![\"kid](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/561\/2014\/09\/kid-lonely.jpg\")
<\/a><\/h3>\nOpening Sentences<\/h3>\n
I recently ran across this article by Tim Wright called \u201cSunday Schooling Our Kids out of Church.\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t agree with everything he says, but he has done a great service in pointing out the Sunday School problem.<\/p>\n Over the past few decades, in a largely futile attempt to re-engage the growing segment of non-church attenders, churches have shifted\u00a0toward a model of separating parents and children on Sunday mornings<\/a><\/span>. Usually, this model advertises\u00a0a one-hour commitment, sending the adults to a worship service with contemporary music and a self-help, teaching-style sermon, and corralling the kids in Sunday School, where they sing hyperactive \u201ckid-friendly\u201d music to a recorded track, do hands-on activities, and listen to a quick lesson on their own learning level. After an hour of separation, everyone goes home and gets on with their lives.<\/p>\n Of course, there are many other factors at work, which Wright acknowledges, but we\u2019re not doing ourselves any favors.<\/p>\n I first heard this proposed in one of my own circles a number of years ago. We as a staff were deciding how to best reach young families, or what leadership called a lazy and unmotivated segment of our congregation. As we talked, it became apparent that the majority opinion in the room was that we should aim to hook families into coming for only one hour on Sunday morning.\u00a0 During the discussion, a colleague inadvertently tipped his hand:<\/p>\n \u201cDo we really think that the best thing for kids is to have them singing hymns from the 18th century? I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I cringed. Everyone else on staff bought it. Ministry there was never the same for me.<\/p>\n I know he really didn\u2019t the grasp the full reach of what he was saying. I know he had good intentions. But it\u2019s a broken model. It hasn\u2019t built up a generation of renewed interest in church attendance. In fact, it\u2019s had the opposite effect, and it\u2019s one of the ways that the church has been alienating\u00a0 young adults for the past 20 or 30 years.<\/p>\n Well, that and the whole politicized gospel of the \u201creligious right,\u201d but that\u2019s another story for another day.<\/p>\n Now, kids are leaving the church faster than ever before.<\/strong><\/p>\n But why? We tried to engage them on their own level. We didn\u2019t stick them in pews between Mom and Dad and make them sit still. We didn\u2019t force them to participate in the stuff they just couldn\u2019t possible relate to, like liturgy, hymns, long Scripture readings, and that sort of thing. We put together cool music videos, lots of media, we let them shout and dance\u00a0their little hearts out, we overstimulated them in Jesus\u2019 name! We let them just be kids!<\/p>\n As Wright answers (and correctly, I think), it\u2019s because once they graduated from the programs targeted toward them, there was no connection to the greater life of the church, especially the strange thing the church does together on Sunday mornings that it calls \u201cworship.\u201d Though much effort and expense had been expended to making them into little Christians, nobody had taught them how to be grown-up, churched Christians. And, while it\u2019s certainly possible to be \u201csaved\u201d and not belong to a local congregation, we can\u2019t thrive in isolation. We need one another, and a diverse blend at that. It\u2019s for our own good.<\/p>\n Stanley Hauerwas puts it this way:<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a Christian should just scare the hell out of us. It\u2019s like on Sunday we need to rush together for protection. \u201cOh, I\u2019m not crazy.\u201d That we believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world is craziness. It\u2019s going to make your life really weird. And you just need to get together on Sunday to be pulled back into the reality of God\u2019s kingdom.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Even if we believe this ourselves, if we\u2019re not training this kind of earnestness into our children, they won\u2019t get it. And there won\u2019t be much point in going to church.<\/p>\n In the name of making church relevant, we have made it completely irrelevant.\u00a0 In the end, I think Wright\u2019s points are great, but I want to offer one more.<\/p>\n Kids are growing up and leaving the church because we\u2019ve stopped expecting enough out of them.<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s return to what that fellow staff member said. If participating in more traditional corporate worship, in this case, singing the hymns of the church, isn\u2019t appropriate for children, then what is the alternative? I think his answer would be singing those \u201ckid friendly\u201d songs along with a recorded track or music video.