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Not have “Children’s Church?” 

We do! It meets at 10:45 AM every Sunday in the worship center / sanctuary. Where everyone else gathers to worship.

The answer to this question is really quite simple. It goes like this: If all we had was the Bible, we would never, ever think it is a good idea to remove children from worship gatherings. Wherever that idea came from, it did not come from the Bible.

Worship gatherings in the Scripture are what we might call “age-integrated.” That is, all ages, assembled under the banner of God’s redeeming love, and in His name, to pray, to hear God’s Word, and to encourage one another to submit to its authority and sufficiency for all of life. 

A few examples:

“Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God” (Deut 31:12-13; the Book of Deuteronomy is replete with this language). 

“There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them” (Josh 8:35).

“And the people gathered as one man in the square before the Water Gate and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard” (Neh 8:1-2). 

The obvious standard for a worship assembly in the Old Covenant was all of Israel. Everyone in the households gathering together. Old. Young. Jew. Gentile. 

Jesus rebuked His disciples for trying to “shoo” children away from Him and His public ministry, saying, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 19:14). The Apostle Paul clearly expected children to be present in the worship assembly of the Church. After all, he by Holy Spirit inspiration directly addressed them: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph 6:1). “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Col 3:20).

I don’t think any evangelical scholar disputes that this was the norm in biblical times. Whole families worshiped together as the Covenant Community of God. And in the first few hundred years of church history, it had to be so, because churches typically met in homes (Rom 16:3-5; Col 4:15; Phil 1-2). I highly doubt the early house churches took the kids outside to play on the swing set while Pastor Timothy preached the Word. 

So, at Corydon Baptist Church, this is one way we try to embrace the sufficiency of Scripture. We are not saying churches that do it differently are evil or sinful. But we do think that when we do not have even one positive example of anything resembling today’s versions of “Children’s Church,” then we do well to simply trust God’s Word and not get inventive in ministry. 

Granted, God’s way is often more arduous. As the Puritans would say, we must pour out “holy sweat.” Particularly, in the arena of godly parenting. Let’s be honest, Children’s Church was created only in the last 75 years, primarily due to the public education model and poor or lazy parenting among Christians. By God’s grace, we must encourage and equip parents in Christ to do better. We can, in the power of the Spirit, train our children to not just sit still for 90 minutes, but even to learn to listen and learn of Christ and His Word and ways. We can train our children to pray. To sing. To serve. We can, by God’s sanctifying grace. And we should. At home. And at church.  

While our Sunday worship is a bit “rowdier” than churches who remove children for all or a portion of the worship service, I would not trade the noise for the alternative. What a joy it is to watch our parents working hard to train their children. I see parents correcting children in love. I see positive reinforcement. I hear children singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” at the top of their lungs! I see parents and grandparents bend over to whisper a sermon point in a child’s ear. I see Mommas rocking babies. I see Dads take children out for “a moment of truth.” I hear coos and cries. I see children making progress, even taking notes. And I glorify our great Creator-Redeemer-God!   

“He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Psalm 78:5-7). 

“Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be born may praise the Lord” (Psalm 102:18). 

For an encouraging read pick up a copy of Scott Brown’s book, The Family at Church: How Parents are Tour-Guides for Joy.

by Keith McWhorter