Recently Lutheran Satire posted this. Below is my response.
I really like Lutheran Satire but this is ridiculous. We developed a children’s church program at our (Anglican) church precisely for the purpose of helping our little ones (under 6) understand the message of the sermon text in a way that they could grasp more readily than the sermon, which by the way averages about 20 minutes, not exactly an overly didactic lecture. For us it is an attempt to better serve them. The children go to children’s church during the sermon hymn (just before the sermon is preached), and return during the offertory which immediately precedes communion. During that time rather than having a “half trained laymen give them a paltry amount of instruction,” the children’s church workers utilize a thoughtfully designed lesson prepared by my (seminary trained) wife to teach our little ones the lesson of the sermon text in a way that is suited to their maturity and development. Every week my children are able to tell me what they have learned from the text. And guess what? It typically matches up with what I took from the sermon. Before we had children’s church they could not do this. Do they do crafts and activities? Yes, and these help them learn and retain the lesson, as anyone who knows anything about early childhood education would tell you.
Finally, and not to put too fine a point on the matter, but when they return from being taught the Bible by faithful members that remember that it is such as these that will inherit the Kingdom my toddler and infant children are invited week by week to participate in the Eucharist, to eat “the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee…” and to drink “the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee…” In our church my children don’t have to prove themselves worthy of Christ and His Kingdom to be invited to Jesus’ table. They are members of his body and full participants in his family meal.
From the Lutheran Satire post, given as an example of what not to do (i.e. children’s church, yet they do not allow their young ones to partake of the Lord’s Supper)”…why don’t we suffer not the little children and forbid them from coming to church until they prove themselves worthy of Christ and his Kingdom…”
I’m sympathetic to the group that wants to include their children in the service, but it is apt to mention the Eucharist.
Most Lutherans are not including their children at the Table and are giving them “children’s church” without having them leave the room.
Feed my lambs.