Children in Church

"Let the little children come to me."

-- Jesus Christ

Those with children who want to consider participating in our fellowship will likely experience new and wonderful aspects of churching together as a family. First, Small Groups may coalesce and organize based on any number of factors including what we consider to be secondary doctrinal points, preferences regarding things like how lessons and worship are performed, and in particular, how children are accomodated.

For example, one Small Group may wish to have a rotating schedule where children are taught by adults separately during the main part of the study period. Meanwhile, another Small Group may wish to include the children in the study period. There may be parents who have high expectations of their children's behavior, for example, expecting their children even as young as 3 years old to sit or play quietly during the study period. Conversely, there may be parents who want their children to be more free and are comfortable with a study period that has more sounds of children playing and more physical activity. Our model can accomodate whatever modes people prefer and we take no hard stand on what those might be for the Small Groups. People are free to form and coalesce into groups that are comfortable for them.

For the monthly Large Group meeting, children are welcome. In fact, there are no "children's programs" of any formal sort for our church as a whole and there are none for the Large Group meeting. Our meetings are organized and orderly, but that does not mean every aspect is rigid. For example, if parents need to move a few chairs and put a blanket on the floor for their small child to quietly play, they should feel welcome to do so.

That said, one key point is that the Large Group meeting must maintain order, which means the children must be kept quiet. They are free to play quietly, and parents are free to introduce whatever means are necessary to help their children maintain the necessary order. However, children that are loud enough to create a disturbance should be taken out.

In this article we provide some tips and suggestions for those with children who are considering being part of our fellowship.

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