In my earlier years of ministry, I had a number of parents tell me that they didn’t want to force their children to go to church. Parents didn’t want them to grow up resenting it. As you might guess, my thoughts on this are radically different.
If your children never come to church, the chances of them doing so when they are an adult greatly diminish. To see and learn to worship as a faith family and engage in the life of the community of faith is incredibly important. I think a far better approach is to teach your children to love the church. Help them see it for what it was created and designed to be.
Here are a few ways to help your child foster a love for the family of God. I gleaned these from a breakout seminar at the Gospel-Shaped Family Conference taught by Pastor Marc Goodwin from Christ’s Covenant Church in Winona Lake, Indiana.
Prize the Church Yourself
Take your children to church with you instead of sending them to church. Let your experience and engagement with the church be as a family, not separated and disjointed. Your children will learn so much from watching you and serving alongside you.
Prioritize the Church
Prioritize the people of the church. Show your children that the church is not a building or a time of the week. Help them meet people of different ages in the church. Help them see the church as a body of believers who are on mission together, loving each other, and challenging one another in their faith in Jesus Christ.
Personalize the Church
This is similar to the second point. Help your children get to know people within the church. Don’t settle at them just knowing names. Don’t settle for them only knowing people that are the same age as them. Help them learn and know the different God-given strengths and gifts that others have and how they are using them in your church.
Prepare Children for Church
There is a lot of value in structuring your weekend so you value the time with your church family. You can prepare your children for Sunday mornings by getting good rest the night before. You can also prepare them by teaching them how to read well, how to process information, how to pray, how to be attentive, and how to properly listen to public instruction.
Practice Serving the Church Together
There are all kinds of ways that you can serve together within the church. I’m not talking about serving your kids and their friends, but rather inviting your kids to serve alongside you. If they are doing this with you as a child, they will know how to do it as an adult.