Poll! Children's Church

[Mom2Es]

We would not be part of a church that does this.

 

I not only think that the children need to be with their families, but the people who are missing out on church in order to occupy the kids also need to be participating with the congregation. My children don't understand everything that's going on, but they can participate in the songs and the prayers, and they do ask questions about what they see and hear.

 

We do have children's Bible classes, but they are done at a different time so that everyone can participate in everything. And I don't think they're necessary; the Bible tells parents to teach their children. Anything they get outside the home is a side dish, not the main entree.

[shinyhappypeople]

Some of the difference in opinion is related to church culture. Since families worship together in a Catholic mass, most homilies are presented knowing that children are listening as well. They are also short - 15 minutes or so. My kids follow along, and we discuss the homily at dinner. My priest loves highlighting his homilies with Lena and Olie jokes, and my kids thought Lena and Olie were a real couple until this weekend. :D

 

This is a good point. I've never been to a church where a sermon was made kid-friendly (either in style or length). The sermons in our current church are about 30 to 45 minutes, former church was 45 minutes, church I grew up in was "Until he felt like stopping" (usually 30 to 45 minutes... and he would complain about having to stop, but I was doing internal cartwheels).

[In the Rain]

I voted other.

 

I don't think my 8yo gets a lot out of the sermons, so I could see a benefit to her attending a message delivered at her level, especially if she didn't attend Sunday School. My 10yo tunes into the sermons, and can discuss them intelligently.

 

When my kids were younger (at a different church), they attended Sunday school while we attended church service. The lady teaching did a phenomenal job, and I really think they got more out of it than they would have from the sermon.

[Just Beachy]

We love children's church and I doubt we would attend a church that didn't offer one.

 

When I was a little girl, I went to a Catholic church. For a short time, there was a children's mass, and I fondly remember attending. I don't know why, but eventually, they stopped having it, and we had to stay in the regular mass. I hated it. I was confirmed in 7th grade because I was a good girl and did what was expected of me. After that, my mom let me choose for myself whether or not I would attend. I stopped going and didn't step foot in a church again until I was almost 30. Why did I stop going? Because it was BORING!!! I often wonder if that would've been the case if our children's mass had continued. I was still, and I could tell you what the priest spoke about, etc, but I absolutely hated it.

 

For my own girls, I saw the same thing happening. For awhile, our children's service was discontinued because there were no volunteers to oversee it. (I had been part of a team that did it for 5 years. Eventually, those people all left our church, and I could not do it alone.) During that time, getting our girls to go to church was terrible. They would develop headaches or tummyaches or whatever to get out of it. We decided to visit a couple of area churches while our church regrouped. These churches had vibrant children's ministries and my girls once again loved going to church. Our old church does now offer a children's service, and we still attend occassionally. Most of the time we go to the other church though. Just because it is fun doesn't mean they aren't getting anything out of it. The growth I have seen in my youngest daughter especially is remarkable.

 

I think children's worship is a wonderful thing. God designed children to show their enthusiam and excitement in a way that is much different than adults. Our adult worship (at least in our church) squelches that excitement. It is contagious, and that is why I loved working with the kids. Everyone in our "big church" is so serious. Truely, I have never seen people singing, "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee" with such sad, long faces. Not saying all churches are like that, of course, but our old church is.

 

:) Beachy

Edited August 27, 2012 by Just Beachy

[Dustybug]

I chose "other." Our church has children's church for ages 6-12 or so(not really sure), but we don't utilize it. I've never seen the class or had any of my children in it, so I can't say whether I do or don't love it. We choose to have our children sit with us in the service at age 6 because that is our personal family choice and it has nothing to do with the quality of the program. I will say that most other families DO send their children to the children's church in our congregation.

[MyLittleWonders]

I voted other - we are Catholic and our parish offers "dismissal" for children ages 6-13 during the Liturgy of the Word. The kids can choose to go (if they wish) to hear the readings and discuss them, and then they return during the offering (they are the ones who are brining up the gifts). I did find out yesterday that during the school year (October through May in terms of RE/CCD), there is "early childhood RE" offered during the main 10am Mass for 3-5 year olds, though I don't know if we'd ever utilize it with dd (the boys are too old). I like us all being together; the boys already know most all the Mass, and to me, it's just the way it's supposed to be. (Even way back when we were Protestant/Evangelical, we didn't like the kids going to children's church though they did once in a while.) But, like others have said, we have RE/CCD during the week from October through May.

[Jpoy85]

My church has 2 services and Childrens Church is:

 

Toddler (more like babysitting)

Preschool (slight babysitting but intro to jesus)

K-3 <--this is where my kids are now

4-6

7-8

9-12

 

the 7-12 might be together, im not 100%. I like the childrens church, it gives the kids a good foundation and they seem to enjoy it plus they have a great director and program. The kids can stay in service, but i couldnt focus so off they go! :lol:

[jentancalann]

We've always used it. Starting at 5 children sit with us in the evening service to get accustomed to big church. It works out well.

 

Also, the people who run children's church and those who volunteer have three more opportunities to worship with the congregation. No one is missing out unless they choose to.

Edited August 27, 2012 by jentancalann

[Rebel Yell]

OTHER: My church has it, but we don't love it, we use it anyway, and almost everyone else uses it and probably loves it.

 

We have SUnday school for different age group, and children's church is during the entire second worship service for nursery-through 5th grade, although for some weird reason 6th graders all do Children's church, too... probably because they use part of children;s church time to practice for the Christmas musical..

 

I don't hate it, but I think beyond grade 1 or so it;s unnecessary. I only have one left in 6th grade, so I'm not gonna fight it.

