Aug
13
The Role of Children within the Church
Children can and should play a role in the life of the church as well as in the church meeting. Children have much to offer to one another and to adults and neglecting them is neglecting a part of the body of Christ.
Consider this:
- Jesus welcomed the children to come to Him (Matthew 19:14), to essentially interact with Him and love on Him, and He sought to bless them. Because this is essentially what we do in our church meeting it is reasonable to expect God to desire that from the children as well as the adults.
- Jesus encouraged his followers to have the faith of a child (Matthew 18:3). It is hard to emulate the faith of a child when you do not see and experience the faith of a child. Having children in worship allows for that.
- Children are persons, within unique ideas and personalities. Each child is a unique expression of their Creator is therefore highly valued. And, each child, as a person can interact with the Lord through the Spirit and offer thoughts, ideas, and praises, etc. during the meeting from the Spirit.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been blessed by my children or others during our church meeting. Sometimes a child will have a song to share, or a picture that they have drawn about the Lord or a prayer. Sometimes they will just dance before God in worship. These acts have often brought me to tears and profoundly ministered to many people within the church. Time and again we have all seen how God uses children to speak into our lives in ways that no adult can.
Children can follow the Lord, and because of this they have a place within church life and within the church meeting.
Here is another great post elaborating on this topic a bit more.
Open Church Meetings
Posted by adamwalker
