I’m also new to this forum. And fairly new to emerging church ideas.
My concern is Children in Church. I believe that children have historically been marginalised by conventional chuch through reversing doctrines (eg on communion) and distorting ministries (eg Sunday School) into that which destroys intergenerational life - the community which is at the heart of church.
I believe that despite all the ‘alternative’ settings and beings and doings of the emerging church, that children are also going to be marginalised in the future unless a conscious decision is made to alter the legacy left by Christendom and the ‘persuasions’ of current culture (especially that individualistic culture that pops them into quality childcare during worship so the ‘show’ can go on etc. ).
A lot of what I’ve seen of emerging church and the alternative scene has nothing to say about children; young children, babies, about inter-generational communities, families and the ‘cracks and crevices’ of society.
Have I missed something? If not who/where/what is being said about children in the (emering or other) church?
Who makes the rules?
My wife and I have led children’s ministries for about 10 years. We’ve done Children’s Church, VBS, etc. We homeschool our own kids and are fostering a couple babies now. We really love kids.
Recently, we’ve been rethinking our values in the area of children’s ministries. In retrospect, I think our family would have been better without sending kids off to children’s church every week. I think that it does weaken intergenerational bonding - especially in a world where many homes have both parents working outside of the house and that’s about the only time together they have.
At the same time, we also had a few kids from the very rough neighborhood around the church that heard the Gospel because of our efforts. For that reason, I’m not totally ready to ditch the idea that some kind of ministry for kids is needed.
I don’t see much about kids in emerging church literature, either. I think many in the movement are too young to have them. I also think that a lot of emergent services happen in churches that still have "contemporary" services and kids’ programs, so they really just focus on how to make their service different.
I think the lack of ideas to copy is a good thing. Try some of your own ideas. I don’t think there’s one solution that works across the board. That’s one of the messages of the EC movement - find out what works for your church and your family and do it.
We still send our youngest into children’s service. Our cutoff has been 10. At age 10, they begin to come into the adult service with us. Most of the time, we sit as a family although we occassionally will let our teenager sit with her friends. We balance this out by having many other times we spend together. My wife and I both work at home and we homeschool, so we’re just always together. It make the impact on our family less. I do think it would be great to find a church that encourages all ages to worship together and doesn’t break the family apart when you hit the doors.
Children in church
I strongly believe that their needs to be ministries targeted specifically at children. In fact, I think that adult ministry could learn a lot from good children’s ministries.
My wife and I have been involved in children’s ministries for nearly 15 years. We have found that the best childrens ministries are full of fun and learning in practical ways, something traditional Sunday Schools don’t offer. Look at programs like Awanas or Royal Rangers and Missionettes. These programs run on Wednesday night and they mix games, camping skills, and bible study.
These type programs are also great for outreach. I started a van ministry and we brought 1000 kids to Wednesday night kids programs over 9 years with 3 or 4 vans. All of them were from homes where the parents did not go to church and most accepted Christ as saviour. We tried doing this for Sunday School and it never worked well. I think Sunday morning is a bad time for outreach.
I never come close to this kind of success in any adult ministry. I think childrens ministries like this are so succussfel because they are fun and practical. These programs understand how children learn and what makes them come back next week. I wish more adult ministries could generate this kind of draw and relevance to the community.
We tend to want to skip the adult services to be involved in fun childrens ministires rather than drag the kids into adult services.
Children in Church? Children are the Church?
I belong to a reformed denomination that is liturgical and episcopal. Our small local expression of that denomination has started to think that we are neither protestant nor Roman Catholic though our history seems always to compel us to think in those terms and come down on one side or the other. I speak only for myself on this post, but I believe we are simpy catholic in the broad minimalist sense outlined in the creeds. Not more. Not less.
Within our denomination we are given, at the local level, a certain latitude in matters of liturgical practice and theological innovation. I expect it goes without saying that we baptise infants and accept them as members of Christ’s body here on earth, His Church with most, though not all, rights and honors associated with that most wonderful sacrament. What is not so expected, perhaps, is that we allow our children to participate fully in the sacrement of communion as early as they are able and willing as determined by their parents. This is a degree of theological innovation that is not always understood or appreciated even, it seems, within our denomination.
We do not have a Sunday School or Children’s Church during a service as it would remove them from full participation in our stated purpose for meeting, that of worshiping the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We do have Sunday School every Sunday evening using a pattern that would be familiar to most readers I think.
The children all participate in the Sunday Service, either Morning Prayer and Holy Communion on the first Sunday of the Month or Holy Communion on all other Sundays, to the fullest degree they are able. Moring Prayer requires, in addition to singing hymns, some chanting. Many of the children have beautiful voices and joyfully express themselves in adoring their creator. Those who can read do so from the hymnals yet many who don’t join in anyway, having over the weeks and months memorized most of the chants and many of the hymns.
I have been involved in ministry in other denominations and in “non-denominatiions” and have seen children marginalized and ignored and I believe their behavior, spiritual poverty or lack of reverence for the things of God is in some measure the result of excluding them from the full life of the Church.
We all know, whether we like it or not, that children watch us with an attentive and critical eye and pay far more attention to what we do than what we say. It is far easier to explain worship to a child or to lead and train them for ministry to their community when they have been, for years, shoulder to shoulder (well, maybe shoulder to knee) with you singing, chanting, reciting one of the creeds and kneeling with you at the great leveling table of Holy Communion. There, I am sure, I don’t seem so big to them. There they no longer seem so small.
So, this is not misconstrued as a polemic advocating a particular view of baptism, communion, liturgics or church government let me say that I am arguing for as full a participation in the things of God that a child can handle.
It will be good for them, good for us and good for the Church.
God’s peace.
Alario