Currently The Sparrow and the Crow By William Fitzsimmons If You Would Come Back Home see related

Just yesterday in church service I remember thinking, "Oh, come on, parents!  Take your kids to children's church, so the pastor doesn't have to compete with wailing during his sermon!"  Then today Stanley Hauerwas punched me in the face with this:

In many of our modern, sophisticated congregations, children are often viewed as distractions.  We tolerate children only the extent they become "adults" like us.  Adult members sometimes complain that they cannot pay attention to the sermon, they cannot listen to the beautiful music, when fidgety children are beside them in the pews.  "Send them away," many adults say.  Create "Children's Church" so these distracting children can be removed in order that we adults can pay attention.

Interestingly, Jesus put a child in the center of his disciples,"in the midst of them," in order to help them pay attention.  The child, in Jesus' mind, was not an annoying distraction.  The child was a last-ditch effort by God to help the disciples pay attention to the odd nature of God's kingdom.  (Resident Aliens, 96)

Of course, I'll bet that children probably enjoy children's church better than the "boring" (sometimes) adult service.  But that's usually not our true intention for putting them down there.  Especially at Parkade where we've frequently emphasized a desire to be an inter-generational congregation, our call to "Send away the little children" seems to stand in unfortunate opposition to our King.