An intentional children’s time is a great opportunity to include our younger disciples in the worship service. However, it is too often the only time children are included. The solution: make this and (eventually) the whole service intergenerational!

The Story So Far

This summer, I’ve focused on how the church can and should be more welcoming, inclusive, and expansive. We need to do what we can to eliminate the differences between “insiders” and “outsiders.” In the last few weeks, I have been looking at the worship service, as it is the primary access point to your congregation for “outsiders” (newbies) and the primary faith formation opportunity. Newbies—the uninitiated—can include visitors, children, and youth, anyone who doesn’t fully know what is going on. The solution must include education, so it is an issue for Christian educators in addition to pastors and worship leaders.

Last week, I specifically looked at the importance of teaching the meaning of the language of faith we use in the service, especially in any traditional liturgy. This week’s target is the children’s sermon.

Benefits of the Children’s Sermon

The children’s sermon—or whatever name you choose to give it—is a time for the pastor or another person to simplify a concept or story, generally aimed at an early elementary audience. I have known many children who love this time—a time to be the focus of a leader’s attention and to physically move in the service. I have also heard that children are not the only worshippers who appreciate the simplification of the children’s sermon. Adults can find this engaging and valuable, too.

For the Children

However, these benefits also hint at some of the problems of the children’s sermon and the rest of the worship service. Often, this is the only time we specifically include children in the worship service. By designating a specific time for children, we communicate that the rest of the service is not for children. Or, rather, the children’s sermon is an admission that children are not included in the rest of the service. I’ve even heard the complaint from a kid that “the worship service is only for adults.”

Including the Adults?

Second, if adults are finding this children’s time valuable, what does that say about the rest of the service? It overstates the point to say that this means that the rest of the service is boring or inaccessible. That (generally) not true. But it does indicate that a simplified teaching time can also be engaging to an older demographic.

Intergenerational Worship

The way I see it, these two problems point to an opportunity, a solution of sorts: intergenerational worship. I’ve gone into much more detail on this in the past but, simply put, intergenerational worship is worship we consciously design to engage all ages together (building relationships across generations). Here, we can look at this as two steps.

The first step is somewhat minor and doesn’t necessarily require a lot of congregational buy-in. Simply make the “children’s sermon” explicitly intergenerational.

• If your goal is to make the Bible passage more accessible, call it some version of “story time.” If the person who is leading this time doesn’t already know how to tell a story in an engaging way, train them (or yourself) how to do so.
• If your goal is to teach or explain something (for example, the meaning of different parts of the worship service), then direct this teaching to everyone—though do allow kids to come up front or whatever you do!

Expanding Worship

The second step takes more work. It is to adapt more and more of your worship service toward intergenerational worship. We should design worship to be accessible and engaging to all ages and stages: children, youth, and adults; newbies and established members alike. You leverage your most popular, most regular event to be an effective faith formation experience for everyone and build a strong community across generational lines.

Children, visitors, and others who are not engaged in worship or don’t have positive relationships with other worshippers will feel like they don’t belong. They will generally attend worship because they are forced to (by families, a sense of obligation, or even guilt). If those pressures are removed, then they will likely stop coming because they weren’t really present to begin with.

Small Congregations

To plug intergenerational worship (and intergenerational ministry in general) further, this can be beneficial for small churches that might not have the “critical mass” of children or youth to create full-fledged children or youth programs. Not having a solid children’s/youth ministry will make it harder for families with children/youth to feel welcome and engaged and won’t come. This leads to a cycle of stagnation or even shrinking. Intergenerational worship can be done even if there aren’t many children or youth and help visitors to feel like there is a place for them, too.

Christian Educators

As I’ve mentioned the past few weeks, this movement should include Christian educators/youth ministers (even if you are not the one to give children’s sermons). You know—or can easily find out—whether your age group is engaged in worship or not. And you can advocate to your pastor and/or worship leaders toward more expansive worship. You can also spend some of your contact time teaching about worship as well as the Bible.

In the love of Christ,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

2021-2022 Faith Formation Resources

Our Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary products for the upcoming 2021-2022 program year are now available for download. Find out more!

• Home Faith Formation for the Narrative Lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary
• Resources for the Narrative Lectionary (products for all ages)
• Resources for the Revised Common Lectionary (home-based and intergenerational classroom)
• Cross+Generational Confirmation with an optional online community
• Worship and Liturgy Education
• Information page: Our Products and COVID-19.

Stay updated by liking our Facebook page, subscribe to our e-newsletter, or follow this blog!