The Place of Children in the Church

There is a tendency, in the church, to treat children as second class citizens of the kingdom of heaven, and this can be seen most notably in the most sacred and vital function of the Christian church - public worship on the Lord’s Day.

With our hearts, we concede that children are a part of the covenant community, yet we exclude them from the one place where God’s grace is most forcefully poured out.

This is sin; not deliberate or willful, but nevertheless a sin of omission.

We decry the fact that our young men and women so often do not choose to remain in the church once they have left the homes and authority of their parents, yet we act as though we don’t really want them there while they are yet children.

If we understood and fully appreciated the fact that it is in the preaching of God’s word and the administration of the sacraments that Jesus issues his blessings, we would, like the mothers of Mark 10, push through the crowds and even endure the rebuke of the disciples in order to ensure that our children are brought into the presence of the Lord to receive whatever he has for them.

One of the essential duties of a parent is to bring their children to the outward and ordinary means of grace in the fellowship and worshipping body of Christ.