Tag Worship

The Case for Children in Corporate Worship

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Introductory Statement: The church, as the body of Christ, is called to be a family. This is not merely a metaphor; it’s a living, breathing reality (1 Timothy 3:14-16). And the gathered worship of God’s people is the heartbeat of this family, where the Word is faithfully preached, the ordinances are properly administered, and the people of God are progressively edified. (CLICK HERE to view a handout on the importance of corporate worship from one of my Sunday evening teachings.)

“Corporate worship is the most important thing we could ever do in this life.” Jonathan Cruse

“Corporate worship is the single most important means of grace and our greatest weapon in the fight for joy, because like no other means, corporate worship combines all three principles of God’s ongoing grace: his word, prayer, and fellowship.” David Mathis

The Context: Our church family offers age-segregated ministries during Sunday School, Sunday evening ministries, and Wednesday evening ministries. The only time our church does not offer age-segregated ministries is on Sunday morning during the corporate worship hour. (We do offer a nursery for 0-3-year-olds.)

The Concern: Recently, a handful of church members have voiced their desire to create a separate children’s church for children aged 4 to 5th grade, intending to provide a tailored worship experience for the younger ones in our church. While I recognize the well-meaning nature of this proposal, I must express my concern that such a separation would inadvertently remove our children from the central aspect of church life: corporate worship, the heartbeat of a local church.

The Thesis of this Blog: Since this topic has gained a little traction, I wanted to briefly explain why I oppose children’s church for 4-year-olds to 5th graders. Ultimately, I believe that children should actively participate in corporate worship, as their presence is both biblically encouraged and essential for the health of our local church.

The Biblical Precedence for Intergenerational Corporate Worship

Old Testament: In the Old Testament, the Lord our God directly spoke to children. When He addressed the people from Mount Sinai, He had a message for kids: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). Additionally, in ancient Israel, the people of God are shown gathering together—all men, women, and children—to hear His Word and to respond in praise. For example, in Deuteronomy 31:12-13, Moses instructed the Israelites to assemble “the people—men, women, and little ones” to hear the Law “that they may learn and fear the Lord your God.” The term “litte ones” refers to children who are not yet able to walk long distances on their own. This mention of “little ones” is significant because it emphasizes the important covenantal reality that the next generation must be present to hear God’s statutes and promises.

The Gospels: Similarly, during Jesus’s ministry, He rebuked His disciples for hindering children, saying, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). In the ancient world, “A child was a person of no importance in Jewish society, subject to the authority of his elders, not taken seriously except as a responsibility, one to be looked after, not one to be looked up to.”[1] The disciples believed that the incarnate Son of God had more significant matters to attend to than being interrupted by children. However, this assumption was far from accurate. Contrary to the prevailing worldview of the time, the Lord Jesus welcomed and blessed children throughout His earthly ministry.

New Testament Epistles: Finally, as Paul wrote his letters to the early church, his pastoral concern extended to the youngest in the congregation. In his epistle to the Ephesians, he bent down on his apostolic knee and said, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Ephesians 6:1-3). He taught a similar truth to the Colossians: “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Colossians 3:20). Paul’s words not only convey biblical instruction, they also convey God’s heart for family units.

Corporate Worship is the Primary Context for Discipleship

The Primacy of Corporate Worship: Brothers and sisters, while we recognize that the Lord is omnipresent, it’s important to understand that His presence in corporate worship is both special and unique (Matthew 18:20; 1 Corinthians 5:4). A Puritan theologian emphasizes this by stating that “the Lord is with His people in public ordinances in a manner that is more special—more effective, more constant, and more intimate.” Because of this, corporate worship is essential to the life and minsitry of a church, especially when it comes to discipleship. It is the place where the Lord Jesus Christ meets with His people in a special way through the ministry of the Word and the proper administration of the ordinances. Therefore, excluding children from corporate worship denies them the opportunity to experience this significant moment that the Lord Jesus Christ has ordained for His people each week.

