Jesus invites us to consider children as appropriate models for faith (Mark 10:15). They receive the good news unflinchingly, and worship our Lord with great freedom. What this means for Redeemer is this: we must embrace our children as vital contributors in our church, and we must consider them to be as valuable as any other demographic in our midst. A flourishing family ministry in the church means a healthy church, and a church that has young and old alike among us looks like a strong representation of both the kingdom and our community. The difference is this: children cannot create their own educations and cannot create worship services for themselves – it is up to the church to navigate this on their behalf, and what we must do. While an adult can say, I want to be involved in this Bible study or that one, or serve in this area based on my spiritual gifts, a child is not doing that, but is experiencing the church of Christ as we build it for them. So it is hugely important that we all come together to build the best church we can for our kids. When you participate in any area of children’s ministry: children’s church, the nursery, Sunday school, or the worship service – do so with gusto and be the first to line up to help our kids. They need you. We’re to tell the coming generations of the great works of the Lord (Psalm 145:4); they matter a great deal to the kingdom of God.
The balance we strike at Redeemer in involving our kids and creating spaces that are just for kids is a strong one. We follow God’s Word in making sure our kids are involved, and also we exercise wisdom in the best ways to educate them corporately, which includes children’s worship and Sunday School. In the ancient world, children were not commonly seen as precious – that’s why it was so radical when Jesus said “let the children come to me” (Mt. 19:14), an idea that offended the disciples. So we do what is best for our children as essential parts of our church, and we don’t find ourselves constrained to extra-biblical ideas about whether or not kids must be with us in worship at all times. We’ll stick with the Word of God and then lean on our leaders to exercise wisdom in how we structure ourselves.
But for you – the church member – roll up your sleeves when it comes to our kids and together we will create a vibrant church. Love our kids and know them well. Encourage them, pray for them, and teach them. You will gain much from this and so will they! If they are making noise in church, let it be! Parents, if they are disrupting another’s ability to hear and worship, then politely take them out of the room. We’re all in this together and we do this cooperatively, with a whole lot of understanding and graciousness abounding. If we didn’t have children to cry occasionally during the sermon or to make some outburst, I would be a disappointed pastor. We should be quite thankful that our church has plenty of little kids! Also recognize that for some of our parents, to make use of our nurseries and even children’s church gives them an opportunity to focus and worship like they may not be able to otherwise – so give them that freedom as well. And for our guests, who may have any number of family disciplines and challenges, we want to be as flexible as possible, to show them Christ as a family without asking them to have already conformed to our own expectations.
We’ll be sharing thoughts like this on occasion as we have new opportunities to love our kids – so stay tuned to the blog and get excited about what we can do to serve one another at Redeemer!