Grab our RSS feedHow Do You Prepare Your Children for Worship?
As far as discipleship is concerned, our first responsibility is to
our own soul, our spouse, and our children. Most of this takes place in the home, and
usually through informal settings that arise during "teachable
moments."
Tracy and I are encouraged and challenged by the families of Grace. We've seen several ways that parents have been thoughtfully preparing their children for corporate worship.
- We've seen children in the services with homemade sheets that a thoughtful mom or dad had pre-prepared with words for their children to put tally marks beside each time they hear those words in the sermon (More than once I've been accosted by a little person after a service for not mentioning a word that was on his or her sheet!).
- Other children have been encouraged by mom or dad to draw pictures of things that were mentioned or read in the sermon that they've seen with their mind's eye. Many of the pictures that I've seen have been amazingly powerful applications of the sermon.
- We've seen parents turning directly to pre-marked bible pages in their child's bible to the day's sermon text and following along with a guiding finger as the Scriptures are read.
All of this is immensely encouraging. It shows that moms and dads are taking measures to plan for their children's spiritual health. And, it shows that they are trying to establish patterns of attentive worship in the hearts and minds of their little ones.
I'm writing this post with the hope and prayer that parents who have been on the journey for a while, and ones who are just getting started, will share ideas with other moms and dads for how to prepare children for corporate worship services. To highlight the reality that the suggestions you submit via the comments section on this post (hint hint) don't have to be super-spiritual, I'll share two recent examples from the Thomases.
- Last Saturday evening's bedtime story at the Thomas house was an extemporaneous free-flow rap of Sunday's sermon text by yours truly. Interestingly enough, after church on Sunday each of my three older children were able to tell me more about the sermon than usual. Coincidence? Where's that one in the latest "How to be a Godly Parent" book?
- This morning, our oldest son's answer to the chatechism question, "What is God?", was, "God is a Spirit, and has not a body like a man." That's the book's answer. He then added, "And He does not have underwear like a man either." Which, I'm pretty sure, is a textual variant :-).
Your turn.
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Add your comment3 Comments
J. Suggs August 13th, 2008
First of all, I can't commend the use of chatechisms enough. It still amazes me when I hear our youngest rattle off answers from memory. It's been helpful in teaching them the Bible, and it's also been a very beneficial tool to work in them a Biblical Theology. So, go get one! And, if you don't have kids yet, or have little babies, or are single, go get one anyway...use it! I got schooled the other day by our son. That'll teach dad to pay attention:-)
A few other practicals:
1. We usually spend our time in family worship in the sermon text on Saturday night. Normally we're walking through something else during the week. Many times (because we have older kids) we'll have them read the text out loud. After we discuss the text, and walk through the verses, we pray, focusing on the text, similar to corporate prayer. The hope is that there is a continued focus on what we've just read, and what will be preached, and to help them learn to pray (by praying more biblically!).
2. Sing. I can't say I've ever "freestyled" over the sermon text (though I'm going to try this Saturday), but we usually incorporate singing in our time, more specifically singing songs from our services at Grace. I'd encourage families to snag those "little blue worship sheets" from the service and use them during family devo. Not only is it good and right (and biblical) to sing praises to our God, but by using the song sheets from the service it helps build a familiarity with the words/songs into the kids. Which, I've found helps them stay engaged and be more attentive in the service.
3. Be intentional about what comes into the service. Our children (9 & 7) have a tote bag that they bring with them to church, along with their Bibles. In it one will find a few notebooks, some crayons and pencils. About 6 months ago, one would find the same notebooks, crayons and pencils, along with coloring books, markers, a hot glue gun, easel and modeling clay. The bag weighed as much as our 3 year old! After much conviction one Sunday morn we saw that by allowing them to bring coloring books and other art supplies in (I was kidding about the modeling clay!), their focus was to make sure they used the right color blue for Optimus Prime's hood instead of being attentive through the rest of the worship service. I'm definitely not trying to paint a picture (no pun intended) of all kids everywhere - a two year old in the service may need something more than a pen and paper. I think those decisions are informed by age; however I do think it's important that what we teach them throughout the week about Worship, and what we do as the body of Christ when we come together on Sunday is the same thing we are communicating to them on Sunday, in the flesh. I have found that by allowing them to disengage and color for two hours I'm actually communicating the opposite...that it's not important.
4. Be intentional about talking after the service. Again with older kids, we can discuss the sermon, the gospel, applications, etc. Shepherd their hearts. Not only should we be doing this as parents anyway (and to our spouses men!), but it will again reinforce the great importance of what takes place on Sunday...we meet to worship God.
I too am encouraged, and have been greatly encouraged by what I've witnessed at Grace. I'm watching other families. I'm learning. I'm praying.
Praying that the next generation will put their hope in God!
Jordan Thomas August 13th, 2008
Jim,
Spot on! Thanks for the wisdom, and for sharing it with us.
jt
Jenny Hinton August 14th, 2008
Thank you for the above post and response. I'm always looking for ideas that will encourage my children to worship.
The Hinton family has also tried everything from the hot glue gun to the catechism. Some things have worked better than others, and I'm sure that what works for one child may not work for another. Making things a bit more difficult for our family is that Kevin and I are both on the platform during the music while my two oldest children sit with Grandma (Katie is almost six and Owen is three; Audrey is still in the nursery).
We expect our children to participate in worship while we are helping to lead. They should pray when we pray and sing when we sing. Training at home is crucial; how will they know to be reverent in prayer if we never pray at home? Part of our homeschool includes a "hymn of the day." At Unity, we generally sing four hymns (from the hymnal or from the RUF hymnbook) before the sermon and one at the close of the service, which means we can sing one song a day during the week and be prepared for Sunday. (Of course, it helps that we're in charge of the music schedule so we know what will be sung.) Also, we teach the Apostle's Creed so they can participate in the weekly confession.
As for the sermon, I've been especially encouraged lately by a book by Edith Shaeffer called "The Hidden Art of Homemaking." There is a chapter that gives examples of a parent taking pictoral notes of the sermon while the child looks on. These notes do not have to be elaborate; imagine a stick figure with a big, black heart on his chest, kneeling in repentance. For us, it does require an occasional whisper of explaination because mommy is not an artist!
We recently gave Katie a blank notebook and a pen. She was told that it was special and that she could only write about God in that notebook. A few quotes:
"Church is a playce where we woship God."
"Do not put any God's in plase of me. The frst comanaent teches us to love God olny. Do not put statues anywear on eath nor water. The 2nd comandment teches us to avoid idolitry."
"The B-I-B-L-E yes thats the book for me. I stand alone with the word of God the B-I-B-L-E."
"God is a spirit and dose not have a boddy like men."
"Who is at church. Miss Cathy Miss Mary Grandma Mommy and Daddy and allso Ragan and probily Blake and the other Blake." (!!!)
"My prayer. Dear God thak you for this day thak you that I could go shoping with Grandma."
Not exactly sermon notes, but it's a start. Much better than the glue gun!
Finally, we emphasize reverence in church during the week. Owen is small but can understand the sketch I drew of a boy climbing over the pew, making faces at people behind him. If you can't draw, pull your couch out and reinact it, emphasizing how the person behind them is trying to listen to Mr. Jordan (or in our current case, Mr. Nathan!). Then point them to an easy-to-read version of Leviticus 19:30 and Isaiah 58:13-14.
And don't ask Nathan what my kids REALLY do at church!