we’re convinced that it’s a good thing … for them and for us!
Sunday by Sunday we encourage children to join us as young disciples in corporate worship of the Lord who has called us into a saving relationship with himself. In the Bible, when God’s people gathered to worship, they did so as a whole community with children present too (see Nehemiah 12:43, Ephesians 6:1-4). That’s because God’s grace comes to his people through his covenant promises and children are always included in those promises. As Peter declares on the day of Pentecost, the gospel promise is ‘for you and for your children and for all who are far off’ (Acts 2:39). We want the children with us as we begin our worship because we want them to know they belong to the Lord and his family now, even from their earliest years. Through being part of God’s covenant community, we pray that God will grow them in their knowledge and love of Jesus, and bring them with maturity to trust and follow him for themselves.
And God places children among us for our benefit too.
“Jesus called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Let’s take these words of Jesus seriously. Let’s look around at the children worshipping with us week by week and remember that they have many things to teach us about trusting our Heavenly Father and belonging to his Kingdom.
Why have children worshipping with us? So we can grow in God’s grace together!
But what will that look like practically? We’ll think more about that next time!