Corporate Worship Builds Up Children: Corporate worship is important not just for adults but also for children. While kids may not grasp every theological concept, such as justification and sanctification, they can still learn from the elements of the service. They can appreciate the flow of prayers, the beauty of hymns, the seriousness of the ordinances, and the impact of God’s Word being read aloud. Over time, I believe the Holy Spirit uses these experiences in worship to teach and shape children. He impresses deep truths on their hearts and minds, helping them develop a reverence for God’s greatness and a clearer understanding of the church’s purpose and mission. Therefore, keeping children away from these meaningful aspects of worship can hinder their spiritual growth and doctrinal formation.

“The Lord is most there where He is most engaged to be, and He has engaged Himself to be most there where most of his people are. The Lord has engaged to be with every particular saint, but when the particulars are joined in public worship, there are all His engagements united.” David Clarkson

Children Bless the Gathered Congregation

We Need to See the Children: I believe the presence of children in worship blesses the entire congregation. In the wisdom of God, the church is not a collection of isolated individuals but a covenant community spanning multiple generations. When children are present, adults are reminded of their responsibility to model godliness and pass down the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints “to the next generation” (Psalm 78:4). The cries of an infant or the wiggling of a toddler are not distractions but signs of life—evidence that God is fulfilling His promise to build His church through the generations. In other words, we need to see the children. It’s good for us as a church. And a church that cannot tolerate the presence of children risks becoming a barren institution.

“God didn’t fashion us to enjoy him finally as solitary individuals, but as happy members of a countless large family.” David Mathis

“At home, in my own house, there is no warmth or vigor in me, but in the church when the multitude is gathered together, a fire is kindled in my heart and it breaks its way through.” Martin Luther

Corporate Worship Equips Parents to Fulfill Their God-Given Responsibility

Children Need To See Their Parents: Is it healthy for a child to rarely see their parents participating in corporate worship? Is it beneficial for a child to scarcely see their father and mother participate in corporate prayers, congregational singing, and fellowshipping with fellow members of the household of God? I don’t believe it is. I think it significantly hinders a parent’s ability to fully disciple their children in the Christian faith. Conversely, involving children in corporate worship enables and equips parents to better disciple their children.

Consider this: the home serves as the foundational school of faith for children, while the church’s gathered worship reinforces the important teachings taught in the home. When children observe their parents engaging in worship—singing zealously, praying sincerely, and listening attentively to the preached Word—they are learning valuable lessons. As kids see their parents glorifying and enjoying God, they begin to realize the central purpose of their existence as well: to glorify and enjoy God!

Parents Can Take Corporate Worship Home: Furthermore, including children in corporate worship creates an opportunity for parents to continue the conversation at home, whether by explaining key points from the sermon or unpacking the meaning behind an old hymn. This connection between home life and church life enriches the family’s spiritual life and helps root children in the Christian faith.

Corporate Worship Does More For Children Than You Think

Children Can Get It: Some may argue that children are too young to understand aspects of corporate worship or that their presence disrupts its solemnity. However, this perspective underestimates both children’s capacity for understanding and the nature of corporate worship itself. While a child may not be able to articulate complex doctrines like the incarnation, they can certainly comprehend that Jesus loves them and died for their sins. Moreover, corporate worship is not a performance that requires perfect solemnity and silence; it is a family gathering where everyone is welcome. (I do believe parents should be instructed on the appropriate time to take a disruptive and unhinged child out of the gathering.)

The Conclusion

I believe that children should actively participate in corporate worship. We should resist the cultural tendency to separate our children from the life of the congregation. Instead, let’s embrace the beautiful yet messy reality of intergenerational worship. By doing this, we obey scripture and showcase the transformative power of the gospel, uniting all generations—young and old—in glorifying our great God. This, church, is one reason why corporate worship reveals the wisdom and glory of God to a spiritually ignorant and dark world.

