Know if my children should attend Sunday services?

Yes! And here’s why:

To be involved with the Christian formation is perhaps the highest privilege God could entrust to us. We are dealing with nothing less than the sacred.

As we consider Christian formation, it is important to consider that as a liturgical church, we believe that the heart of all formation is rooted in the liturgy. In other words, we believe that it is through worship, specifically in scripture and in the sacraments, that we may encounter Jesus Christ. Each Sunday a drama unfolds before us as we hear the sacred story – the story of God’s love for us. The liturgy, that is, the signs, symbols and ritual actions that comprise our order of worship, allow us to engage and become active participants in what might otherwise simply be a historical narrative. In some ways our liturgy is similar to the Passover ritual, where it is written, “Every Jew must consider oneself as having come out of Egypt, that is, actually present at the moment the Israelites gained freedom from Pharaoh. Similarly, as we proclaim the mystery of faith in our worship service each Sunday, we are saying that we are also present in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ today. As a result, Jesus can do for us, and we can do with Jesus today, what he has done and always will do. Our liturgy makes real for us events that would other-wise be simply historical and unreachable. The liturgy frees us from the restrictions of time and space so that we can be fully present in the sacred story this day.

As we think about the Christian formation of children, we need to keep in mind that children are capable of deep relationships with God. They often have an awareness of God’s presence that tends to be less encumbered by the baggage that we, as adults, carry around. They are able, in their own way, to see God in the drama of our worship. Nonetheless, some aspects of our worship service may be difficult for them, particularly the prayers and the sermon. However, there are ways of making these aspects of our worship service more accessible to them. We realize that all of these suggestions may not be helpful for all children but some of them may be useful for yours:

Bring a bible with a more easily understood translation to the service and encourage your child to read along using their bible.

If your children are too young to read, spend some time during the week, telling your child about at least one of the readings, perhaps the gospel, in the form of a story. On Sunday, some of what they hear in the readings will be familiar to them.

Discuss with your children the meaning of the prayers, perhaps focusing on just one phrase. For example, in the confession, what do we mean when we ask God for forgiveness for “not loving God with our whole heart”?  What does it mean to ask forgiveness for “things done and left undone”? What are some examples of those things for each of us?

If your children enjoy drawing, the liturgy is ripe with themes. Encourage your children to draw a scene from Jesus’ life, perhaps that depicted in the gospel reading, or of the Last Supper. Encourage them to draw a picture of something or someone that comes to mind from the Prayers of the People such as “people in their daily life and work, our families, friends and neighbors and for those who are alone”. Their drawing then becomes a form of prayer.

There are a myriad of other things that you can do to make the worship service more accessible and meaningful for your children. Perhaps the most important is to engage in ongoing discussions with your children about worshiping God, before and after the service and in between services. 
As you may know, for younger children there is a copy of the Sunday Paper available at the back of the church. If you have ideas, suggestions or needs regarding how to better engage your child during worship please speak to Pastor Cass.

(Suggestions provided by Tish Bailey)