My daughter and grand daughter wandered into the Worship service this morning a bit late as usual. My two-year old grand daughter greeted me with a long warm hug and then looked up and asked "Go play with toys?" Her understanding of the church is in process of being formed, but as an educator it troubles me that she thinks church is a place where you go to play with toys, i.e. the nursery. It is not in her mind a place where you learn about Jesus, take communion or even worship. Contrast this with her eagerness to take her offering forward, which she has done every week of her short life. As a covenant community that sees our children as members of the community it seems odd that we segregate them from the community of faith's central activity, worship. We log them into a nursery or send them off for a more "age appropriate worship" experience shaped more by North American values than Jesus' teaching on children and Paul's use of the Body of Christ metaphor. It is time for the church to honestly wrestle what it means to be and practice being a counter-culture intergenerational covenant community.
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4 comments:
Amen! It's high time we change this.
I second that amen. As a parent of two under two, I can relate. Alida's favorite things about church are the slide in the nursery and the cookies afterwards. Seems there aren't many churches willing to engage in truly intergenerational corporate worship.
O totally agree! We have taken our children to church with us from day 1! It makes a difference. There's an expectation that they not only be respectful and quiet but participate. That's what I love about our Anglican church. We strive to be intergenerational. Our kids can actually have conversations with adults and seek them out at church and after church. So important! Great article Darwin!
Just a follow-up note. We brought Alida and Cassidy into our main worship service last week because we were being introduced as members and it was so good to have her with us. She danced, kids were given instruments to play, and we were welcomed in as a family vs. two parents with two kids downstairs. Hope to continue to see our congregation grow in this regard.
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