Teaching Children To Worship With Adults

In many worship traditions, children are encouraged or expected to participate in corporate worship with adults. This article suggests ways in which children can be taught the meaning, structure, and significance of worship.

"Let's sit here so I can see."

"I like to sing this song." "Am I a 'child of the covenant'?" Children are heard more frequently now during corporate worship on Sunday. Catholic and Protestant churches alike are enjoying greater participation in worship by children under twelve years old. More of them are coming to worship and staying for much or all of the service. The presence of children in worship indicates adult interest and acceptance; our Christian churches may be moving toward genuinely intergenerational worshiping communities. Along with the blessings that come with the joyful inclusion of children in worship has also come some confusion of practice. Adults worry that children, many of them preschool age, are not able to follow the flow of worship or understand the significance of its actions. Worship leaders worry that they do not communicate with children nor know how to accommodate to their levels of interest and knowledge. Parents are concerned about their children's behavior during services that seem beyond their attention span and designed more for adults than for children. And many adults quite frankly do not wish children to be present to interrupt and distract sacred and solemn worship. Is it appropriate to include children in the congregation's corporate worship? If so, how can this be done so that the integrity of worship is not violated, and the interests of children honored? Starting with Theology Any consideration of how worship is done must start with theological understandings. To start anywhere else is to risk serious diminution of the integrity of worship. The theses listed below attempt to state some of the theological principles that inform our worship practice.

"¢ God is the primary and central focus of worship.

"¢ Worship is receiving God's grace. "¢ Worship is giving thanks to God. "¢ Worship is the service of the people rendered to God. "¢ Worship involves participation by all the people. "¢ Children are a part of God's people. "¢ Worship includes all the people of God, including children. "¢ Children need worship. "¢ All the people of God, including children, are nurtured by worship. These statements suggest three general areas of theological concern: the church, worship, and ministry.

The church is the koinonia, the fellowship or community of faith, called into being by Jesus Christ. This community is inclusive. Its membership is not self-determined, but established by Christ. Christ called all kinds of persons into his koinonia. To fulfill the koinonia, we need to include children. While at worship, the koinonia falls short of its nature and identity if it excludes children. Children belong.

