Is God Crazy? Dispelling the fears!

So I left off chatting about including the children during the entire morning.  What do you think is one of the biggest fears people have when it comes to including kids with the adults?  I think there are a number of fears but here are a few; they will be a distraction, they wont understand what we are talking about, and parents wont be completely authentic with how they are really doing.  For this post I'm just going to address those three questions.  (No expert here, just learning as we go.  I am just trying to be open, flexible and figure out how families can worship together)

1.  They will be a distraction - This has everything to do with perspective.  Kids make noise, the younger ones especially, but that's what kids do.  Who cares?  Let it go.  Be flexible.  I told everyone in the beginning that as we walk together as families, its going to take patience but if we believe that we should celebrate together, then let's celebrate together.  Much of this has to do with how the leader facilitates the discussion.  This takes added effort to ask questions to the kids as well, and perhaps adding in an object lesson.  This is all new to me so I need to be reminded over and over again to try the object lessons...but once we get the kids involved, asking them questions, doing a object lesson or showing a quick 1 min video, you've got their attention.  

Let's flip it around.  Talking about distractions from kids...how about distractions from adults when "we're" preaching?  Oh man!  You wouldn't believe how distracting it can be when you've put in hours of work, studying, praying, dialoging with the Lord and others in prepping a sermon, and then when you deliver it, you see people, sleeping, or on their cell phones, or get up frequently to "go to the bathroom...." I would rather have the joyful noises of the children then look up and see people sleeping or texting their friend for the score in the hockey game!!!  Interesting...  So kids aren't distractions! That is just how they are, some more active than others but that's where it flexibility comes in...eg.  If I am asking a general question about something and a child just blurts out an answer or has a question from 5 min earlier, I welcome the question.  I don't always do this, but I need to remind myself (be flexible).  Cater to the children!  What can we learn from them?

2.  They won't understand what we are talking about - um, seriously???  Us adults don't give kids nearly enough credit.  They actually believe a lot quicker than us over sophisticated, over-thinking adults.  Here's the thing.  The question isn't, what can the kids learn from the adults, though that is part of it, but what can the adults learn from the kids.  There is no dumbing down of the Word or questions needed.  The simpler the question, the easier it is for everybody (kid AND adults) to answer.  Just yesterday, one of the kids was answering a question, and another child, who was colouring and even talking with another child, blurted out a comment that had everything to do with what the girl was answering.  A quick reminder that kids listen are very attentive and can multitask doing it.  I'm jealous!  One more thought here.  Children adapt VERY easily and usually quite quickly.  I have found that the ones who have a harder time adapting to change are the adults.  Something to think about.

3.  Parents/others wont be completely authentic with kids around - Parents and others wont be completely authentic WITHOUT children around either!  However, adults can go to certain levels of authenticity in regard to daily struggles and regular battles that we have in life.  What does this do?  It gives our children a great example of what humility looks like in community.  It's one thing to be open in your home with your own family but to be open (to certain levels) in community is something else.  It shows our children the need that we have for community and that we can't do it on our own.  Something else it will show our kids is how consistent we are in living.  Is who we are on a Sunday morning the same person during the week?  Excellent question.  We can be great examples to our children in how humble we are toward one another in a home group setting.  

Saludos

n8