“Christ’s people ought to be more welcoming than anyone else to children. Our churches should not be places where the adults cannot wait to put the children away in order to get to the adult task of worship. One of the scandals of so much evangelicalism is that we send people to their rooms as soon as we get to church. . . You should see people sitting in pews whose feet cannot touch the floor. . . We should, in church, welcome the wiggling and the squirming.” Albert Mohler

A Few Applications

As a church, we can take some small steps to cultivate an environment that fosters meaningful corporate worship for families and children:

  • Equip Families: We should provide good resources to help families train their children to participate in corporate worship in an age-appropriate manner. For instance, I recently came across a book titled “Parenting in the Pew,” which has been recommended as a guide for families seeking to shephered their children during corporate worship.
  • Cultivate Patience: It’s important for our congregation to bear with one another, especially during corporate worship. We’re family, after all, and we are all trying to figure it out.
  • Encourage Discipleship: We should encourage our seasoned, godly women to take on the important role of mentoring young mothers (Titus 2:4). They need to impart their wisdom and teach young mothers how to parent their children in the context of corporate worship.
  • Sermons for All: It’s really helpful to preach sermons that connect with the kids in our congregation, just like Paul did in his letters. This way, we can get our younger members involved and show them we were thinking about them as we prepared our sermons.
  • Singable Theology: We should ensure that the hymns and songs we choose are gospel-centered and singable. This way, people of all ages, from kids to grandparents, can join in and worship the Lord together through song!

If we work together to do this, we can foster a healthy church culture that honors God and supports the spiritual growth of future generations within the life of First Baptist Church of Jackson.

[1] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 1, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985), 274.

Article Roundup: Helpful Reads

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Giftedness is not Godliness by David Prince

Some of the best sermons I’ve ever heard have been preached by men who were disqualified to even be in the pulpit. “Years ago, an older pastor warned me that giftedness is not godliness. It stuck with me. It is true but easily ignored when someone’s oratory skill sweeps us away. Learning how to communicate and deliver a powerful sermon is not holiness. Sometimes, it is the effective cover utilized to pursue a life of ungodliness and rebellion.”

Does James Contradict Paul by Kevin DeYoung

A right understanding of the doctrines of justification and sanctification is absolutely essential to a healthy Christian life. “In the end, there is no conflict between Paul and James. It is right to say we are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law, provided we understand, as James reminds us, that the faith that justifies will always work itself out in love.”

Prepare to Speak on Sunday: The Ministry of Conversation by Greg Morse

Our churches need more parlor preachers. We need church members wielding the sword of the Spirit in casual conversations. “Some of the most shaping words spoken in the Christian assembly come not from the pulpit above but from the pew below. A church taught to make the most of the time together, to come to speak and not just to listen, to fill the building with holy conversation, experiences a foretaste of that country where we shall speak forever of all that God has done.”

How to Prepare for Sunday Worship by H.P. McCracken

As one pastor said, “Sunday morning church is a decision made on Saturday night.” This article will help you prepare for corporate worship in a healthy manner. “The way we schedule our days relates significantly to how we prepare for many different events in life, and such planning can similarly help us to prepare for Lord’s Day worship.”

Ephesians 5:16: What Does it Mean to Make the Best Use of Time? By David Kaywood

Time is more valuable than money. If we lose money, we can always earn it back. However, when we lose time, it is gone forever. As followers of Christ, let us strive to make the best use of our time! “Too many Christians go about life without proper self-examination and neglect to seize the opportunities right in front of them. Time is precious and must be treated with the utmost care for holy living. It must be redeemed.”

The First Commandment

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“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Last year I wrote a blog on the seventh commandment that listed out its meaning as well as some applications that followed. Within this blog, I want to do something similar with the first commandment. Let’s begin looking at this famous commandment.

The Importance of this Commandment

The importance of this commandment cannot be overstated. Our God is an orderly God and, in his infinite wisdom, He placed this commandment at the beginning of the Ten Commandments. This led J.I. Packer to say that the first commandment is, “the fundamental commandment, first in importance as well as in order, and basic to every other. . . .true religion starts with accepting it as one’s rule of life.” And Packer is simply drawing from Thomas Watson who, when looking at the first commandment said, “This may well lead the van, and be set in the front of all the commandments, because it is the foundation of all true religion.”

In essence, Packer and Watson are saying that the essence of true religion is placing the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, as the exclusive object of our worship. If we make the God of the Bible anything less than the exclusive object of our worship, then we have swerved into a false religion.

