Philosophy of Ministry
It has often been said that the most segregated hour in America is 11 am on Sunday morning. This should not be! If there is one place where differences of skin color should not matter it should be in the church of the living God. But what is true in regard to segregation due to skin color is also true many times in our churches in regard to age. The church often divides families into various age groups on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and Wednesday nights. The result is that there is no time during the week when the families of the church come together to worship God. This also should not be!
We believe there is a better way. This better way allows us to continue ministering to children on their level by providing children’s church and nursery for children who haven’t yet entered 3rd grade and children’s bulletins to help the older children to understand better what we are doing in worship. We also provide age-based teaching for children and youth of all ages during our Sunday School hour, as well as on Sunday nights (116 KIDZ).
Indeed, one of the great benefits of this approach is that our Sunday evening time is much more focused and efficient at providing an opportunity for fun, interactive learning on the part of our children.
Core Convictions
There are a couple of core convictions which motivate our thinking on this subject.
First, we believe in the priority of the Word of God preached. When the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the church in Ephesus, a letter to be read to the entire congregation when they gathered for public worship, he did not hesitate to address the children whom he knew would be present in that assembly: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1). In the Old Testament when the people of Judah gathered to hear Ezra read the Law of God the congregation was made up all the men and women, but also “all who could understand what they heard” (Nehemiah 8:2).
We are not given precise ages, but clearly children were present at this assembly. God has promised and been proven to bless His Word by imparting spiritual life to its hearers (see 1 Peter 1:23). God’s Word is also the primary means by which believers are sanctified (see John 17:17).
Therefore, we want as many people as possible to be under the sound of the preached Word. This includes those children who can hear with understanding, as well as the children workers who are often cut off from the benefit of hearing God’s Word preached.
Second, we believe that families should worship together. We believe that this is a healthy practice for children to learn to worship God by observing their parents, grandparents, other family members, and the entire body worshiping God. We further believe that by giving the families of our church the opportunity to worship together, their families will be strengthened spiritually as they interact with each other regarding the listener’s guide to each Sunday’s sermon provided in the children’s bulletin.
Benefits of this Approach
We believe that our philosophy of children’s ministry has a number of benefits. First, it allows everyone to have the opportunity to attend and participate in our Sunday morning worship. Second, it helps families to be strengthened spiritually through the tools that are provided them. Third, it ensures that our children’s workers will be encouraged and equipped for greater and more effective ministry because of their opportunity to hear God’s Word preached regularly. Fourth, it permits our church to be better focused and more efficient at providing a Sunday night learning opportunity for our children and evangelistic outreach to our community.
*To download our Philosophy of Children’s Ministry as a brochure, click here (PDF).
For further explanations of the importance of families worshiping together, read John and Noël Piper’s article “The Family: Together in God’s Presence” and Jeremy Walker’s article “Attendance of Children in Public Worship.”
