What age?

[Miri]

Ok may be it shows my issues more than my son's in the way I worded things.

Basically we have two Sunday services one at 9.30 the other at 11.15, with coffee for both services from 10.30 till 11.15. Originally we had one Sunday morning service but as numbers grew the church building became two small so we started to have two services.

As a family we prayerfully considered which service to attend and we felt lead to join the 9.30 congregation. This was when my husbands health was better, he also used to play in the worship group before his health deteriated, unexpectedly. He know struggles to get to the 9.30 service. Also as our son has got older it is harder to crow bar him out of bed, not an issue when he was little.

Oh I go to Church, for a number of reasons including the desire to worship God with His people, for fellowship, to here preaching and to be actively involved in Church life. The service is relatively family friendly with a weekly kids talk each week. Most Sunday's the children go out to kids club which is geered for 4 to 11's. As it is a single class the teachers are struggling with the breadth of the age group. It would be difficult to divide the group as the congregation is small, and to take out additional teachers would be impractical. Sometimes I find the service a bit of a test of endurance.

It was suggested last Sunday that certain kids would be asked if they wanted to stay in the Service and provide material so they could follow the sermon. My son is 9, and when asked he said he would be happy to stay in the service however I wonder how much he would get from the service. Oh and yes my son does enjoy going to Church and youth group. I am kind of sad that he will not benefit from the potential teaching he would have received at Sunday school. When we just had a single service the Sunday school was amazing.

Hi maybe as a church you all need to discuss this together and how to best served the
congregation/families etc

In my current church where we have two services. The Sunday school and youth workers
attend the first service then they run the schools and youth stuff through the second service.
That means the families mostly attend the second service. (Although others go as well).
It works out well, the volunteers don't feel they are missing out in church and the families
can go to the second service without worrying about their children.

Maybe this is something your church could consider.

It may be the case that as a church you need to pray into raising up more workers
so Sunday school can be split into different age groups. It's good to hear the church is
growing with the need to now have two services, the workers need to grow and come
forward as well.

 

[notmyown]

Hi notmyown,

We also belonged to a church similar to that.

There was no Sunday school which seemed strange because we had never encountered a church like that.

When church began we all joined in, kids and parents and it worked well also. The youngest could go to the nursery up until two years old I think it was.

If there was an issue, everyone knew they could take their child to the nursery room and they had the sermon wired so that the mother could hear it while she was taking care of her child.

It worked really well and we liked the fact that our kids were with us. I think it's nice for the kids to feel it's family worship time and they get to be a part of it and watch their parents worship as their example to follow.

we had a Sunday School program that included kids up to the end of sixth grade (~age 12, Pilkington).
i taught in it off and on for years and years, and enjoyed every minute. we also had a mother's room that looked out onto the sanctuary from above and behind it for moms who were nursing or had a fussy little one. both were wired similarly to yours in that you could hear what was happening in the service.

we were one of half a dozen families who chose not to avail ourselves of Sunday School and the nursery... not that we felt there was anything wrong with doing that, of course.

lol.... when the kids got older, we had "question and answer time" after church to see what they had... well, let's say heard.

it was always more than i expected.

 

[notmyown]

Hmmm, You have something there in "What he gets out of it depends on what he wants to get out of it" thats scarry as a parent, it says to me I am not in control. I think I need to trust God and see how things go, if I didn't want to give him the option I shouldn't have asked him. If he wants to give sitting in Church a go then I should let him.

I think it is the feeling of the goal posts have moved in that when we had a single service he would have had the option to continue going to Sunday school until he was 16 possibly 18. As well it is the scarry feeling he is growing up.

It also made me think about my journey of coming to the Lord, or should I say the Lord drawing me to himself. I used to go to a Brethren Church's Sunday school with the neighbours grandkids. By 11 I had got board of Sunday school and stopped going. I became a Christian when I was 18.

trust God... you're on to something here.

it would be scary as a parent to think we're in control of what the Lord does with our kiddos. (i've ridden that bus, lol)
also, i want to admit i don't think today's nine year olds are the same as they were in the 1980s. in my mind, this makes your job harder, but i honestly don't know, experientially.

i was thinking as i read through the thread, what does a new believer "get out of church"? or an unbeliever, as we all know there are some there.
but God chose the foolishness of the message preached to bring His children to Himself, and it's through that same message we grow in Christ, in part. no Christian ever, ever outgrows their need for the Gospel, right?

may i pray for you and your family? i would be honored to do so.

