Kids in Church?
My kids will be joining me in church today. What should I do?
During the school holidays there is no Life Kids program (prep-6), and our creche (crawling-kindy) will be unsupervised. We do this for two reasons. Firstly, it gives our Life Kids leaders a bit of a break. Honouring, valuing, and not burning out our volunteers is very important to us as a church, and we’re going to make a habit of this for two Sundays during every school holiday period.
Secondly (but no less importantly), it gives us the opportunity to have kids in church with us adults, and this is a really great thing! It’s of benefit to the kids, to their parents, and to everyone at church. Let me explain a bit more:
Why this is great for the kids:
It means that they get to witness their parents and other adults listening to the taught word of God. Kids learn from example and so if we want them to be in the habit of learning from God’s word, letting them see us doing the same thing is a powerful witness to them.
Why this is great for the parents:
It gives us the opportunity to talk to our kids about Jesus. Trust me, they’re going to ask questions about everything that they see and hear, and this gives us a chance to tell them the gospel. It also raises some questions for the parents though, which we’ll tackle now quite briefly.
Should my child take communion? Great question! There are various answers given to this question, and the short answer is that it’s up to you as parents. Kyllum has written a really helpful summary about how we can approach this question as parents. If you’re unsure, have a read of it. My encouragement to you is to approach this question with wisdom and prayer.
Should I be trying to get my kid to sit quietly and listen to the sermon? If you think your child might be able to do this, I encourage you to give it a try. I have clear memories of sitting in the church pews on Sundays as a kid, and my mum consistently telling me to sit still, stop swinging my legs, and to be quiet. The Sundays when kids church wasn’t on were most likely a lot harder for her than other Sundays, but I’m so grateful that she did it. It grew in me the understanding that church is unlike any other kind of space. It’s not the playground where you can run around, and it’s not the shops where you can nag—it’s about being with God and his people, and hearing his word.
If, however, you know that sitting still is going to be a tall ask for your child, then bring something quiet along that they can engage with. We’ll be providing some activity booklets which will help the kids engage with the service. There’s seperate booklets for older and younger kids, and we’d love it if you would leave the booklets at church each Sunday so that the kids can pick them up when they return the following week.
And no one is going to judge you if you whip out the old iPad with some headphones. I know as a parent that sometimes you’ve just got to do it. It’s all good! If your child is still restless, we do have the parents room (or wig-out room as we like to call it) where you and/or your kids can go and scream.
Why this is great for everyone else.
The kids are going to be noisy, and noise is good—it’s going to be noisy in heaven, so let’s get used to it. In fact, we could do with more noise from the adults, so let’s let these kids encourage this in us. If a child near you is making a bit of noise, don’t scowl at the parents; help them and encourage them. You could help by watching child #1 while child #2 is taken for a nappy change. You can help by allowing those families to have those seats at the back or the front where there is some more floor space. You can help by smiling at mum and dad and loving these families.
We REALLY LOVE this opportunity to have our kids in church with us. Mum and Dad, please please please don’t stay away from church because there’s no Life Kids! This is going to be so good for everyone at the church.
Jimmy Smith-Cottrell
LCC Caloundra