On Children in Worship

It is a real blessing to be a part of a church that welcomes our little ones into worship!  We believe it is God’s design for His covenant people of all ages to worship together.

 

This brings with it a special set of challenges that I’d like to address.  It’s important to love our neighbor, and to prioritize the corporate worship of the saints.

 

Parents with little ones:

Keep in mind that the highest priority is NOT that your little ones stay in the service, no matter how disruptive they become.  Rather, we want to help the whole body focus and worship together best.  The noise level has been rather high, lately, due to waiting a bit too long to take noisy children out.  Out of kindness to others, be quick to remove disruptive children for a time.  Going outside during temperate months may be ideal.  This may mean a lot of in-and-out for the 1-3-year-old saints!  And that is fine.  More in-and-out is less disruptive than assuming they’ll stop soon, and the whole church needing to strain to hear through a noisy child for a minute or two.  Getting a back, aisle seat can make this easier.  If you see a “melt-down” coming, take pre-emptive action!  Personally, I really enjoy it when I’m preaching and 1-2 parents are standing in the lobby, swaying and comforting a child in their arms!  Also, work during the week to train your children to sit still and to listen, as best they can.  Doing family worship together and interrupting it to train them to sit still is an ideal occasion for this.

 

Some parents cringe when there is a 5-decibel squawk from their infant, as if the whole church heard and condemns it.  They are overly sensitive.  Others are not sensitive enough to loud and long disruptions, because after all, they’re supposed to be in worship, right?

 

Please do not take ANY of this as condemnation.  Your church is rooting FOR you in the difficult task of parenting little ones during worship!  My wife can tell you stories of making it through worship services with a 5, 4, 3, and 1 year old, taking out first one, and then another, and then another, all while I was up front leading worship!  The struggle is real, and our congregational vows at baptism call us to be for you in it.  With that in mind…

 

Others:

Do your best to be deliberately UNdistracted by little people noises.  Decide not to be bothered, but to rejoice in the messiness of raising covenant children and worshiping God with them.  The temptation to judge others for the misbehavior of their children can be strong, and frankly defiling, during worship.  Condemning our brothers in Christ for this, while seeking to worship God with them, can be quite the act of hypocrisy.  Instead, sympathize with the toddler life-stage!  Parents of little ones often miss much of what is said in worship, because they are tending to children, and that will happen to those of us sitting around them, too, to a lesser degree.  That’s okay.  Being the body of Christ together in grace takes precedence over getting every word of teaching.  Encourage parents who are struggling, without any hints of criticism.  Feel free to give the officers feedback on this, and on the sound system – one reason we focus on the sound is to help it overcome background noise, with our acoustically active space!

 

 

“We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 10:9).  God wants our children with us in worship.  Let us honor Him and raise the next generation to do so, as well!