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Dave Dorsey

What does your church do for children on Sundays?

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **3/13/18 7:43 am**

Prompted by a post in another thread that caught my eye. I've been reading lately about the debate over family integrated churches -- basically, the theory that it's really important for families to all worship together (with varying degrees of intensity about how important). They make some good arguments about how older kids who "graduate" from kids church have a hard time integrating into the regular worship service, and that's true. At the same time, my pastor doesn't preach at a level that's super comprehensible to my five year-old, nor would I want him to. I really want my son to hear an age-appropriate proclamation of God's word at church in addition to what we do with him at home.

What's your church's approach? Is what you're doing now what you want to do, or do you have a different vision, but find yourself limited by resources/volunteers? What do you think about family integration in churches?

Dean Steenburgh

Re: What does your church do for children on Sundays?

Golf Cart Mafia Capo Famiglia Posts: 4682 **3/14/18 6:49 pm**

SouthFloridaman

Friendly Face Posts: 358 **3/15/18 1:09 am**

I feel that too many churches over emphasize the entertainment factor of kids church thinking that it would translate into modernizing the church without changing what goes on in the sanctuary. I think the best ministry for children is the one where the parents actually attend the main worship service of the church. I have seen so many cogâ€™s in the past pour thousands into kids ministry without focusing on the sanctuaryâ€™s response to reach the parents. As a result we have kids churches filled with grand kids dragged to church by grandparents. And even worse a kids church that is all entertainment and very little substance. Then when the kid turns 12 too old for kids ministry the church shows them the boot because they arenâ€™t cute little kids anymore. Also the kid is so spoiled and think church is candy and games that they could not sit through a service if they had to. Kids go from a kids ministry that gives a kid anything you want to a youth ministry that is not supported by the church. Over emphasis on kids ministry instead of a healthy emphasis on kids ministry. Reality check if you feed the parents kids will always be a byproduct. Kids go where the parents go remember that. Use kids ministry to teach kids the Bible because when they get older and fall from church that may be the only echo of the Bible they know. The thing that hurts the most that I see is a lack of bible drills and bible literacy being taught today. We need to focus on being multigenerational in our main church services. Meaning once a kid graduates kids church work with every fiber of your being to incorporate them in the big church.

wayne

what we do.

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **3/15/18 7:15 am**

We worship together and then transition them to Children's church one song before preaching.
All communion services are done together in the sanctuary with families sitting next to each other.

Dave Dorsey

Re: what we do.

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **3/15/18 7:31 am**

Dave Dorsey

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 13654 **3/15/18 7:37 am**

My church runs the classes throughout the entire worship service. Parents can drop their kids off as soon as they get to church, if they'd like. There's also a 3 minute pause between the song service and the preaching for parents to take their kids to class, if they'd like to have them in there for the singing and then take them to a classroom for more age-appropriate teaching. Alternatively, parents are welcome to keep their kids in the sanctuary the entire service.

The children's ministry uses The Gospel Project which is a super Christ-centered curriculum. I think there's a tendency with children's material to focus on familiarizing kids with the stories of the Bible, which is good, but without centering them on Christ. There's also a tendency to preach the law alone -- for example, the good Samaritan helped those in need, so you should help those in need, but without conveying the necessity of Christ and His power in this process.

The church has a vibrant and engaging kids ministry to be sure, but the church's main teaching focus is on helping parents learn how to disciple their kids. Every week the bulletin contains a list of 7 short devotionals that can be done as follow-up reinforcement to the Christ-centered lesson the kids learned the past Sunday. They're vague in what to do -- basically, just a text and a couple of discussion starters, so the family can really engage the text as a family and every person can be edified by it. I think it's all really great.

Cojak

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24277 **3/15/18 9:21 am**

I do not know the best way to do it, but I do believe that a child should hear the OLD favorite Bible Stories. In doing some spontaneous Children's programs now I find 8-12 year olds who actually do not know the Joseph, Sampson, David, 3 Hebrew Children, & etc.

it is though someone is afraid that the Law would be taught, LOL.

That was written as sort of a joke (in ref to the Law discussions lately). The kids I am talking about are new to church. Their parents never read a good Bible bed time story to them, they were gone working or high.

Those kids from the 'hood' need the basic GOD stories to underwrite the JESUS miracle stories.

A good SS will do this or a GREAT Children's ministry will do it. I do think putting the kids in front of the 'Big People' to sing or repeat memory verses is a must. Also the occasional inclusion in the main worship service.

Things have changed, but just looking from the outside, SOME CHURCHES still get it right!
We visited RR's church once and was blown away by a BIG round table discussion, big folk and little folk during the SS hour.
_________________
Some facts but mostly just my opinion!
jacsher@aol.com
http://shipslog-jack.blogspot.com/

wayne

Re: what we do.

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1274 **3/15/18 1:55 pm**