07/10/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/14evei8NaPo/
One lesson from COVID-19: Don’t underestimate the model set by worshiping alongside your kids, wrote Jen Wilkin in 2021.
“For many young families, the coronavirus lockdown was their first time to worship together consistently through all elements of ‘big church,’ rather than follow a common pattern of kids attending children’s programing while adults attend the weekly gathering.
At my own church, as soon as we began streaming services, kids began asking about baptism and the Lord’s Supper at unprecedented rates. Many had never seen them. In living rooms everywhere, children prayed communal prayers, listened to the Word proclaimed, heard testimonies, and joined their voices in song—with their parents.
These family worship gatherings were not without frustration. Children may have squirmed, consumed copious snacks, or run circles around the living room, but something priceless was happening: Families were living out the words of Psalm 34:3: ‘Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.’
Observant parents who might have assumed ‘My child won’t really get anything out of the service’ learned this was, in fact, profoundly not true. Because there is no replacement for children watching their parents model worship. Because children have a right to witness and learn from the ordinances of the church. Because children are not the church of tomorrow; they are the church of today.
I’m a big fan of children’s ministry. I think it’s invaluable. I’m paid by my church to think about it in good ways. But let me be clear: While children’s church is a wonderful supplement to big church, it is a terrible substitute.
A child old enough for kindergarten can be welcomed into big church with a little loving guidance from a parent determined to disciple. If it is true that ‘more is caught than taught,’ parents should value modeling worship for their children more than any lesson taught by a children’s church leader.
I hope more families will bring school-aged kids to the gathering that is big church, in addition to sending them to the blessing that is children’s church. For families, the ‘with me’ of worship matters. Let the little children come—even if they wiggle and whisper.
They are the missing pieces that complete the picture of the church as God’s family. Let them be formed in the house of the Lord.”
