Dear Cornerstone Family,
Several years ago, our boys spent the night with friends one Saturday night while Christy accompanied me as I preached a conference in another city. For convenience’s sake, our boys went to church with their friends that Sunday—a generally sound, broadly evangelical congregation in the area.
Much to the surprise of my boys, they showed up at church but never worshipped. Instead, they were whisked off to a brightly colored recreational room where a team of smiling volunteers were armed with coloring sheets, games, and snacks. Apart from a five-minute Bible lesson, their experience at church that morning more closely approximated daycare than worship.
I found out later that children in that congregation don’t attend “big church” until they are eighteen. Eighteen! Doing the math, that means children are born, grow up, and graduate from high school and never once attend worship in that congregation.
Now, I get it. Worship can be a stretch for children––especially young children. When Cornerstone children age out of the nursery at three years of age, they do not suddenly metamorphosize into serene, reverent worshippers. Hardly! The inroad into public worship is filled with squirming and sighing, complaining and crying.
No one knows this better than my wife. Christy has managed to get up, feed, dress, transport, and then sit in church with four of our five children over the course of twenty-one years with zero help from her pastor husband. Someone should give that dear woman a medal. But wait, she’s not done! She now has the challenge of a 3 ½ year old spitfire, Lila, who is a long way from appreciating her daddy’s lengthy sermons.
As parents bringing young children to worship, it can often feel like, “What’s the use?” They aren’t even old enough to profess faith and join us at the Lord’s Table. Do they have any idea what’s going on? Is any of this making a difference?
If you feel that way (and what parent hasn’t felt that way at some point), know this: children belong in worship. As members of the covenant community, God delights in children being present with him and his people in worship. On long trips to Jerusalem for Passover or during long-winded worship gatherings, children were counted and present (see Deut. 31:12, Ezra 10:1, Neh. 12:43). Whether we feel it to be the case or not, we should trust the Lord Jesus Christ and take him at his word when he says, “Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:13-16).
Now, believing that children belong in worship doesn’t take away the challenges of bringing children into worship. Truth is, parents need compelling reasons for believing Jesus’s words when the temper tantrum hits hard in the pew. Moreover, parents need wisdom in knowing when to remove their children from worship for the sake of worship and as an act of love to their fellow worshippers.
But alas, I am out of room for today. Let’s pick this thread up next week in the Pastoral Notes.
Your servant,
