LIFE LESSONS
Family Worship Josh and Caitlin Maurer
Thinking about bringing your children into the service to worship with you can seem like a battle not worth fighting. We sat down with Josh and Caitlin Maurer to ask why they invest time and energy to include their children in corporate worship. Kid’s Harbor hopes this interview will help families see the fruitfulness of worshiping together and give practical ideas of how to do it. Why include young children in corporate worship? Josh: Parents, first, be convinced this is a good thing. There are all sorts of obstacles. There are days when we think, “Why are we doing this?” If you are considering bringing your children into corporate worship, it is crucial to believe worshiping together as a family is important. When we look at the Scriptures, all the way from the beginning, we see an assumption that families are together, and kids are hearing the reading of the law and asking questions about the law. From the beginning of the Bible all the way to the New Testament, the assumption is that children are present. Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians to be read publicly, and he addresses children. What does that imply about children’s presence within the larger community? Also, things are more often caught than taught. Discipleship implies modeling. Yes, teaching too, but there is untapped power in children just watching mom and dad worship, open their Bibles, read, pray and sing. One of the things that convinced me years ago when I was pastoring was the pervasive influence of simply 18 years (give or take) of watching mom and dad engage with God. One writer says, “You’ll never know what crack your influence in engaging with God might open in a child’s heart for the spirit to grab hold.” Of course, the small ones are not cognitively grasping much of what is happening or embracing abstract concepts, but they are learning from watching. The key is that parents are actively engaging with God. If parents are just bumps-on-a-log, then maybe kids would be better off in a separate class. Barna statistics show that families with a regular rhythm of worship together by and large have kids that continue with church into adulthood. Of course, this is not automatic. Kids become their own person and are responsible before God, but generally, if parents are genuinely engaged in worship, it has a positive impact on kids. The value of being together is in the multiplication of these experiences over time—they are not always immediately identifiable.
What does bringing children into corporate worship communicate to their hearts? Caitlin: Some of the messages we communicate to our kids are: • You, little person, are an important part of this family (church and nuclear). Your voice matters, and this Word being preached is applicable and life giving for all of us. • You can join in and take responsibility for your own faith and participation. You can pay attention and learn something and express yourself out loud. Look at all these other people who have broken families and are imperfectly walking with the Lord or are learning about him for the first time. • God is worthy—of our praise, our attention, our unity, our repentance, our faith, and our trust. • We like you! We want you here with us. We want to hear your questions later and have conversations about what you heard and observed. • We are the church—in the building with other believers and out and about as a nuclear family. How do you prepare children for corporate worship at home in your family devotional time and conversations about church? Josh: During family devotions, we practice sitting still and quiet. Kids can be taught to sit still. It is possible, but it requires some fortitude on the part of the parents. When they act up, we remind them in sensitive ways of expectations and discipline them in age-appropriate ways. It’s hard, but so many times parents don’t want to have the struggle, the fight, the battle of the wills when we are trying to focus ourselves during church.
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