Family Integrated Worship?

For the first 1900 years of the history of the church, families actually worshipped together, not just at the same church but together. Then something changed.  In an effort to make church more convenient, interesting, and even more entertaining, churches began to develop age-graded "programs."  If you expected to grow your church you had to have separate programs, even separate worship services, for children, youth, college students, singles, young married couples, middle aged couples, senior adults, etc, etc.  While the motivation behind all this was well intentioned, we believe the effects on the spiritual lives of our churches have been disastrous.  The disconnect between the generations that exists in society at large has been imported in the body of Christ.  Children and youth are taught by "cool" youth leaders not much older than themselves rather than by mature adults and more importantly, rather than by their parents.  In fact, in many congregations a child can become an adult before they ever even witness their parents involved in worshipping God on Sunday morning.  There is a growing movement to correct this problem and return parents to their biblical position as the primary spiritual guides for their children.  The church will aid them in this task (primarily by providing instruction and models for parents, not the children themselves) but will never allow parents to abdicate their responsibilities. As much as possible we seek to plan our worship and other activities in such a way that all age groups in the church are participating together.  The results of this can hardly be described, they must be witnessed.  We know many people are skeptical.  Conventional wisdom says that people just won't come to a church without youth groups and children's programs. The truth is that many won't.  Our growth is perhaps slower because we have chosen what we consider to be the biblical path.  But those who do come see the difference it makes in the lives of their families.  For those who aren't in a traditional family, this approach can be particularly helpful as we try to plug them into the life of the families of the church so they can develop the kind of relationships that exist in the love of a Christian family.  Well over half of our church is under 18 years old so as our families meet together for worship, study and fellowship there is ample opportunity for kids to get together without the peer pressure and negative group dynamics that often develop in even the best youth groups when parents aren't intimately involved.  We make no claim to having perfected this kind of ministry focus.  Many churches around the country have been doing it longer and better than we have and we learn from them.  Yet, by God's grace, we are committed to this path and challenge you to come see for yourself!