Luke 9:48, "Then he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on m y behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.'"
At The Crossroads, from the very beginning, we knew that children are important to God. Jesus stopped his agenda to spend time with kids. As churches, we frequently fall into the habit of creating a worship environment for adults and a separate worship venue for children, never mixing the two. Parents drop their kids off for free babysitting, not even sure what goes on in their area, and our children's workers are overworked, underpaid, and burned out.
This week as a part of Shawn's message series on family, we all joined the children in the gym for Kid's Cove. Our children's leaders operated the video based service just like they always do, and parents had the opportunity to see the kid's worship experience first hand. We all participated in the fun activities, getting loud and rowdy right along with the kids.
At breakout session time, parents attended sessions with their kids to see what they do during small group time. I led the teen breakout session - a big change from the young elementary students I usually lead. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk to them about being valuable to God and how they can make other people feel valuable this week.
We had tons of fun today with the kids. I am hopeful that we will see increased communication with children about their worship experience, now that parents know what that looks like. I am also hopeful that more parents will be willing to volunteer to be small group leaders since they have witnessed up close and personally how easy it is to be involved. More workers equals less burnout!
I thought this was a superb idea. I am anxious to see how today impacts families in realizing how important children are at The Crossroads. I am already looking forward to the next cooperative worship experience.
