Why do you think it’s important for kids to be in the Sunday Service?

We love to do church as a family, rather than separately to our kids. When we all hear the same teaching it means we can discuss it together. Discipleship starts from day one and we view our children as brothers and sisters in Christ, just a generation behind us!

It’s good that our kids see that the main service isn’t just ‘for the adults’. We also try to serve together so that the kids see that serving isn’t just for adults.

Has it been challenging? What encouragement can you offer parents?

It’s not been easy all the time. Kids need lots of training to be able to sit still and listen. It takes years to get there. I would say to anyone that is trying to have their kids in the service, be patient and keep at it! I also think that if you are training your child to sit through the Sunday service, make sure you ‘keep your eye on the prize’.

If you don’t want your child to talk over the pastor, then remind your child frequently that we don’t talk during the sermon, and be prepared to take them out if they are talking too much. Thankfully the sermon is recorded so we can hear it later! If it’s not going well, just remember that the best things come with a bit of effort, and it might not be that you are doing it wrong, it might just need more time :)

How do you prepare your kids for church on Sunday? How do you debrief after church?

We don’t do much to prepare our kids for church, other than we pray as a family for the preacher on Saturday night beforehand, and pray that we would listen well and learn. When our kids were younger, I made sure I had the ‘bible bag’ packed with colouring pages and pencils. We used to remind the kids of our expectations for during church. No talking, no fighting over pencils, listening while colouring.

We also occasionally read the passage out loud on the way to church in preparation for learning about it. On the way home we usually discuss what we learned, and we ask our children what they thought of the sermon. We also often refer back to the Sunday sermon in our evening devotions through the week.

What are your top tips?

Get your child their own bible early on, and help them find the passage each week so they become familiar with their own bible. When they were learning to read, we would point to the words as they were being read. A bible cover to store stationary and paper is really helpful too.

For small children: I think you can’t say it too many times that we are here to listen, and modelling this is important. It’s good for kids to see you with your bible open and looking at it and looking at the preacher! Set small targets for sitting still- they might not be able to get through the whole sermon but praise any small wins on this front! Colouring and drawing with a clipboard can help with being quiet.

For older children: Once a child can write, we encourage them to take even very basic notes. I will often whisper main points for them to write down. Drawing what the passage is about is good too. Assume your child can access more of the sermon than you might think! We only let the kids do things in church that they can do while listening at the same time (colouring, drawing, quiet fiddle toys), and things that will not be a distraction to others. As children get older, I think the best thing is to discuss the passage/sermon after as then they will know you value their thoughts and also it conveys your expectations that they will be listening and learning each week.