Hi Jeanne,
We have always had our children in church with us, as it is good discipline, and they become accustomed to hearing the Word of God preached, and grow up with it.

Children's church is OK, I guess, as long as you know the religious beliefs of the person who is in charge of your children. I wouldn't want our children exposed to a person's beliefs if they believed in evolution, for example. Our children's minds are pliable in the beginning, and what goes in stays there. You know what they say - garbage in, garbage out. :D

Blessings,
Jillian

I am the hearing daughter of deaf parents. We attended a deaf church (deaf pastor, deaf congregation etc) and the children were allowed to go into a separate room for sunday school but it used to be more like play and crazy time! We loved it, by the way! 

As I grew older my parents felt they wanted me to be part of a 'hearing' church and to cut a long story short they found one where I could attend their Sunday school in the afternoons and then go to the deaf church after that.

When I hit 11 or 12 I started going to the church services of the hearing church....and stayed there.

Time marches on and I married and had children. My husband became a Pastor and I was a sign language interpreter and on the first day of his ministry in walked 10 deaf people. I had to jump up and start signing!

One day I was sitting church singing in sign language and there was my dad standing beside me singing the same song in sign language...and there was my mum signing....we were a family in the same church, worshipping God side by side and I suddenly realised - I MISSED THIS SO MUCH AS A CHILD AND ENVIED IT IN MY HEARING FRIENDS WHO SAT WITH THEIR PARENTS!

I think a family that worships together is a beautiful thing.

In our church we have a mixture...kids are in the service until the preaching of the word and then they go out for their own bible study time - if there is a baptism or something like that they are asked to return. We encourage children to be part of our church - they are part of the family and life and vitality of the church. 

Our church has an influx of unsaved people and 'unchurched' people so they come in with their kids and have no idea how the children should behave. They think its like a cinema where you get up and walk in and out if you need to. We understand that this is where they are at and appreciate this. However, it is vital that people get the opportunity to hear the gospel - this might be their last chance ever and the children may be distracting so if the kids get taken out the parents are able to relax and listen.

It's not ideal - but then we don't live in an ideal world.

Children learn best from the daily lives and teaching of parents - I really don't care how great the Sunday school teacher is, if the parent says, 'Oh that's a load of rubbish' that's that.  Sunday school can be great but it can never replace the day to day input of a believing and praying parent.

Great discussion - thanks!

I am in favor of children in church. In our church children are baptised members. I believe it is incumbent upon them as well as us to attend worship every week. We don't segregate out part of the congreation to a separate worship service. Our church services may be noisier than some are used to (we have lots of little ones in our church) but the kids do learn to at least be quiet through service at a pretty early age. Usually by two and half our kids' behavior is accepable at least most of the time. 

 I used to be  the childrens church leader  in our church, but after a  couple of years we had a burnout of kids min leaders and when i couldnt raise a team... i stepped down from the role. No one picked it up for a year and a term and our church went into a season of no childrens church, but didnt accomodate kids into the service well, and found we lost a number of families... Eventually the need to revisit the idea of kids ministries and a better ( simplified) program and leadership strategy emerged and was taken on by some younger adults...it worked and has been thriving ever since. I have no hang ups about it long term... i realised we all had to go through this season to realise our strengths n weaknesses and for every person to declare their hands on the matter so that we could find unity and move forwards effectively. It was a god season and a learning season and the kids are better off for it I believe.