When the Church Won’t Let Kids In...

[GoldenEagle]

I read this today and wanted to get your thoughts... What do you think of this? Does this sort of thing happen in your church?

God bless,
GE

 

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When the Church Won’t Let Kids In

June 20, 2015

I want to be part of a church that welcomes kids.  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  Matthew 19:14  So if Jesus were preaching at your church today, do you think he would say, “Put them in a side room where they can watch church on TV and won’t make any noise or disturb anyone.”  That’s what happened to us on a recent church hunt.  We were on our way into the service when the attendant at the door noticed our baby carrier, stopped us and said, “Oh, you have a child with you?  Here.”  Then she proceeded to open a side door and motioned for us to go into the room.  “You can watch the whole service from here on TV.”

My husband quickly responded with, “We can’t go in the main room?”

“Well, we are taping the service and trying to cut back on background noise.”

My husband works with expensive recording equipment on a daily basis and knows that the background noise would be minimal with the kind of equipment this place was using. He took one look around the room and said to me, “I could watch church on TV at home.  I’m not sitting here for a whole hour and watching TV.  Let’s go get lunch.”

It was obvious from our disdain, especially my husband’s, that we weren’t pleased and we really wanted to be part of the main service.  Had our baby been crying or making any noise at all, that might have been another thing.  But we were new to the church, new to the area, and didn’t want to leave our not even 8 month old baby with complete strangers during flu season.  And when the attendant heard us and saw us starting to leave, she said nothing…not even sorry.

I understand the distraction babies cause.  They are cute and cuddly and like to coo.  People make silly faces at them when babies are at their best.  When the babies are crying and at their worst, they are even more distracting.  But life is just one big distraction anyway, isn’t it?  It’s up to us to focus on Jesus.  And babies are little people too.  So if we want them to go hang around The Word and other believers, shouldn’t that be allowed?

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 

Isaiah 55:10-11

If a church doesn’t want our baby when she is quiet and cute, they don’t want us.

Do you have any immediate red flags when you are looking for a new church for your kids?

http://www.minivanministries.com/church/let-the-children-come-to-me-or-at-least-to-church/

 

 

[ayin jade]

There is a mentally challenged adult who comes to our church. He is quite enthusiastic and often speaks out in church. He loves the Lord and is welcomed. 

We also have a child who is severely handicapped, drools, and makes noises. The mom pushes the child in his wheelchair in the opening song where the kids parade, and he gets to be part of the blessing spoken over the children. Sometimes he makes noises too. But he loves the Lord as well.

So what. The service isnt affected. They are there to love the Lord. To worship. He died for them as well as for me. I dont mind them. Most in church dont mind them either. The point of service is to worship Him as a body. Not to keep everyone quiet so that the pastor can be filmed. To me, that is limiting the Holy Spirit. Preventing folks who want to worship from being there. 

[Openly Curious]

No children in the church - No future for the church.   If the pastor wants perfection without reality.  Then perhaps he can film at another time of the day or week.

[Greenie]

My church has children in service. Sometimes the pastors wife will take them to children's church in the upper room but for the most part they get to be in the sanctuary.  Like Openly Curious said "no children in the church, no future for the church" i forget what verse or chapter its in but im pretty sure the bible says, train your children up in the way they shall go and they will not depart from it (someone correct me if im wrong) and somewhere else im sure it says As for me and my house we shall serve the Lord.  

[The_Patriot21]

well let me comment on one of the points in there, about putting them in a side room. IT makes churches who put in cry rooms out to be bad guys. Cry rooms arn't just there so the children dont disturb the service, they are often used by nursing moms who dont want to nurse in public (not saying thats wrong mind you) it allows them to do so and still hear the service. But, rowdy kids can be a distraction to the mother in service to-even if the people in the church dont mind the kids being rowdy and welcome it, they can still stress out mom and dad, and if they just take the kid to a cry room where they can cry and make noise and the parent can still get the service, they arent as stressed out. Having a area set aside for this isnt a bad deal. Now, I agree with the point of the article it can be misused-kids need to be, and have to be, welcome in the church. Our church has always welcomed kids during service and if they make a little noise its not a big deal, but were almost done with a building program, and we put in a small cry room in the back, just for that reason, if a parent has a noisy kid thats distracting them or a mother wants to nurse her child-they can do so, and still be part of the service. Theres no rules they have to go there, theyre not pushed to it, its just there if they want to use it.

[Openly Curious]

A cry room  I never heard it called that before just a nursery.  I agree with you couples shouldn't automatically be directed to the cry room if they've got kids when they enter the church they should be given the option of entering into the sanctuary to worship or enter the cry room by choice not force.  Cry rooms are necessary rooms to have in a church.

[GoldenEagle]

@OC & @Patriot
Perhaps this is a phenomena in the local churches in the USA? I don't remember most churches in S. America having cry rooms or nurseries. I guess it's a cultural thing though...

God bless,
GE

[The_Patriot21]

24 minutes ago, Openly Curious said:

A cry room  I never heard it called that before just a nursery.  I agree with you couples shouldn't automatically be directed to the cry room if they've got kids when they enter the church they should be given the option of entering into the sanctuary to worship or enter the cry room by choice not force.  Cry rooms are necessary rooms to have in a church.

lol no a cry room is seperate from a nursery. we have a nursery to where say, 1 and 2 year olds are watched by a volunteer during service. A cry room, is a room, usually connected to the sanctuary with a 1 way window where mothers can take the really young, especially nursing, children to, where they can let the kid cry or nurse the child, while still being able to see and hear everything going in in the sanctuary. the fancier churches have a room with no windows, but TV monitors showing a live feed.

[Openly Curious]

I've never been to a church that didn't have a nursery, a designated place where a mother could nurse her baby, change a diaper, or get an unruly child in order

[Openly Curious]

2 minutes ago, the_patriot2015 said:

lol no a cry room is seperate from a nursery. we have a nursery to where say, 1 and 2 year olds are watched by a volunteer during service. A cry room, is a room, usually connected to the sanctuary with a 1 way window where mothers can take the really young, especially nursing, children to, where they can let the kid cry or nurse the child, while still being able to see and hear everything going in in the sanctuary. the fancier churches have a room with no windows, but TV monitors showing a live feed.

Well thanks for clearing that up for me I've learned something knew.  I have seen both kinds of rooms before in churches but I don't have kids maybe that why I didn't know they was a difference.