Just Wondering

A few years ago I was praying about the kids in our ministry and I began to wonder: how are our kids learning to worship? Worship is not a component of Sunday Fun, and even before the pandemic our kids were only in worship for 15 minutes. Most children in 5 th grade moved from the kids’ ministry to youth ministry having never participated in a full worship service except on the rare occasion. How does this impact the faith development of a child? Are other churches dealing with this question? If so, how? What does God have to say on the subject? Answers to these questions are not as easy to find as one might imagine, so now I am reading textbooks and writing papers and meeting semester deadlines. Again. As Bethany’s Children’s & Family Ministry pastor, your children’s spiritual development and equipping you as their primary spiritual leaders are my two greatest concerns. Learning to worship is vital for holistic spiritual development, so I think it’s critical to pursue wisdom and understanding about how kids learn to worship. Scripture tells us that God’s vision for worship is that all of God’s children will practice it, not just the grown-ups. And Jesus even tells us that we might learn something from our youngest worshipers! Beginning Palm Sunday (April 10 th ), our kids will once again join us in the 9:30am service for about the first 15 minutes. So it seems to me that this is a great time to start unpacking a little about kids and worship and kids in worship, how God is leading me to appreciate and share what I’ve learned so far and how we might realize kids’ worship practice at Bethany. I look forward to writing more about it over the next few weeks, and I am so excited by the new things God might do through this! ❤ Cathy