Pros and cons of family integrated worship?

Hi Janis!

This is and always has been one of my greatest pet peeves.

First lets look at the example of Jesus,

Matthew 14:19: And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass...

21: And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

Jesus didn't separate the men and/or women from the children. He never had James and John take the kiddies aside and tell them nicey nice bible stories with no power to effect a change in their lives.

God's Word is His power, His method of empowering us to bring about His goodness and truth in this earth.

Children can learn how to operate in God's Word even as youngsters through the same message that we as adults hear. To separate the children is to teach them to DEPART!

If your church is experiencing a departure of the youth then this is the first place that I would look.

An additional thought: Children making noise and misbehaving in the service can unnerve people and get them angry. It is very important that the adults be taught how to maintain order and adults without children yield to being helpful rather than getting upset and angry. Anger grieves the Holy Spirit...NOT Noisy Children. God designed children to make noise, they just need to be taught when it is acceptable and when it is not

I love the idea of having families be responsible for training their children in the ways of the Lord. The only caution that I might give to you is making sure that parents are equipped. So many Christians are unsure of how to teach their children the truths of the Bible. Actually, even many Sunday school teachers are unsure of how to do this effectively.

Perhaps you could have parents on a regular schedule which gets them helping with some of the classes that you already have scheduled. You could also have a special class for training parents on how to approach the Bible with their children.

Also, as far as children leaving the faith, I think it is important to help parents talk about difficult issues with their children in a non-judgmental fashion. For example, if the child has friends talking about masturbation, the parents should not act shocked and freaked out when the child brings it up. The child should feel safe and comfortable asking questions and the parents should feel comfortable approaching the topic with their children. That way, the kids are getting the straight-up truth from family, not the tainted version from their friends. When this happens, children are better equipped to make thoughtful decisions and less likely to leave the faith.

My church growing up although I went on Saturdays was similar. It had an average attendance of 30 or less though. I see no cons in integrated worship. Smaller groups are better for active discussions!

Well, family integrated worship may bring families together but too much getting along with a small church's attendents would make it somehow "isolated". May I ask what the denomination of the church that you attend is?

i detest any kind of worship, yet it probably will help kids not misbeahave

your really wastine your time cause there is no god