Acts20.com

Prompted by a post in another thread that caught my eye. I've been reading lately about the debate over family integrated churches -- basically, the theory that it's really important for families to all worship together (with varying degrees of intensity about how important). They make some good arguments about how older kids who graduate from kids church have a hard time integrating into the regular worship service, and that's true. At the same time, my pastor doesn't preach at a level that's super comprehensible to my five year-old, nor would I want him to. I really want my son to hear an age-appropriate proclamation of God's word at church in addition to what we do with him at home.

Notice zero responses & only 55 reads as of this post of mine?It appears as though Kids Ministry has become a 'have to do' ministry in the church rather than 'we get to do' ministry in the local church.Very unfortunate.I often say the health barometer of the church is found in Kids Ministry.If the Kids Ministry is rarely examined & barely funded then it's probably on it's last legs ...just like the church of that same Kids Ministry.But if a church funds & supports Kids Ministry with constant promotions then the church is usually very lively & growing. Our Kids Ministry starts at the same time as the main worship services. Lot's of music, visual aids, video lessons & stuff kids like to do.We don't do the babysit plan where the kids are merely warehoused until the parents get finished up front with the main worship service.Parents are often encouraged to bring their children into the sanctuary in order for their kids to get a good idea of how 'big church' operates.New kids usually come out of Kids4Christ (K4C) asking their parents to bring them back next week.Our leadership team places a lot of emphasis on the lessons of the bible, especially from the O.T. so the kids can see both sides of the N.T. church & the lessons we adults grew up on. Personally I love the water balloon fights, chocolate spaghetti wars & water-slide Sundays. All of these events happen after the service & the parents have to bring towels & extra clothes for their munchkins to get cleaned up.The excellent weather here allows for months of warm outdoor fun & fellowship. Empty nest syndrome is for the birds!Email me at: [email protected] planters are focused on just one thing ...introducing people to Jesus!

what we do.

We worship together and then transition them to Children's church one song before preaching.

My church runs the classes throughout the entire worship service. Parents can drop their kids off as soon as they get to church, if they'd like. There's also a 3 minute pause between the song service and the preaching for parents to take their kids to class, if they'd like to have them in there for the singing and then take them to a classroom for more age-appropriate teaching. Alternatively, parents are welcome to keep their kids in the sanctuary the entire service.The children's ministry uses The Gospel Project which is a super Christ-centered curriculum. I think there's a tendency with children's material to focus on familiarizing kids with the stories of the Bible, which is good, but without centering them on Christ. There's also a tendency to preach the law alone -- for example, the good Samaritan helped those in need, so you should help those in need, but without conveying the necessity of Christ and His power in this process.

I do not know the best way to do it, but I do believe that a child should hear the OLD favorite Bible Stories. In doing some spontaneous Children's programs now I find 8-12 year olds who actually do not know the Joseph, Sampson, David, 3 Hebrew Children, & etc.it is though someone is afraid that the Law would be taught, LOL.That was written as sort of a joke (in ref to the Law discussions lately). The kids I am talking about are new to church. Their parents never read a good Bible bed time story to them, they were gone working or high. Those kids from the 'hood' need the basic GOD stories to underwrite the JESUS miracle stories.A good SS will do this or a GREAT Children's ministry will do it. I do think putting the kids in front of the 'Big People' to sing or repeat memory verses is a must. Also the occasional inclusion in the main worship service.Things have changed, but just looking from the outside, SOME CHURCHES still get it right!We visited RR's church once and was blown away by a BIG round table discussion, big folk and little folk during the SS hour Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

That's awesome! How do you approach the topic of kids' access to the Lord's table?