I serve at an unbelievably awesome church. I won’t go into all of the reasons why I feel that way, but I’ll talk about one reason here.
We are a church that cares about families. One way that we do that is by giving parents and children opportunities to talk about important matters of faith. Children and parents typically go their separate ways on Sunday mornings, right? Children to the children’s area, parents to the sanctuary…or Starbucks, if they really don’t like the preacher. I’m not challenging this at all. In fact, it’s probably best that parents have a separate area on Sunday mornings (the whole Starbucks thing, though…yeah, that’s probably not best). However, this does not negate the fact that parents and children need to talk about God…together!
This may be revolutionary to you, but it is not the job of the local church to be the primary voice of truth and training for your children. That’s the job of their parents! Parents should not abdicate their role to the youth pastor or children’s pastor.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (emphasis mine)
Talking to children “when you sit at home…walk along the road…lie down and get up” only makes sense in the context of a family…not the local church. The local church’s role is to equip parents to do what God has called them to do, helping them to live out their faith with their children.
So, in order to not step on the toes of parents whose job it is to teach their children how to honor the Lord, in addition to giving parents tools each week on Sunday morning (to continue the conversation started in their child’s small group), we have a once/month event. This event, called Cross Street Live (for children k-5th grade), is designed to communicate the truths of Scripture in a way that is fun and engaging for children. The catch is that the parents are required to attend as well, thus exposing them to the truth and giving them topics to talk about with their children.
Sound like something you’d be interested in? Great! It’s open to the public, and it starts this Sunday, September 20th! All of the information is listed on the Cross Street Live website.
Will you be there?
