Recently a congregation I am familiar with had an article concerning those who have small children. The preacher stated in the article that it would be best if those that have small children sit on the back pews due to children sometimes being noisy and having to be removed from the auditorium. In fact, the preacher’s wife trotted clear across the auditorium and tried to forcefully take a child from their parents. She wanted to take the child out and play so as not to disturb the congregation. Of course, the child only had a minor problem for a couple of minutes. I’m wondering what those on the list would do if presented with this same situation.<\/p>\n
Many years ago I experienced this same type of treatment from a concerned member. I told them I would take care of my own child. Of course, it caused problems. The person was only trying to “help”. Again my experience has been that those trying to help just want to get out of worshiping and go back to the nursery and play.<\/p>\n
Does anyone have an article or Scriptures that would help?<\/p>\n\t
Each time children are mentioned in context with Jesus, he does not chastise or condemn them.\u00a0 Matthew 19:13-15 says, “Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.\u00a0 Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’ When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.<\/em>”\u00a0 From the way the article sounds and your memory of events, there are some people who thought Jesus was wrong and the disciples were correct.<\/p>\n I can understand how people get priorities backward.\u00a0 We come together to talk about serious matters and often times the topics are deep.\u00a0 We think that the children are bored and learning nothing, so when they get a little cranky, we believe that the best thing for them is to be taken out of the way.\u00a0 However, children are constantly learning.\u00a0 They are observing and they are picking up on far more than what we probably give them credit for.\u00a0 Jesus told us to let the children come.\u00a0 I am of the opinion that Jesus meant that for all times.<\/p>\n I have known of several preachers that have stated their view that people with small children should sit on the back row.\u00a0 I’m not against reserving the back row for people who have small children and they want to sit there, but I don’t like to be told that I must sit on the back row.\u00a0 I have had my share of raising little kids and if a child is determined to pitch a fit, the back row is no closer to the exit than the front (or so it can sometimes seem).\u00a0 However, I have never noticed a child who could out-cry a good PA system and I have never known a sermon to suffer all that much if it was delayed 30 seconds while a crying child was taken out of the auditorium.<\/p>\n I think the problem is that there are some people who think of the children who are learning to behave in an adult setting are somehow “ruining” the experience for the adults.\u00a0 Such adults are too self-centered if they think that the occasional short disruption by a small child is somehow going to ruin the experience.\u00a0 Besides, Jesus said, “let the little children come to me.<\/em>“<\/p>\n Darrell Hamilton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Recently a congregation I am familiar with had an article concerning those who have small children. The preacher stated in the article that it would be best if those that have small children sit on the back pews due to children sometimes being noisy and having to be removed from the auditorium. In fact,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[665,448,29],"class_list":["post-8717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-child-rearing","tag-church","tag-parenting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4332,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-worship-with-an-autistic-child\/","url_meta":{"origin":8717,"position":0},"title":"How do we worship with an autistic child?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I wrote to you about 5 or 6 years ago for some advice on how to help my severely autistic son during worship. Today, he is 8 years old, and going to worship never got easier. However, it got extremely hard, to the point where going was nothing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1494,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-an-elder-have-faithful-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":8717,"position":1},"title":"Must an elder have faithful children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it necessary for an elder to have children faithful in the church? If yes, then how many? 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