But worship is participatory. All the people, and not just those appointed to be liturgists, join in the offering of praise and thanks, in the expression of repentance and of need, and in the dedication of life and work to the glory of God. Participation goes far beyond intellectual assent to include the heart and the will. A worshiper's whole body—whole person—is involved. In a congregation, the persons who may be the most whole participants are the children. When children say, "?Thank you, God,?" they say it freely and fully. The vital participation of children in the community's worship helps all who are present to participate freely and fully. The ministry is shared. Not only do adults minister to children by caring for, nurturing, and teaching them; children also minister to adults. A telling example of the ministry of children is provided in the several stories of Jesus and children. Jesus reminded adults that their faith must be like that of a child's—received as a gift from God and responded to in direct, simple trust. A child's faith is a gift, not earned through knowledge or good works. A child's response is not very sophisticated; it is simple, trusting, and sincere. Children witness to these truths and exemplify for the whole church the nature and quality of faith. This type of witness is needed in the worshiping community. Developmental Understandings Basic knowledge of how human beings develop mentally and socially indicates that children are not at the same developmental stage as are adults. Adults can deal with abstractions, symbols, and historical references. Adults can sit and listen for fairly long lengths of time. Adults, even when they feel one way, can express themselves in another, more socially acceptable way. On the other hand, children think concretely. Preschool children think one idea at a time and are not prone to fashion whole sequences or to see more than one meaning in a given object, action, or idea. They see an object for what it is on the surface, and not for its implied, symbolic meanings. A butterfly, for example, will remind a child of the Resurrection not because it symbolizes metamorphosis, but because the child has been told this meaning by a person whom he or she trusts. We all know that young children need to stand up or move about after every few minutes of sitting still. Older children begin to take individual ideas and actions and relate them into meaningful wholes. They understand how one activity follows another, and why. The fact that certain people lived and did important things can be understood in terms of historical sequence. Younger children ask about the what; older children understand the why. A liturgy makes sense to older children. Those who plan and conduct worship need to keep it concrete, tangible and orderly, so that children can participate with some sense of understanding and security. The pace, movement, and drama of the liturgy should be expressed, so that children can be involved. If not during worship, then whenever children gather, there need to be explanations of the liturgy. Objects need to be given names; actions need to be demonstrated and explained; and ways of participating need to be practiced. Given the richness and mystery of the liturgy, children will engage in it according to their abilities. While no child—or adults, for that matter—will participate as one who fully understands the meaning and power of the liturgy, each child who is a part of the worshiping community can derive many meanings and personal benefits. Each child can contribute to the community's ability to worship. On the one hand, we should be sensitive to the abilities of children and conduct worship so that they have a chance to participate meaningfully. On the other hand, we are confident that worship is not age-specific. Persons of all ages need worship and can benefit from and contribute to worship. The liturgy nurtures us all. We all need opportunities to praise God, to seek forgiveness and be assured of pardon, to hear God's Word, and to respond to God by the giving of ourselves in total commitment. In all these activities, children, as well as adults, can function with meaning and integrity. The grace given through the sacraments, especially through the Eucharist, is for all of God's children, young and old alike. Old and young are together, the community of faith. How Children Participate Once it is agreed that children can participate in worship, there remains the practical question, "?How??" In many congregations, particularly in churches with much liturgical freedom, children are encouraged to participate at the point of the preaching of the Word. Thus, many churches practice what is called a children's sermon. This activity usually comes just before the Scriptures are read and the homily or sermon is preached. The children's sermon, usually a story or simple lesson, sometimes takes on moral force, when the preacher says, "?The point of this story is … ?" or something along these lines. The sincerity of children's sermons may be appreciated, but the practice must be questioned. There is no encouragement for such a practice in Scripture or tradition. It is doubtful if children can comprehend symbols or objects used to illustrate a point. Indeed, they are often confused when asked to think of a theological truth in terms of objects, such as a jar full of jellybeans or a flock of sheep. The gravest concern, however, is for the children's sermons that offer moralisms, rather than the gospel. A children's sermon does not, in fact, include children in the corporate worship, but subtly isolates them by giving them two or three minutes of special time during an otherwise adult-oriented service. It is helpful for congregations to listen to their best educators in order to identify appropriate ways for children to participate as much as possible in every act of worship. Reading Scripture need not be limited to one form. Dramatic readings, simple retellings of the story, body movements or pantomime to illustrate the readings, and similar dramatizations are possible. Even when the homily is short, it is not heard by every worshiper in its entirety. If this is recognized and admitted by preachers, they can then relax a bit and not feel the that the homily must be heard in its entirety by each child. It is sufficient if even one illustration, image, or idea makes its impression on a young person. Any sermon, however sophisticated, can have some material that a child can appreciate. The entire congregation will respond to the preacher, who makes it a custom to introduce the sermon with examples from the lives and experience of children. There are many ways that children can participate in worship. Examples include the reciting traditional material such as the Our Father and the creed, coming forward to surround a child being baptized, providing music by singing or with simple instruments, serving as greeters and ushers, singing hymns, putting money in the offering plate, and standing, sitting, and kneeling at appropriate times. Children can take part in the acts of worship that are well within the bounds of tradition. Where a congregation engages in forms and styles beyond tradition, there are numerous ways children can take part and contribute, with banners, processions, pantomimes, movements, handclasps, and hugs. Helping Children Worship The modern church can learn about teaching religion and worship to children by consulting its ancestors. In the centuries before Christ, the people of God practiced a naturally religious life. From the time of birth—when a child's identity was reinforced by such marks as circumcision or the planting of a tree—to the daily observances of prayers of gratitude and supplication, to the celebrations of the festivals, a child was exposed to worship. Particularly instructive to us is the pattern of the seder in which the young child asks questions—"?Why is this night different from all nights??"—and the parent answers with explanations. An apprentice model was used to teach children who they were and how they could express their faith. A questioning child participated in religious activities in the company of a knowledgeable adult. Learning was by doing, with patient guidance. Specific acts were learned in the context of a worshiping family and a worshiping community. One contemporary congregation recognizes children as full participants in worship as soon as they reach school age. In a ceremony that invites the children to become responsible worshipers, the church gives them a gift, a hymnal—not a Bible which they cannot read yet, but the tool that they need as worshipers. The children are then incorporated into the children's choir, where they receive careful instruction about worship in ways that are enjoyable and understandable for six-year-olds. Their parents attend an orientation session that prepares them to teach their children how to pray and worship at home and how to encourage their children during corporate worship. Children and parents engage in a "trip through the church," in which, with small suitcase in hand, they follow the instructions on their "ticket" to go to various places in the church. A portion of the ticket (it is a long ticket) leads the family to a pew, where they all sit while an older member explains what a pew is. Another portion of the ticket may lead to the choir loft, or to the baptismal font, or the lectern, or to some symbols that are to be explained. At each destination, handouts are distributed for use at home to continue the learning about worship. Two general areas of education about worship can be considered. First, children need to learn specifically how to worship. Much of this takes place outside of worship in the classes and other gatherings of children in the church. Such teaching can be designed to meet the exact developmental stages of the several ages of the children of the church. The other area might be called a "?climate for worship?" and would include the need to teach adults, as well as children. The whole congregation can be shown the validity and value of having children in corporate worship. Parents can be given specific methods and resources for helping their children in worship. Parents, teaching their children how to worship in the pews, need to be freed from the usual anxieties and nervousness that parents feel when they sit with their children in the pews. Adults can be shown that children participate with meaning and enthusiasm in worship and contribute to the welfare of the whole congregation. Worship planners and leaders—pastors included—can be apprised of good examples and useful resources. To know that children's participation in worship is possible and that pastors can facilitate this participation without embarrassment or threat to themselves or to the liturgy is most encouraging to otherwise reluctant pastors. Nurturing and Caring Children, who are a part of the worshiping community, gain not only in terms of becoming worshipers. Worship also becomes a means of nurture and pastoral care for participants. Through experience, parents and children alike learn again and again of the gracious love that God has for them. Sincere worship leads to deeper relationships with God and to greater concern for the people of the world. Children, as well as adults, go to worship to praise God, and find that they depart from worship with a sense of faithfulness and mission. Pastors and church leaders can support young worshipers and their parents with pastoral care. Listening for questions about worship may lead to hearing statements of concern. Pastors may find occasions to help parishioners with matters of a relationship with God, which are brought to surface through experiences of worship. Children become involved in the realization of sinfulness, of God's reaching out to them, of the support of the community, of God's call to them, and of their need to respond to the call. These are worthy matters for pastoral conversations and visits. It is entirely possible that when children become worshipers, they also become participants in the pastoral ministries of the church. For too long adult Christians have considered children either as nuisances to be set aside or as immature humans in great need of adult teaching. Now, we realize what Jesus may have meant when he said, "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God." (Matt. 19:14). Children are God's messengers to us. They help us to be the church. They help us to worship. They minister to us. With their help as fellow worshipers, we may renew our worship and our church life. Thank God for children!