Children in the Church – specifically worship

A few Sundays ago I was sitting in church counting the number of children aged under 14. The conclusion was, in my estimation, that about half the congregation on that Sunday were in that age bracket. A church with so many children is truly blessed. Sadly, the astounding thing was that at no point during the service were they acknowledged, whether in the language and illustrations of the sermon, in the liturgy, in the choice of songs, in the prayers – nowhere was there a place for their young voices, hearts and minds to be included in the worship of God. The adults were acknowledged through all those activities – but the children weren’t. It was as if they didn’t exist.

Sunday worship is to bring communal praise and glory to God, and I would humbly suggest that God desires the worship of children and infants as much as he does of adults. It could be argued that their worship is even more important. Psalm 8:2 declares, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” It follows that those who lead worship have the responsibility and privilege to enable and empower the worship of children as well. This, I would have thought, should be even more clearly seen in a Covenant community where we acknowledge God’s goodness from one generation to the next.

Some argue that we have children’s Sunday School for that purpose. No doubt, worship occurs there too, but it isn’t the whole community of God coming as one family before Him.

There is a more critical reason to reflect on this. Children need to grow in the wonderful idea that they are part of the family of God and that they are important to God. Too many young people leave the church in their teenage or university years believing that there is no real place for them in church. Including and involving them in worship is one central way to make that leaving more unlikely. Why would one leave a family in which one’s involvement and membership is key to its purpose and function?

To have worship that includes all ages may be difficult and challenging but this is no reason to push it aside. It is a reason to sit down and work together to find rich and genuine ways in which all God’s children, young and old, fit and frail, men and women have a voice in the praise of their God – together.