Whether or not to have children in the worship service with their parents and other adults is a “hot” topic of discussion today. The question being addressed today is:
Whether or not to change our current format of keeping the kids in the main service during worship, then dismissing to classes, OR have them go to class areas upon arrival.
My personal preference, and one I have been apart of, is to dismiss the children after worship, before the sermon. I know some churches that do this during the greeting time. In my scenario, the children were dismissed from the pulpit and we exited through a side door near the front of the sanctuary. I opted for that method and location for several reasons, but the main one was that the congregation could visually see how many children and volunteers were leaving, i.e. how many children were present and the volunteers it took to run the ministry. Some Sundays about 1/3 to 1/2 of the attendees left for children’s church!
I also like this format because it allows the children to be in the service seeing their parents worship and then getting an age appropriate lesson, which may or may not be the same message their parents are hearing.
I see two main reasons why a church might move from this format:
- Seating is becoming limited and by having the children meet in their rooms it frees up more space in the sanctuary.
- The dismissal of the children is seen as a disruption in the flow of the service
If seating is the issue, then a longer term plan needs to be discussed. What do you do in a couple of years when an additional service may need to be added?
If the dismissal is seen as a disruption, then is there a better way to dismiss them?
Are there other possible reasons why this move is being considered?
As the individual who posted the question noted, prayer is appreciated and needed in these decisions. It should not be a “knee-jerk” reaction, nor an individual preference, but rather part of a bigger picture, the direction that God is leading the church.
The question I always like to ask is, “Why?” Why is this move being made? How does it connect with the vision and direction God is moving this church? Do you have a peace from God about it?
There is no right way to do it. Churches handle this both ways well. There are several pros and cons that be discussed for either format. From my perspective, it comes down to how God is leading the church.
Sadly this could be one of those decisions that brings strife into the life of a church. When making this type of decision, staff/leadership need to be unified, truly unified, in the reasons behind the change and speak with a unified voice, publicly and privately.
Since the specific question is not if children should remain in the service the entire time, but rather when to be dismissed, I will leave the discussion here. Whether or not children should attend the entire service is another topic altogether that will be addressed in future posts.
If you have any thoughts, insights, or questions, then please feel free to comment below.
I have done both. Kids worshiped with adults until lack of seats was a problem. So kids got their own worship time. Since then, 2 more services have been added but kids kept to their own thing. About half of the kids don’t worship during the music. This really saddens me. About 4 times a year we have a big night of worship and testimony. I always look forward to this as an opportunity for those kids to learn from the asults, but they always end up goofing off in the hallways.
I look forward to your post about having intergenerational services, where children remain for the whole service. I have read about churches that do this and intentionally craft their services to reach across the generations. It is an idea I would like to explore more.