Obviously I don’t agree with such sentiments – it is sarcasm, didn’t you hear it in the tone of voice? One of the things that the question of children in worship begs is the purpose of worship. The majority of us mainline Protestant folks tend to shape our service for people who are already Christians; it is not a seeker oriented service. Yet Baptists (and others) do not view children as Christians. They have not made a commitment to Christ. If this is the case, then shouldn’t the worship service, or at least the part when they are present, be focused on moving them to make the commitment to Christ?
Actually, shouldn’t calling people to Christ be a part of every worship service just in case there is someone visiting who isn’t a Christian? You Evangelicals in the back, calm down and stop the self-righteous chest thumping, your services are so seeker-friendly that a moth in a pitch black room could find you. Anyway, the norm for seeker services may not be what we would want for our children.
How do we reach out to children, speak to children, and at the same time make the worship service engaging for adults. Here are a couple of thoughts:
1. Children pick up on much more than we give them credit
2. Adults get out much more from “simplistic” language than we give them credit
So sleep on that and hopefully the next episode will be out soon. Here are the books that were mentioned:
Brown Bag: A Bag Full of Sermons for Children by Jerry Marshall Jordan
A Time With Our Children: Stories for Use in Worship by Diane Deming
From Watcha' Reading
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory by Alasdair MacIntyre
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
