Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Argh!

This is reprinted with permission from my friend Derek Hale from Wichita. He writes...

My election day "scream at the windshield" moment came today while driving down the street to grab a bite of lunch. It came not from conservative talk radio or from NPR. It came from Christian talk radio. Don't ask me how I ended up there.

Anyway, the host (no idea who it was) was taking calls from callers who had voted earlier in the day. The callers that I heard were all talking about how they took their children with them to their polling places and they went on and on about "how important it was that children witnessed their parents voting" and about how "instilling the desire to participate in the democratic process" needs to instilled in children from a young age. I didn't hear much else because my shouting started.

I needed to shout because I imagined the type of folks that were out there listening to this same radio program and adding their "amen" to what was being said. I imagine these are the same folks that ship their children off to "children's church" on Sunday because the children are distracting and "would never understand what was going on anyway." I'm sure these are the same people that feel no desire demonstrate to their children "how important it is that children witness their parents worshiping on Sunday." No desire to "instill from a young age" a desire to participate in the worship of God almighty with the rest of the adults of the church. Nope, it is MUCH more important for children to get excited about the "democratic process" than it is for them to get excited about hearing God's call to worship, hearing that their sins are forgiven, learning the music of the Kingdom, hearing the Word thundered, and sitting down to eat a meal with Jesus every week.

And people still wonder why evangelicalism is as ineffective as it is.



Amen, Derek!

2 comments:

Valerie (Kyriosity) said...

Good thoughts!

RachaelBless said...

Absolutely correct. Thankfully, we're able to attend two services at our church.

For one service we attend as a family of six. Even a toddler can learn to sit still, although the training may take some time. If my wife needs to slip out and nurse the baby, so be it. The kids aren't perfect for 90 minutes, but they can learn.

For the other service, my children attend childrens church while my wife an I serve a couple of different capacities. It seems to work for us.

But the "drop 'em off and leave 'em so I can concentrate" mentality is a somewhat selfish (depends on circumstances I suppose) and a bit dangerous.

I could go on about this... by the way, did you know some congregations don't ALLOW children in "adult" service?

I also can't stand how a parent can be completely uninvolved in the ministry and then blast the children's pastor for something stupid right after service or something... It is clearly the wrong time - make an appointment to have a meeting. We've all seen it happen, though.

My wife has a few good thoughts about this at: homewithapplemana.blogspot.com

Hope I wasn't too harsh. By the way, this is the husband writing, using his bride's account. Don't get confused!