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with kids singing \u201ckid friendly\u201d songs. I certainly did when I was a kid, although they weren\u2019t as cool and weren\u2019t paired with hypnotic media productions (Deep and Wide, anybody? Father Abraham?). But we\u2019ve forgotten that an important component of education is exposing kids to things they can\u2019t yet understand in order to build important connections later on. So, while a traditional Sunday service might be boring and essentially meaningless at times to small children, if we gracefully and patiently teach them the discipline of the routine, the time will come when that will no longer be the case.<\/p>\n In a high school English class, students may read The Great Gatsby <\/em>or The Catcher in the Rye <\/em>or The Scarlet Letter<\/em>, not because they will instantly connect to it and enjoy it (though hopefully this is sometimes the case), but because it\u2019s good for them. Because they need to learn to interact with new ideas, concepts, and worldviews. Even if they seem foreign. Even if they are boring. They may not immediately get it, but down the line, they will be better for it. They will be more equipped to meet the world as adults.<\/p>\n The church needs a similar, doxological education. We need to expect kids to participate, to sit (reasonably) still for a little while (and love them graciously when they can\u2019t), to stumble through the\u00a0words and sing the notes as best as they are able. Even 17th-century hymns. Even communal prayers that have tough language, like \u201cslavery,\u201d \u201cresurrection,\u201d and \u201ccovenant.\u201d Even when they are years away from fully understanding what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n Of course, there\u2019s also the possibility that they will understand more than we think.<\/p>\n We need to expect them to do things that are difficult, because in the end, they\u2019re worthwhile.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, a few of those kids who have never darkened a Sanctuary door will make the transition to graze in the adult\u2019s Sunday silo. A few more will return to this format when they have their own kids, because they think good parents take their kids to church. Many, and if the numbers are accurate, most will not. They will have no connection to the church, no \u201ctouch points,\u201d no lasting memories, and no working understanding of why we do what we do.<\/p>\n It\u2019s absolutely imperative that we reintegrate children back into our gathered worship. <\/strong>This may take time, it may be messy, but we\u2019ve got to do it.<\/p>\n And we adults need to be there to help them in their growth. To teach them. To make room for them in the pews. To let them follow our fingers as we trace the melody in the hymnal. To be patient with them when they squirm and sigh. Above all, to show them by example the importance of being the church on Sunday so that we can be the church we need to be every other day.<\/p>\n And, as it turns out, there is a glimmer of hope for us traditional people. Those young people who have left the church because they didn\u2019t get it. Well, some of them do have a vital and persistent faith, and they\u2019re desperately searching for deeper connection to that faith in a world and in churches that are increasingly disconnected. That\u2019s why we\u2019re seeing so many of them returning to liturgical churches. Nearly fifty years ago, the established church had the opportunity to reengage a questioning generation, and they failed. We have a similar opportunity now. We need to make room in our tradition for sojourners and their questions, as well.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got to be honest with ourselves. What we\u2019re doing isn\u2019t working.<\/strong><\/p>\n Christian education is\u00a0valuable, but the discipline of the worship event is the beating heart of our Christian journey, our nourishment, our Sunday asylum.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time we all worshiped together. Once again. At long last.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Photos: Opening Sentences I recently ran across this article by Tim Wright called \u201cSunday Schooling Our Kids out of Church.\u201d I don\u2019t agree with everything he says, but he has done a great service in pointing out the Sunday School problem. Over the past few decades, in a largely futile attempt to re-engage the growing segment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2297,"featured_media":1898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCall to Include Children in Corporate Worship<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nFinding that More Profound Alleluia<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Charge<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFlickr, Silence<\/a>, creative commons 2.0<\/a>
\nFlickr, Paw Paw<\/a>, creative commons 2.0<\/a>
\nFlickr, John Morgan<\/a>, creative commons 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"