 

If we were looking for a new church I absolutely would not consider one that had separate worship services for elementary, middle school, and adults. Too age-segregated, IMO, which is too bad- because those are usually the churches that have the very programs and activities we wish our church had. :glare:

[ScoutTN]

Children's church for kids that age is ridiculuous IMO.

Children learn to worship by being in church with their families. And with their church family - all ages of people. Age segregated Sunday school, okay, worship no-how.

 

Robbie Castleman's excellent book Parenting In The Pew is a light and helpful read.

[shinyhappypeople]

ScoutTN, you wrote "Kids that age..." what ages were you talking about?

[Shellydon]

Our church has really in-depth bible study and meaty sermons. I would say that people under the age of 14-16 would not be able to understand anything that was taught. CC allows kids to be taught at their level. If I attended a church that was just music, communion and bible readings, I would have my children attend church with me.

[Chris in VA]

This is a good point. I've never been to a church where a sermon was made kid-friendly (either in style or length). The sermons in our current church are about 30 to 45 minutes, former church was 45 minutes, church I grew up in was "Until he felt like stopping" (usually 30 to 45 minutes... and he would complain about having to stop, but I was doing internal cartwheels).

 

Our sermons are pretty intellectual but shorter than most Nondenoms. We also have an actual children's sermon every 4 weeks, in the church, right after the Peace, when the kids come in. The priest who did the sermon (or sometimes another one) calls the kids to the font in the middle of the church, and gives a very short, very appropriate homily, often using a prop or two. I love this! We all get a second sermon that is often sweet, funny, warm and kind, and we get to hear the fun responses to the questions the priest often uses to open the homily--Nothing better than tiny voices piping up!

 

As for the children's chapel workers not getting to go to the service--We are blessed at our church. They can go to a complete service at a different time, or they can go to the kids' chapel and then come in with them for Eucharist. It's the Sunday School teachers at our church who have to compromise a bit on Christian Ed for themselves--they give every other Sunday to the kids but do get to participate in Sunday School for Adults on their off weeks, and have other opportunities during the week for classes.

[Dustybug]

I find it interesting that so many people think church is just a drudgery for children if it isn't catered directly to them. I'm all for parent's choosing what is best for their families in this area and I'm not one that children's church is an awful creation, but I also believe that children...very young children...can be taught to worship alongside their parents. I highly doubt that there was "children's church" when Jesus was preaching, kwim?

 

When I was a child, I often sat in the regular adult service and while I did find it boring on occasion (I still do as an adult! lol) I learned a lot from listening in on the real meat rather than the watered down frou-frou stories. In fact, one of the reasons that we stopped allowing any of our children over age 2 to attend the children's class on Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings when AWANA is not is session is because all they were doing was coloring, playing, etc. I don't take my children to church to play. When we on occasion attend the church my FIL pastors, there is no nursery, so even my two year old sits in on the service. I want them to fully realize that it is where we go to worship the Lord and worship is a reverent act, not a "fun" one. We do plenty of fun Bible story related activities at home, I don't rely on the church to provide that. I also don't rely on them to give my children the bulk of their education about our faith, I feel that responsibility is on the parents shoulders.

[6packofun]

I think it must really depend on the depth of teaching and the child's own listening/comprehending abilities as to whether a 3 year old can "take notes" on a sermon and glean everlasting truths from it. If my 6yo were understanding most of the sermon, *I'd* feel like I was in an immature service, quite honestly! LOL We study through Scripture together and, while ds6 might hear something like "Jesus died for us!" or another thing he already knows, I'm pretty sure he's not learning along with us in the same sense at all. He's not reading well enough to keep up with the words to the music on the screen.

 

And, I'm OK with that and would love for him to learn MORE in a high quality children's class. I also think that because we have an hour of Sunday School for every single person in the church before our service, that having him do something fun for an hour doesn't hurt a single thing while the rest of us study and worship together. I also expect my kids to get the majority of their Biblical teaching at home, though.

 

That's why I think that viewing Children's church as a blanket waste of time is so subjective based on one's own child, church, and the role that the parents place on church learning vs. faith learning at home.

[justamouse]

Our church has really in-depth bible study and meaty sermons. I would say that people under the age of 14-16 would not be able to understand anything that was taught. CC allows kids to be taught at their level. If I attended a church that was just music, communion and bible readings, I would have my children attend church with me.

 

I'm really trying hard to not be insulted.

 

My priest's homilies are a brief ancient history lesson, or a monumental lesson on the scriptures. There's three lengthy scripture readings, a psalm singing, there's tons of praying, and responses.

 

I mean, we can play whose church is 'meatier', but I'm hoping that you weren't inferring that everyone else's wasn't as deep, and therefore kids were unable to understand...

 

My children know the Nicene creed by heart, all the prayers, my Dd6 came home yesterday singing the psalm, and she has a rich prayer life--all on her own--from what she's learned sitting there with me. That's just the 6 year old.

 

My older ones read the scriptures right along with everyone and learn from the homily. It may not be what I get from it, me, with my 40+ more years of living and understanding and connections, but they very well understand how to apply those readings to their lives. They are just as spiritual as I am, they just happen to have smaller bodies.

 

And it's not *just* communion.

[abacus2]

I voted the first option and "other". Our church has children's church through 2nd grade and we love it. It is just during the sermon; they stay with us for the singing. I am EXTREMELY!!! grateful that this program is available. In my experience, a sermon directed towards adults is no time for family togetherness; it is a good time for children to have a separate lesson that they can understand. I do not like churches that frown on children in the service either; I want parents to be able to make their own choice.

 

I think through 8th grade is a bit extreme. I remember starting to learn things from the regular service around age 10.