Whether you’re on the kid’s team or have a kid, have you ever thought about why the kids go out to Sunday School/Kid’s Church/whatever it’s called in your church?
I started reading Lucy Moore’s book, ‘All-Age Worship’, last night and only a few chapters in it’s already got me thinking, a lot. Whilst setting the scene and asking the question, ‘Should church be all-age?’, Lucy firstly explores a little Church History in the UK. The Sunday School model of kids starting in the service then going out to their session started in the 18th Century when a guy called Robert Raikes, inspired to teach children from impoverished backgrounds, began to teach reading and writing on a Sunday morning.
That’s no longer the purpose of Sunday School in our churches so, just as Lucy asks, I find myself wondering, ‘why do we send our children out of the service?’
If you stop to think about why you take your kid out to a group, if you’re truly honest, what answer do you come up with?
Do you take them out to get peace and quiet, and to listen to a sermon? Or, because you know people would disapprove of them staying in? Or, just because ‘that’s what you do’?
Do we send the kids out for their benefit or ours?
Even amongst just the adults in church there is so much variety in terms of where people are at in their faith journeys. There are those who’ve been Christians for 60 years, those who have only just rocked up to church, those who are all about long Biblical preaches, those who are all about the worship. And our kids are the much the same. Not all 6 year olds have the same grasp of the Bible, not all yet know God personally or chat to Him.
They all need something different. What an incredible challenge!
What is your kid’s experience of church? Do they get fantastic teaching and worship? Do you get great opportunities/make great opportunities for framing church and showing them how to be part of the body?
Is going out to a group the best thing for your kid? I offer no answers but I think it’s an important question. It’s important for us as parents to think through our kids’ experience of church and figure out our role within that.
Why do we send our kids out to Sunday groups?
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