On children. And church. and other things.

This is gonna get long. I'm sorry.

This post started out because I read this:

Nursing-in-Public

After reading it, I sent my husband a message and explained to him how angry it made me.  I've had similar experiences in churches and I hurt for this sweet woman's heart that was broken over this.

When did we stop holding ourselves accountable for our own sin?  At what point did we decide to blame a woman FEEDING her baby on our impure thoughts?   And at what point did we decide that it was OK to feed our kid in the BATHROOM?   Hello??? Anyone hearing me?   Would you eat your breakfast in the bathroom??? I sure wouldn't!

I don't want to stop there though. I want to talk a little about WHY people feel that this ok. 

I followed a few rabbit holes and stumbled upon this little gem. (please note the sarcasm in calling it a gem)

Shut that kid up

Ok, now I'm all for children's ministry. Y'all lets be real. My husband and I are children's PASTORS.  But this made me MAD.   Not necessarily the incident itself. But the comments. The responses this got. HOLY COW!

It appears by reading this, that most people believe that children have no place in an adult service. PERIOD.

How can we expect our kids to model our behavior if we aren't showing them?   If we are wanting to teach kids to worship God, then why NOT let them watch us do it.  (Disregarding the fact that we SHOULD be teaching our children these things at home.)

Why is everyone so quick to point out that kids don't belong in church?

Funny, my babies when they were young ALWAYS went to service with me.  I loved our nursery staff, still do, but I just won't leave my babies. And to this day, I get comments on how well my children behave in big church.  DO YOU KNOW WHY???? Because they experienced it and we trained them to be respectful and to participate in a non-distracting way.

It is NOT the children's pastors responsibility to teach your children to worship. It's YOURS.  Don't get me wrong, we love what we do, and I love watching children grow in Christ. But it starts at home. It starts in watching YOU.   It starts by being a part of church and learning how to belong in a church. 

It's sad to me when I see older kids and teenagers who have no idea how to act in church once they graduate from the children's church age because they've never been exposed!

In our ministry, when we took over, we made it a point to let our pastor know that we wanted our kids to be involved in big church ever so often, and thankfully we serve with a great man of God who understands that desire and supports it and even encourages it while still encouraging our ministry.

Kids mimic what adults do.  Let's tie this all together here.   If you don't want kids in big church, do you think they're going to want to be there when they are no longer kids?   I doubt it. I highly doubt it.

Oh and if we make a big deal about someone feeding their baby in church... guess what, our kids will too. I think it's about time we step up and teach our kids about sin and being accountable.  We are each accountable for our own sin.

If we are teaching our kids that sin lies in our own heart and no one else can MAKE us sin. We're giving them tools to walk with Christ and SUCCEED for the rest of their lives.