These truths lead me to say this: in order for us to be obedient to any other commandment, we must be obedient to this commandment. Every other commandment must be obeyed because we have the God of the Bible as the sole object of our worship. To attempt to obey every other commandment without obeying the first commandment is considered sin, and is worthy of eternal condemnation. This is why this commandment is so very important.

The Uniqueness of this Commandment

As one looks at the gods of the ancient world, it is evident that none of them make the kind of assertion that our God makes in the first commandment. The God of the Bible is saying that you must worship Him and only Him. None of the other religions said anything like this. The cult of Baal, Asherah, and Molech never made such statements.

So when God said, “You shall have no other gods before me,” He was saying something quite unique. Ryken makes this even clearer when he says, “This command was without precedent. None of the other nations in the ancient world prohibited the worship of other gods. The God of Israel refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of any ofter God.” As you can tell, the God of the Bible is not a man pleaser! He will have you worship Him and Him alone because all the gods of the nations are false and illegitimate; completely unworthy of the worship of men and women made in he image of the one true God.

The Commandment in Light of the Trinity

We have briefly covered the importance and the uniqueness of the first commandment. Let’s now look at this commandment in light of the Trinity. This will be important when we start addressing what this commandment is requiring of us.

God has revealed Himself as the triune God. The One true God that gave us the first commandment eternally exists as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person within the Trinity is fully God and is worthy of our worship, allegiance, and trust.

So, the Son is worthy of the same honor as the Father (Jn 5:23). The Spirit is worthy of the same honor as the Son. All three distinct persons of the Trinity, since they have the same essence, are worthy of the allegiance that the first commandment requires. And it is when our lives are dominated by our relationship with the one true triune God, that we are walking in faithfulness to the first commandment.

Now that we have a general overview of this commandment, let’s try to understand what the first commandment is forbidding us from doing, as well as what the first commandment is commanding us to do. In order to do this, we will use the two-sided rule.

The Two-Sided Rule

This is one of the interpretive methods we use in studying the Ten Commandments. This rule teaches that, when something is forbidden, the opposite is also commanded. It also teaches that, when something is commanded, the opposite is forbidden. In essence, there are always two sides to each commandment; a negative side and a positive side. We will begin with the negative side of this commandment.

The Negative Side

First, this commandment is forbidding us from worshipping any other so called “god.” When the Lord says, “You shall have no other gods before me,” He is forbidding us from worshipping any and all false gods. With that said, false gods come in many different shapes and sizes.

-Obvious False “Gods”

This is important to understand because some people merely think of false gods as statues of certain gods and goddesses, or they think about all the gods of other religions. Though the worship of these statues and gods of other religions is clearly forbidden by the first commandment, there are other false gods out there that are a little more subtle.

-Subtle False “Gods”

False gods that are a little more subtle are ones that have Christian terminology attached to them. For example, in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, the Apostle Paul talks about Satan’s craftiness in deceiving people. One way he deceives people is by placing a different Jesus out there than the Jesus the apostles were preaching about.

Also, in Galatians 1:7, Paul admonished the Galatians for turning to a different gospel than the one he originally preached to them. These false teachers in the region of Galatia are using Christian terminology, but they are preaching and teaching about a different gospel than the one handed down by the apostles. And the first commandment is forbidding us from worshipping these different “Jesuses” and different “gospels.”

This means that the first commandment is forbidding us from worshipping the Jesus of the Jehovah witnesses. They do not believe in the Trinity, that Jesus is God, or that Jesus resurrected bodily from the grave. They preach a distorted gospel with a distorted Jesus.

This also means that the first commandment is forbidding us from worshipping the Jesus of the Mormons. They believe that god used to be a man and that, after obedience to the law, was eventually elevated to a god. They believe that god had sex with his goddess wife and they produced offspring (Jesus and Lucifer). Jesus obeyed god’s laws and became a god himself. This is also a distorted gospel with a different Jesus.

This also means that the first commandment is forbidding us from worshipping the Jesus of the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel preaches that the Abrahamic covenant brings material wealth, that prayer forces God’s hand, that faith is not a gift from God, and that Jesus’ atonement brings physical healing and financial prosperity. As Jones states, “In light of Scripture, the prosperity gospel is fundamentally flawed. At bottom, it is a false gospel because its faulty view of the relationship of God and man.” The Jesus of the prosperity gospel is different than the one recorded in the gospels and preached by the apostles.

