THE IMPORTANCE OF OLD-FASHIONED WORSHIP

[Most of this article is based on an article written by Paul D. Lindstrom]

 

In our church, we believe in the whole family worshipping together. This is exactly what we find in the Bible (see Leviticus 8:2-3, 9; Deuteronomy 4:10; 31:11-12; Joshua 8:33-35; 2 Chronicles 20:13; Ezra 10:1; Joel 2:16). The God who moved John the Baptist to leap for joy in his mother’s womb can and does move children to worship and to grow in the knowledge of the truth.

 

If a child is not able to sit quietly during worship, we offer a cry room with windows and speakers which allow continued connection with worship.

 

How Churches Undermine the Family

 

Families today spend so little time together. The churches of our land have greatly, contributed to this problem over the past 30 years. Church calendars are filled with too many activities that separate the family all during the week. On Sunday mornings, that separation continues with children’s church, Junior church, teen church, etc. No wonder our families are having problems!

 

In C. S. Dobbins’ book, The Church Book, the author stares: “A mark of the decadence of our civilization is the decline of family worship. Its revival would be one of the most significant signs of spiritual recovery.” Yes, how very important it is to have family worship – at home and at church. The church down through the ages realized this, including America’s founding fathers, and it is only within recent years that the worship service has been “compartmentalized.” As a Young child I sat with Mom and Dad in church and, although there were many things I did not understand at that early age, the impressions received and lessons learned will never be forgotten. I am convinced that these important lessons could not have been duplicated in any other way. Family worship truly leads to a finer home atmosphere, especially as the parents take the time to discuss the worship service, songs, and messages with the children during the week.

 

Lois E. LeBar, a professor of Christian Education, has written as follows in her book, Children in the Bible School: “There is one scene which shall never be erased from my memory. It is as vivid today as it was in the days when I sat in the little country church by my grandmother’s side. For a brief two years of my childhood, I lived near by grandmother and attended the same church. For the most part it was a community of devout Christians. There seemed to be nothing short of death that could keep grandmother from attending services on Sunday. Not only was she there, but always among the very first few to arrive. She had her pew, as was the custom, and immediately on entering she went to her accustomed place. No, she didn't sit down and look around or visit with others who happened in early. She sat with head bowed and two little old wrinkled hands over her eyes. I can see her yet. There she sat pouring out her heart to God and preparing herself for the message which was to follow. It seemed so long as I waited for her to raise her head, that I might talk to her. But even then, somehow, without words she made me understand that church was a place to worship in quietness and not to converse.”

 

What Children Remember

 

For more than twenty years, Robbie Trent served as a Sunday school teacher. She has come to some very definite conclusions as they relate to young children and, in her book, Your Child and God, she shares many of her thoughts. Listed below are several ideas which result from her years of experience: “But the church service proper – is that for the child? Often he cannot understand the sermon. Sometimes he likes to listen to the preacher, sometimes he does not. So run the objections. Yet usually, these are not the child's objections, but the objections of some adult. Honestly, now, have you ever heard a criticism like that from a child, unless he had caught it from an adult? From his experiences in church the child gets a sense of something big, something worthwhile, a feeling of Somebody so great, so powerful, so loving that people come together to think about Him and talk about Him and to speak with Him. God is important. Grownups think so, too. The child absorbs easily certain attitudes and concepts both from the things he hears and from the things he feels as he sits with his father and mother in the church service. Even though he may not understand the words of the hymns, for instance, he gets a very real sense of well being from the music and from the worship of those who meet together. Sitting by mother and father in church where people speak often of God, the child comes to associate them with the thought of God and to feel that they have a relationship with God. "My mother and father know God," he feels. "I want to know Him, too." From the hymns of the church the little child catches a feeling. I grew up in a church that used stately old hymns, many of them with words and concepts that I could not understand. But I got a very real feeling from some of those hymns, a feeling that grew into a conviction. The child hears Bible reading at church – quite often beautiful Bible reading. This is no small thing. There is music and strength and power in the words of the Bible. There is wisdom and gentleness and love. I shall always remember with gratitude one old minister under whom I sat for some months. I have forgotten his sermons, but I shall never forget the way he repeated the words of the Psalmist. From a group of worshipping people deep in the experience of God's presence, the sensitive soul of a child catches something. He is influenced by that atmosphere. He, too, may feel that presence.”

 

Dwight L. Moody wrote: “There are many of us, who think our children are too little to be blessed. To me there is no more beautiful sight than a father and mother coming into a meeting with their children, and lifting their hearts silently in prayer that the blessing may come on their children.”

 

Yes, the promises of God are to us and to our children. May we parents take advantage of every opportunity to see our children grow in grace, including family worship on Sundays.

 

This is not to say it is wrong to use a nursery. However, I would agree, generally speaking, with the words of Colleen Dedrick, as found in The Little Book of Christian Character and Manners: “Church nurseries are a detriment to training little children. Let’s face it, babies and children are put in nurseries because they are noisy and do not sit still. How will a child ever learn if he is not made to learn quietness and practice it in public? Teach your babies to observe periods of quietness during the week, train them to respond to your commands to be still and quiet and they will be able to sit in the worship service with you on Sunday. Also, the courtesy of quietness is needed in many everyday situations, whether at grocery stores, Aunt Sally’s house, doctor’s offices, etc. This is showing respect for other people.”

 

Dr. R. Scott Clark, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, summarizes the matter: Jesus did not come to facilitate a happy, upwardly-mobile lifestyle and discipleship calls us to die to the mall and live to Christ. Yes, having children in church means it will be slightly less entertaining and possibly less moving emotionally. It’s a little harder to be enraptured by the latest chorus when your child is fidgeting next to you or someone else is wailing in your ear. That’s okay. Worship isn’t about your experience of religious ecstasy. It’s about hearing God and responding appropriately, according to His Word. God doesn’t mind that your emotional experience is less intense. He takes the long view. Your children will grow up not segregated from public worship and the means of grace. They’ll grow up a part of the community of the redeemed and watching baptisms (so they can see what happened to them). They see the supper administered and they’ll ask, “When can I have it?” They’ll hear the Law and the Gospel and they’ll grow up knowing that this is their identity, that it’s really true, that God said, “I will be your God and your children’s God.”

 

May God bless all the little ones He has given to our church family!