About Children
At Redeemer, we put a huge emphasis on Family worship and home-based discipleship because we believe this approach to be the biblical model for discipling children. Scripture teaches us that our homes are to be gospel-saturated soil and that parents are to be diligent sowers of the gospel. We see this most clearly displayed in Deuteronomy 6:6-7, which declares, “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” If you have been given the privilege of being a parent, then God has given you the task of constantly teaching your children the gospel and pointing them to Christ.
Our desire is to equip, encourage, and educate parents to carry out their God-given responsibility of discipling their children. What does this look like in our church? First, we educate parents on both their calling as parents and how to biblically carry out that calling. We teach them how to have family worship and disciple their families in the home. Second, we equip parents for the task. Instead of spending a lot of time and money on youth and children’s pastors and their corresponding ministries, we choose to invest our resources in putting great tools in our parents’ hands. Some of the tools that we currently use are Fighter Verses, The Truth and Grace Catechism books, and The Big Picture Bible Story Book. Finally, we encourage parents through modeling and accountability. It is an expectation in our church that every member live out the biblical commands of discipleship, including family worship, and we hold each other accountable to this task. We also model what this family worship can look like every Sunday morning prior to the beginning of our corporate worship service.
During our corporate worship service, it is our desire to have children in worship with their parents. It is a great benefit for children to witness their parents singing praises with conviction, humbly praying with reverence, intently absorbing the words of the sermon, and receiving the Lord’s Supper in gratitude. We offer a nursery for children under four, but our goal is the biblical model of children learning to worship their Creator at the feet of their parents. We realize that allowing children to be participants in the corporate worship service can be a bit of a shock for parents who are not accustomed to the practice. It can at times be a difficult endeavor, but it is a difficulty worth enduring. Some helpful information on preparing children for corporate worship is provided on the Children Desiring God website.
Our desire is to equip, encourage, and educate parents to carry out their God-given responsibility of discipling their children. What does this look like in our church? First, we educate parents on both their calling as parents and how to biblically carry out that calling. We teach them how to have family worship and disciple their families in the home. Second, we equip parents for the task. Instead of spending a lot of time and money on youth and children’s pastors and their corresponding ministries, we choose to invest our resources in putting great tools in our parents’ hands. Some of the tools that we currently use are Fighter Verses, The Truth and Grace Catechism books, and The Big Picture Bible Story Book. Finally, we encourage parents through modeling and accountability. It is an expectation in our church that every member live out the biblical commands of discipleship, including family worship, and we hold each other accountable to this task. We also model what this family worship can look like every Sunday morning prior to the beginning of our corporate worship service.
During our corporate worship service, it is our desire to have children in worship with their parents. It is a great benefit for children to witness their parents singing praises with conviction, humbly praying with reverence, intently absorbing the words of the sermon, and receiving the Lord’s Supper in gratitude. We offer a nursery for children under four, but our goal is the biblical model of children learning to worship their Creator at the feet of their parents. We realize that allowing children to be participants in the corporate worship service can be a bit of a shock for parents who are not accustomed to the practice. It can at times be a difficult endeavor, but it is a difficulty worth enduring. Some helpful information on preparing children for corporate worship is provided on the Children Desiring God website.