 

[notmyown]

With 12 our children are finnish sunday school. I dont know how it is in Britain ore US, but it seems me that the view for a child has changed. He is becoming more and more the middlepoint everywhere. Sitting in an sunday service has also to do with discipline for every age. But when they should learn to be quiet and listening? In age of computer and smartphone this is difficult for teens and twens too. And I would expect from a preacher that he has all who are listening in his view, when he shares the word of God. To seperat young and old to long i personelly not find uesefull for a community.

i agree.

but we're not speaking badly about kids having cell phones are we?
if they didn't, i'd have no idea how to use mine. haha

 

[Depleted]

i agree.

but we're not speaking badly about kids having cell phones are we?
if they didn't, i'd have no idea how to use mine. haha

They make decent paperweights.

 

[JesusLives]

What age should children sit through the main service at Church? Kind of looking for opinions.

Not sure I'm 62 and I still fidget sometimes.....

 

[JesusLives]

Was fortunate at one church to have a service that the teens lead out in their own church service and the younger kids went and would listen with them several parents stayed and supervised but kids listen to kids and they were learning about the Bible too as the teens had to be prepared to give the kids sermon... It was a win, win situation for all.

Also as a teen the church I attended were also very big into teaching us to lead our area and I taught and did lots of things as a teen it sure helped to teach me how to be a leader as an adult....I think I enjoyed it more as a teen than an adult... Kids are great at leading when they are taught to do so.

We have even had young ones 8 years give sermons before and they were good too. Holy Spirit working.

 

[Pilkington]

trust God... you're on to something here.

it would be scary as a parent to think we're in control of what the Lord does with our kiddos. (i've ridden that bus, lol)
also, i want to admit i don't think today's nine year olds are the same as they were in the 1980s. in my mind, this makes your job harder, but i honestly don't know, experientially.

i was thinking as i read through the thread, what does a new believer "get out of church"? or an unbeliever, as we all know there are some there.
but God chose the foolishness of the message preached to bring His children to Himself, and it's through that same message we grow in Christ, in part. no Christian ever, ever outgrows their need for the Gospel, right?

may i pray for you and your family? i would be honored to do so.

Thank you for offering to pray for me and my family, I would really appreciate your prayers

 

[Miri]

We have a TV programme over here called countdown, the contestants
basically are given a list of numbers and a figure. They have to make that
figure out of the numbers i.e.

164 + 2 x 7 - 87 = the figure.

However.....I invented countdown long before it came on the TV.
As a 9 year old in the main church service, I would think of a number and try to make
the hymn numbers displayed on the board, add up to that number!

Another hobby was to look at the contents of the hymn book at the back and find hymn no 1,
then 2, than 3 etc and see how far i could get by the end of the service. No easy feat since the
hyms were listed alphabetically!

I also use to count the number of fins on the radiators in the room.

Plus count the number of benches and how many people could fit on each bench and work out
how many people could theoretically be seated in the church, then count how many were
actually there etc.

Oh and then there was the game of finding the matching pattern on the carpet, which was
repeated every few metres.

Basically I was board stiff! But at least I learnt how to do maths in my head at an
early age. !

Then later I started going to Sunday school and my maths lessons came to an end. Lol

 

[notmyown]

We have a TV programme over here called countdown, the contestants
basically are given a list of numbers and a figure. They have to make that
figure out of the numbers i.e.

164 + 2 x 7 - 87 = the figure.

However.....I invented countdown long before it came on the TV.
As a 9 year old in the main church service, I would think of a number and try to make
the hymn numbers displayed on the board, add up to that number!

Another hobby was to look at the contents of the hymn book at the back and find hymn no 1,
then 2, than 3 etc and see how far i could get by the end of the service. No easy feat since the
hyms were listed alphabetically!

I also use to count the number of fins on the radiators in the room.

Plus count the number of benches and how many people could fit on each bench and work out
how many people could theoretically be seated in the church, then count how many were
actually there etc.

Oh and then there was the game of finding the matching pattern on the carpet, which was
repeated every few metres.

Basically I was board stiff! But at least I learnt how to do maths in my head at an
early age. !

Then later I started going to Sunday school and my maths lessons came to an end. Lol

look what the Lord did for you when you were nine and learning math!

 

[OneFaith]

What age should children sit through the main service at Church? Kind of looking for opinions.

I think the nursery is for ages four and under, if needed. But that you should try to have your child sit in the pews with you from age newborn on up. But if your child is disrupting the worship service, and people are looking at your child instead of focusing on the sermon, then you should take your child out of the worship service, no matter what their age, for as long as needed. This is why parents of young children tend to sit in the back. I got so used to sitting in the back that I still do, even though it's no longer necessary.