And lastly, for subtle false gods, the first commandment is also forbidding us from worshipping the Jesus of theological liberalism. The Jesus of theological liberalism is not God over all, a being most glorious and worthy of our exclusive allegiance. Rather, he is merely a moral example; a paragon of virtue. His death was not substitutionary. It did not accomplish anything. It merely teaches and models what it means to be sacrificial and to look after the interests of others. Simply put, the god of theological liberalism is not the God of the Bible.

-The “God” of the Muslims or Jews

I would also say that worshipping the god of the Muslims or the Jews is a breaking of the first commandment. Sure, both Muslims and Jews say that they worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but as Christians we must reiterate that they are worshipping a god other than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When you look at the Bible, it is clear that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has revealed Himself as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus clearly teaches that to dishonor the Son is to dishonor the Father (Jn 5:23). Therefore, both Muslims and Jews are worshipping a false god, and not the God of the Bible. They are worshipping a god that is other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-“God” Substitutes

The last category that I want to hone in on when it comes to things forbidden by the first commandment is god substitutes. God substitutes do not present themselves as gods, but we end up relying, trusting, and worshipping them as though they were gods. At the outset, let me just say that these are the predominant idols that gain our allegiance and affection in the west.

A god substitute can be strength (Hab 1:11), money (Job 31:24; Dan 5:23; Mt 6:24), possessions (Lk 12:16-21), pleasure (1 Tim 3:4), or entertainment. The scripture clearly teaches that our sin nature delights in elevating these things to unhealthy places in our heart. When we do this, we then trust and rely on these god substitutes as though they were the one true God. When we do this, we are breaking the first commandment.

The Positive Side

Now that we are done with the negative side of this commandment (looking at what this commandment is forbidding us from doing), let’s look at the positive side (what this commandment is positively commanding us to do). This will be much shorter so bear with me!

The first commandment is positively commanding us to place our allegiance, affections, and love on God and God alone. God is to be the chief object of our love. Our loyalty is to be to Him and Him alone. I love how one author put it when he said, “The commandment calls for a style of life dominated by a relationship with God….the relationship to one God must dominate every sphere of life, whether the life of action, of thought, or of emotion.” So the first commandment is commanding us to have a life that is dominated by our relationship with the triune God of the Bible.

This means that our entire lives are to be consecrated to the Lord; completely set apart for the purposes of glorifying and magnifying Him. Like Jesus, we should seek to be obedient to the Lord in every sphere of life: thoughts, actions, motives, and words. When we eat and drink, we are to do so to the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). When we work, we are to work heartily as for the Lord (Col 3:23). While we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord (Rom 14:8). Our entire life is to be dominated by our relationship with the one true God that has eternally existed as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is when we are doing this that we are walking in obedience to the first commandment.

Gospel Hope

With that said, it is evident that there is no commandment that we break more often than the first commandment. As a matter of fact, anytime we break any other God given commandment, the root of our sinful disobedience can ultimately be found in a breach of the first commandment. It is when God is not the supreme object of our affections that we dishonor our parents, murder, commit adultery, steal, or covet our neighbor’s wife and possessions. So, though this commandment comes first and is of utmost importance, there is no commandment that we have violated more frequently than this one.

And the Bible teaches that only a curse awaits those who violate God’s law. When we commit cosmic treason by elevating other gods and god substitutes to the place of Almighty God, we deserve everlasting torment in the lake of fire. However, the good news of the gospel is that, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal 3:13).

After Christ faithfully obeyed the first commandment throughout his life, he hung on a tree; bearing our violations of the first commandment and suffering under the lawbreakers curse. God the Father willed for Jesus, his beloved Son, to die this way so that violators of the first commandment might be redeemed and restored to a proper relationship with Him. This is the hope of the Gospel, and this ought to lead us to praise and glorify our Savior, who loved us and gave himself for us! Indeed, this ought to lead us to joyfully and wholeheartedly live a life that is dominated by our relationship with the God that saved us by His grace.