Too Few Children in the Pew

http://creedorchaos.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/too-few-children-in-the-pew/
Too Few Children in the Pew
2009 September 22
by creedorchaos

I recently was out of town a couple of weekends ago and was unable to attend my home church, Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The only conservative church in the area and a near cousin of NAPARC churches was a Lutheran-Missouri Synod congregation. The message was mediocre compared to Escondido, but at least the pastor promulgated the gospel with ebullience. For the most part, I did not have many problems with the church.

My son, Jackson (2.6 years old), and I were the only ones from my family attending that morning. We walked into this very small church, and I was immediately struck by how few children were in the congregation in comparison with Escondido OPC. Jackson was sitting next to me like he always does on Lord’s Day mornings, but right before the pastor began to preach, some very nice lady, with a festive smile, came and asked Jackson if he wanted to go to Sunday School. Before I could say, “I would rather that he sit with me and hear the gospel,” the woman was walking away with his little hand in hers. Because I did not want to cause a big scene, I withheld my tongue. Looking back on it, I should have followed the woman outside and explained to her my position. Aside from the woman neglecting to ask me if it were okay to escort my son to a room I had never seen before, with my ignorance of exactly what will take place in this class, I have a huge problem with children (not just mine) leaving the collective assembly of the saints. Now the woman and most churches certainly have good intentions—that I certainly do not deny—but this relatively new phenomenon of segregating the church population during the general proclamation of law and gospel is not the biblical or historical standard.

Biblically, there is not a specific, New Testament passage that I could point to for an explicit example of children participating in the general gathering of the elect. I think that Paul definitely assumes it in Ephesians, when he addresses the children, admonishing them to honor and obey their parents. We find Jesus also instructing the disciples to refrain from barring children to come to him. The Old Testament practice never excludes but always includes children in religious observances on the Sabbath. Indeed, children received the sign of covenant membership in their circumcision—a marking that pictured their inclusion in the community. Perhaps this novel practice of fragmenting the church is a symptom of the overall ignorance of and/or apathy to the relationship between the Old and New Testament assemblies. One could go one step further and argue that the disjunction of the Old and New Testaments and the undo emphasis on the New Testament might be one cause of this age-based segregation. As far as I can see, the entire Bible advocates that all of the believers, both young and old, should gather together for general worship: to pray, partake of the sacraments, and to hear the gospel.

Historically, Sunday School is a modern invention. Simply because it is modern does not make it bad, but I do think that it should give us pause and make us cautious. According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, a British minister, Robert Raikes (1735-1811) successfully implemented a Sunday School program in 1780. Although there were earlier instances of Sunday Schools, Raikes was the first to make it nationally recognized in England. At that time, Sunday School generally did not take the place of the general gathering of the church community. By the early nineteenth century, Sunday School was a common practice in America. Today, it sometimes manifests itself as Children’s Church. In the Pentecostal churches in which I was nurtured, I rarely went to services with the adults. This frequent separation basically created two, distinct churches—a kids’ church and an adult church. The only thing that made them common was the building; at times, even the buildings were separated. I do not want to read too much into or misconstrue the architecture, but I do find it worth noting. It would be nice if church segregation stopped there, but it has not. Nowadays there are youth groups, college groups, young-marrieds, and seniors ad infinitum.

This division does more harm than good. It teaches children that they are not a vital part of the congregation, which in some churches is sadly true. However, my sense is that most churches value their children. The everyday church’s impulse to provide a place where children will connect with the church and stay with the church for many years to come is noble. But if ministers and parents want their children to connect deeply with the church, then they should stop allowing their children to be sent away during the most important part of the Christian life—the collective worship of the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am glad that I gather in a church where all the parents are looking for a way to keep their children in the service and where a cooing baby is a blessing. In this environment, my children will grow up feeling important and my guess is that they will stay in the church much longer than they would if they went to Sunday School in lieu of assembling with the whole community. Besides, the gospel is for children too, and there should never be too few in pew.
~Joshua