End Children's Church?

During the breakout session at the most recent Resurgence Conference at Mars Hills Church in Seattle, John Piper begged the pastors in the crowd to shut down “children’s church” in their home churches and keep kids in the pews with their parents. I think Piper’s on to something. How can we expect children to make church a priority in their lives if we continue to shoo them out the sanctuary doors when the service begins? What do you think?

Getting A’s, obeying curfew, and wearing Polos doesn’t save anybody.

Abraham Piper has a good post on his blog about what society, and the church, thinks it means to be a well-adjusted teen.

It seems that wherever adults define cultural guidelines (i.e., schools, most churches, libraries), the decision about whether a young person is to be welcomed or not usually has more to do with how that teenager looks and behaves than an actual knowledge of who that youth is as a person. In general, adults not only don’t know the young people in their communities, but aren’t interested in taking the time to get to know them or what they’re interested in. All they want to know is whether or not a young person is going to disrupt what they have established - if so, they’re out, if not, then they’re welcome to stay.

It’s rare to find a teenager that will sit in a pew quietly for an hour and listen to an adult, who probably doesn’t know them, talk about why they should know God; and when they get “rowdy,” the common opinion is that those youth would be better off not attending the church service. I’ll take the rowdy teens over the sleeping old folks any day. Why? Because it’s not about me or delivering some message that I’ve prepared, it’s about getting to know people (regardless of age) and doing life together within the context of Christian community. Community can’t happen if the requirement for gaining acceptance is that you have to be like me. Is it any wonder why the church is so segregated and divided today?

Abraham says:”Understanding teenage rebellion only as sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll (may I add worship style preference?) implies that the goal is celibacy, sobriety, and employment. It’s not.

It’s Jesus.”

Amen.

Raising the Bar for Church Membership

Brain Metke, Senior Pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pell Lake, WI, has an interesting article over at Building Church Leaders about his experiences with leading a dormant church into exuberance by raising, not lowering, the requirements for new members. He says, “Our members are required to participate in at least one specific ministry, attend a weekly Bible-study class, and tithe regularly. We call it ‘intentional Christianity.’” You can read Metke’s article here.

The elders and staff at the church where I work have been discussing this very issue. What do you all think? What’s the best way to encourage people to get connected within the church, required participation or something more informal?