The thing about children
I don't have children. Its important you know that before you continue as my perspective is possibly a bit skewed.
Today we had our children's choir in our main services helping to lead worship much like our adults would normally. Typically we only have a choir for the first service. We are pretty careful with our programming in attempts to provide a great environment for people. The two services are different in order to reach people from different walks of life. Our church is still in transition I believe. There are 30 years of legacy that effect us. Getting an established church to completly change its understanding of what church could be is not an easy task. While we no longer do a kids Christmas program during our main services, in having the children as a part of both services as well as letting them do a "special" song, what message do we send? On one had I see the value of having the kids a part of things. It says we value them. It says they can contribute to our worship even at a very young age. It gives the kids a sense of value in being a part of something big. And of course, mom and dad are thrilled to see Johnny and Suzie (or James and Mary to be more biblical) on stage. All good reasons to do it.
There is a significant change in the dynamics of what happens when the kids are there in that role. It changes our song selection some. It changes our lighting, which affects the environment in big ways. It changes the way we mix audio. Those are the facts. I wonder if the new person coming through the doors will understand. Its hard to not have the worship turn into a performance when they kids are there. We try to create a place where people can really worship, but with the changes that happen are we able to worship or do we end up watching the children? Are we just satisfying the parents? Are we better served by having them or not? What do new people see and take away from the experience? Its just a couple times a year and does that make it acceptable? Please understand I'm not against having them, I just wish I knew how to better integrate them. I wish I knew how to answer those questions. I truly can see both sides of the discussion.
Today we had our children's choir in our main services helping to lead worship much like our adults would normally. Typically we only have a choir for the first service. We are pretty careful with our programming in attempts to provide a great environment for people. The two services are different in order to reach people from different walks of life. Our church is still in transition I believe. There are 30 years of legacy that effect us. Getting an established church to completly change its understanding of what church could be is not an easy task. While we no longer do a kids Christmas program during our main services, in having the children as a part of both services as well as letting them do a "special" song, what message do we send? On one had I see the value of having the kids a part of things. It says we value them. It says they can contribute to our worship even at a very young age. It gives the kids a sense of value in being a part of something big. And of course, mom and dad are thrilled to see Johnny and Suzie (or James and Mary to be more biblical) on stage. All good reasons to do it.
There is a significant change in the dynamics of what happens when the kids are there in that role. It changes our song selection some. It changes our lighting, which affects the environment in big ways. It changes the way we mix audio. Those are the facts. I wonder if the new person coming through the doors will understand. Its hard to not have the worship turn into a performance when they kids are there. We try to create a place where people can really worship, but with the changes that happen are we able to worship or do we end up watching the children? Are we just satisfying the parents? Are we better served by having them or not? What do new people see and take away from the experience? Its just a couple times a year and does that make it acceptable? Please understand I'm not against having them, I just wish I knew how to better integrate them. I wish I knew how to answer those questions. I truly can see both sides of the discussion.
posted by Jason at 12:14 AM
1 Comments:
Good stuff there Byron. Thanks!
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