Should we have “children’s church”? For many Christians, this kind of question is not even be asked because the practice is already assumed. Just as they have youth group, college outreach, etc., so too would they have a specific children’s ministry. But for others, the opposite is assumed—everyone worships together. So, should we have children’s church? In what follows, I want to offer some reasons for answering in the negative: children’s church assumes too much, God alone regulates his worship, God’s covenant grace promises unity and hope to our children, and God provides his grace through his chosen means.
Children’s Church Assumes Too Much
Children’s church is not as practical and helpful as is often assumed. The motivation for having children’s church is a matter of practicality—children are not as mature and educated as adults, so they need a simplified version of the sermon and more engaging time of worship. While well intentioned, such a motivation raises a couple of problems. First, how do we gage what is an appropriate level for differing age groups? What if a portion of the children in the current children’s church found it too complicated, too deep, too boring, too long etc. Would this constitute a need for a third place of worship for those children? And then a fourth, etc.? Secondly, and more importantly, what are the long-term costs of thinking about the worship of God in this way? We deliver to the children customized goods and services based off of their ever-changing (and immature) desires. Does this not teach them to view the church in overly consumeristic categories? We ought to be teaching our children to conform their feelings to the truth of what they have been given, rather than teaching them to expect everything to conform to them and give them what they want.
There is another theological problem with thinking children ought to be removed from the regular service: doing so reveals some doubt about the necessity of the Spirit’s work to apply Christ’s grace to us through his appointed means. God has dispensed his promised grace to his children throughout the history of his redemption. He is at work in their lives even if they are not fully engaged with every part of the sermon. We forget how often we ourselves are less than fully engaged, and yet received the joy of God’s grace despite ourselves. Indeed, although we have responsibilities in worship (WSC 90), the joy of receiving God’s grace in worship is not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done at the cross and has chosen to do in his church today through the Spirit’s blessing upon the work of Christ’s ministers (WSC 89, 91).
God Alone Regulates His Worship
When God pronounces his call to worship, he never segregates the members out from one another, let alone to directs the congregation to have distinct services of worship. And when there is a distinction made for children in the Bible, it is to make it clear that they are equal members of the covenant community, not to put them in a separate age-appropriate space.
God reminded Cain that he was responsible for his actions against his brother in the covenant community, just as his parents were (Gen 4:8-11). Noah’s sons bore the responsibility of their sins and righteous deeds in the covenant community (Gen 9:22-27). At eight days old, Abraham’s infant male descendants were required to be circumcised to signify their inclusion in the covenant community. And if the parent would not circumcise their child, the child was cut off from God’s covenant people and the parent faced the threat of God’s deadly wrath (Gen 17:14; Ex 4:24-26). Throughout Deuteronomy, children were expected to have been taught God’s saving word since birth, looking forward to the day when they would ask questions and already have the answers in their heart (Deut 4:9-10; 6; 11; 29:29; 30:2; 31:9-13; 32:44-47; see also Josh 4:6-24; 14:9). No Psalm indicates a time when the children were to leave the assembly. They were explicitly included in song, instruction, and the proclamation of the gospel (Ps 78:4-6). In fact, God’s praise from infants and nursing babies in Ps 8:2 is fulfilled in the coming of Christ in Matt 21:14-16. When Ezra returned with post-exilic Israel to Jerusalem, the children were considered just as much a part of the covenant community as anyone else (Ezra 8:21). When Ezra and the priesthood taught post-exilic Israel in Jerusalem, and when they responded to God in sacrifice, praise, and rejoicing, the children were present (Neh 8:1-8; 12:43). And God reaffirms the inclusion of children throughout the new covenant Scriptures as well (Acts 2:39; 1 Cor 7:14; Eph 6:1-4; Col 3:20; 1 John 2:12-13; 2 John 1:4). Looking at the Gospel of Matthew, we remember two notable examples: when Jesus spoke out against his disciples’ desires to remove the children from their company in Matt 19:13-15, and when the children were crying out the praises of Christ in 21:14-16 to the chief priests’ and scribes’ anger and yet to Christ’s joy (see also Matt 11:25-30; 14:21; 15:38; 18:1-6).
Surely, the biblical witness here takes precedence over our feelings (however strong) and presumed needs. Parents are responsible for their children and children are unique individuals who learn in a variety of ways, but neither parental responsibility nor the unique needs of a given child is reason for separating children from the corporate gathering of God’s people. God has not commanded us to separate our children from the covenant community, and so we ought not do so. It is in the church where the covenant of grace is proclaimed, received, and lived out. And thus, it is here where our children rejoice in God’s promise of unity and hope in the grace of Christ.
God’s Covenant Grace Promises Unity and Hope to Our Children
God declares the children of his people to be holy unto the Lord and members of the covenant community (Gen 17:7-14; 1 Cor 7:14). And the reason for this is founded in God’s promise, that his grace is for us and for our children. And one of the primary benefits of this promised grace is perfect unity with the rest of the body—all of us sharing in the same hope of God’s glory.
Here, I suggest that we do not promote the unity of the church by separating our children out during worship for their own simplified version. In fact, we put in question the hope they receive if we teach them to require a customized portion of worship because of their inabilities. So then, how do we promote the unity that we’ve been given? By walking “in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3). Whatever the age, we ought not place those who are immature, hard of learning, lacking understanding, and/or distracting in another room. We must gently, humbly, patiently, painfully, and eagerly love them and disciple them as fellow members of the body of Christ. And we do this because, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (vv 4-6). God does not call us to love one another in this way only after we’ve become mature adults. We are all needy little children who have already been graciously adopted by the Father as co-heirs with his Son (Rom 8:17; Eph 1:5).
Just as there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, so too, there is neither old nor young, mature nor immature, intelligent nor ignorant, for we are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28). All of God’s people have been given the same joy of the same union with Christ and therefore the same hope of glory. We are all one in Christ, and so we all share in the same benefits of Christ as one.
God Provides His Grace through His Chosen Means
God’s means of grace are sufficient for our children. And those means of grace are his ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer (WSC 88). When a minister of Christ proclaims the audible Word of Christ’s gospel, when he administers the visible Word of Christ’s gospel in his sacraments, and when he prays with and for the congregation to conform the church’s word to Christ’s Word, God’s grace is given and by faith his grace is received. And this is because these acts are done according to Christ’s blessing, in the Spirit’s work, and received through the gift of faith (WSC 89, 91). It is important to note here that the promise to our children is not qualified by our modifications of God’s worship. God does not say his commitment to our children only stands if the parents ensure their children’s perfect attention, memory, and response.
Parents certainly are responsible for how they train up their children in the covenant community of Christ’s church, helping them in worship on the Lord’s Day and throughout the six days of the new work-week to come. But parents certainly are not the Father, who chooses to give his children grace, nor the Son who is their grace, nor the Spirit who applies this grace. We remain at all times a tool of God, one of the chosen means that he has ordained to raise our children as members of the covenant community in the church, so that they would know their sinfulness, Christ’s forgiveness and imputed righteousness, and their grateful response to love others and love God. It is through God’s primary means of grace, when his body is gathered as one to receive the Word and sacraments of Christ’s grace in faith, that the Father has chosen to apply his grace to his church by his Holy Spirit. Let us not doubt his promises and invent our own strategies. Instead, let us trust in his covenant commitment, and rest in the means of grace he has provided.
Bryce Souve (M.Div, Westminster Seminary California) and is currently serving in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church as a licentiate.
