Children in Worship.

When it comes to integrating children in worship, what is your approach? Read the following and see where you fit.

"Many congregations will claim to have a concern for the inclusion of children in worship. What this precisely means however, will vary greatly. For some congregations, this merely represent a wish for children to be bodily present in corporate worship, with no particular desire to modify practices of worship in any way to reflect the presence of children. Children are there to learn what it means to worship like adults, and to grow into "appropriate" forms of behaviour. We might call this a locative view of children in worship.

For other congregations, including children in worship means additions to the forms and environment of worship to make it more palatable to children. This is commonly done through the use of children's sermons, children's choirs, activity sheets and "busy bags" for children. However there is no essential change to the basic practices of worship. We might call this a supplemental view of children in worship.

There are far fewer congregations who have gone beyond this point to embrace children as equal participants in the whole of worship, experimenting with the entirety of worship and its settings to fully involve children as members of an intergenerational worshipping community. We might call this an integrative view of children in worship.

Beyond these congregations there is of course another grouping: those congregations which have effectively taken the view that corporate worship is not for children, excluding children from involvement through parallel programming. In these congregations, Sunday school takes place at the same time as worship, and there are frequent nurseries for caretaking of the youngest of children during worship services. Children may be present for sections of the service, but then are enjoined to depart so that the adults can get on with the "real" business of worship... the basic message given is that "real" worship is the province of adults." (By Greg Priebbenow, Toward an Integrative View of Children in Worship.)

Where are the children?
What approach does your church take? We too believe that children are integral as members of the church yet, what does this really mean for the practice of our Sunday services? What might an integrative approach look like? How would it be different to other approaches? Is it worth considering?