children belong in church

Believing Parents

Posted on by Betsy

I am the product of generations of Methodist believers. My great-grandfather was a circuit riding preacher in Pennsylvania. My grandmother was very active in the church and served as a lay delegate to Annual Conferences, and my parents met in the local church choir, where they later married and baptized me. I was raised in a small church in New Jersey and gave my life to Christ in an altar call there. Basically, if you cut me, I bleed Methodist. Even in later years when I left home to go to college and get married to a Navy pilot, I was heavily imprinted by their example and beliefs.

I don’t think we can put too much emphasis on a parent’s influence over their child’s growing belief system. On Sunday mornings as I look out upon my congregation in Kitty Hawk, NC, I see the young parents and their bubbly children, and I am truly grateful. I know first-hand how hard it is to get kids ready for church early on a Sunday morning. I know how many other options, responsibilities, and activities that have to be set aside to make church happen in a young family. Bless you all who try so hard to help your kids encounter Jesus every week! Kids belong in church. The church depends on you for its future.

In this passage in Acts, we meet a young disciple named Timothy, who was the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father. Can you imagine the conversations they had around their dinner table? Timothy grew up listening to them talk about Jesus from their very diverse backgrounds. Certainly it was solely their influence that helped him know and love the Lord.

Paul, being the master recruiter that he was, sought Timothy out and made him an evangelist:

Acts 16:1-5 (Common English Bible)

16 Paul reached Derbe, and then Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy. He was the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father.2 The brothers and sisters in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take Timothy with him, so he circumcised him. This was because of the Jews who lived in those areas, for they all knew Timothy’s father was Greek. 4 As Paul and his companions traveled through the cities, they instructed Gentile believers to keep the regulations put in place by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and every day their numbers flourished.

I always admire Paul’s ability to read a room. He had Timothy circumcised so that Timothy would be more approachable to the Jews. I wonder what changes we should make in our lives to make ourselves more approachable to people who need Jesus in their lives. Are your habits and interactions winsome to the effort, or is there something about you that turns people away from desiring to know God? I always think about something one of my minister friends said … if you’re cutting people off on the road in your Lexus and flipping them the bird, that ichthus on your bumper ain’t bringing people to Jesus! And she was right. People judge the church by its members’ actions and behaviors. Are you an influencer, or an obstructionist?

I love how Acts gives us a glimpse into the early church. Paul wisely counseled the Gentile believers to follow the teachings of the elders. When they did, the churches were strengthened and they flourished.

It is good for us to go back to this beginning. To be people who love Jesus and follow in his steps. To love who he loved and do his will. To follow his commandments and care for the fragile ones around us. To seek the kingdom with all our hearts.

When we do this, we too shall be strengthened and flourish.

Sing to the Lord a New Song by Michelle Robertson

A Joyful Noise

Posted on by Betsy

I am just going to put it out there. Kids belong in church. I don’t care if you disagree. I once talked back to an usher for telling a hassled single Mom that she should take her fussy child out of the sanctuary. I pulled him aside and corrected him in my best minister-voice. We do not ever tell a tired mother to remove her exuberant kids from the sanctuary. Not for any reason. Not on any occasion. NOT. IN. MY. CHURCH.

His reasoning was that the child was disruptive. So was Jesus.

He was afraid that the noise would prevent others from following the service. That’s why we give out a bulletin.

He didn’t want visitors to not want to come back. They are welcome to find a church where kids aren’t welcome. This is not that place.

He was concerned I would be distracted in my preaching. Buddy, don’t try to hide your gate-keeping bias under some fake concern for me. I love that sound and I can preach in harmony with it any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Like, for real, twice on Sunday.

Babies, toddlers, and old people singing loudly (off key, and several beats behind) are the Lord’s joyful noise. Even the angels rejoice at this noise! I don’t know a preacher who isn’t used to it and can’t ignore it when it happens. The fact that it happens tells us one thing: we have a baby in church! There is a child here! Some parent went to a tremendous amount of effort this morning to get here to worship.

Please tell me how that is a bad thing.

Matthew 19 (New International Version)

The Little Children and Jesus

13 Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them.

14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

So if you like to take scripture literally, let’s unpack that one for a bit. Let them come. Don’t hinder them. The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Hold up there a minute. The Kingdom of God belongs to the little children? Jesus wants them to come to him? Sounds like all the big people sitting in the pews are the actual interlopers, since apparently we are invading the church that, according to Jesus, belongs to the kids. Ponder that! Maybe it’s a good thing that they still need us to drive them to church; otherwise they might decide to unionize and hinder US from coming. No more Grups! (Some of you may recognize Gene Roddenberry’s contraction of grown ups from a very early Star Trek episode. If so, I salute you.)

And that is so true. We all realize that the future of our churches and our denominations depend on the children who are squirming in the pews and running helter-skelter to the doughnut table, but do we acknowledge that they are also the PRESENT of the church?

Maybe it’s time to count the ways kids are hindered from worship. Like parents who are overcommitted and too tired to make the effort on Sundays. Like churches who don’t make an effort to warmly and intentionally welcome them and make a place for them. Like pastors who continue to use dusty, old sermon illustrations meant for the over-50 crowd. Like worship committees who don’t utilize children and youth as worship leaders.

Where is Jesus calling you to open your heart to the little disciples? Do you need an attitude change? Parents, is God calling to a stronger commitment to consistent worship participation with your family? Or maybe your entire church needs a shake-up?

Let the little children come to Jesus, with all of their joyful noise. When Jesus laid his hands on the children and prayed over them, I bet that is just what he asked his Father to do. Wake up, churches. The future-present is crawling under the pews during the offertory. Make way!

Raising Cain.