Parenting in the Pew

discipling our children through community worship

Biblical Directives for Parents

1. Your children are YOUR responsibility: God Gave Them To YOU!

GOD gave them to you. They are yours by design of His sovereignty.

Biblical Directives for Parents

1. Your children are YOUR responsibility: God Gave Them To YOU!

God GAVE them to you. Psalm 127:3 teaches that your children are a treasure and reward from God Himself!

Biblical Directives for Parents

1. Your children are YOUR responsibility: God Gave Them To YOU!

God gave them to YOU. They are YOURS to disciple, nurture and trainno someone elsesincluding your other family members.

Biblical Directives for Parents

2. God wants you to saturate your children with Him and His presence.

The Old Testament Mandate:

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Biblical Directives for Parents

2. God wants you to saturate your children with Him and His presence.

The New Testament Mandate:

Ephesians 6:3-4

Biblical Directives for Parents

The OT and NT mandates reflect cyclical discipleship

Love the Lord your God with everything you have.

Talk and walk the things of the Lord.

Train up children in the Lord.

Children obey parents in the Lord.

Biblical Directives for Parents

2. God wants you to saturate your children with Him and His presence.

This means teaching your children about God: who He is, what He does, how He works, His attributes, His character, etcALL with an eye to or focus upon His promises and faithfulness.

Biblical Directives for Parents

2. God wants you to saturate your children with Him and His presence.

This means teaching your children how to worship GodWhat Gods word says about worship, and how God wants us to do it: singing, praising, praying, dancing, lifting hands, shouting, giving, etc.

Biblical Directives for Parents

2. God wants you to saturate your children with Him and His presence.

This means teaching them how to pray to God. The Lords prayer is the simplest way Jesus taught us to prayas children to a Father. In community is the simplest place to praywith our spiritual family.

Handling Kids in Worship

1. Have family worship at home at least once a week.

This instills the value of God and His presence at HOME. Otherwise, children associate the things of God with church.

Handling Kids in Worship

2. Communicate your expectations to your children BEFORE community worship.

If you wait until you get there, its too late because theyre already distracted.

Handling Kids in Worship

3. Keep your children with you DURING worship.

Letting them run around and play does not teach them the importance of community worship. It communicates that worship is usually just an adult thing.

Handling Kids in Worship

4. Teach and disciple your children DURING community worship.

- Keep them standing or sitting when the community is standing or sitting. - Encourage them to lift their hands and/or shout when the songs lead us to do so.

Handling Kids in Worship

4. Teach and disciple your children DURING community worship.

- Encourage the younger ones to draw pictures of what they hear during the message, in order to teach them to participate in Gods Word.

Handling Kids in Worship

4. Teach and disciple your children DURING community worship.

- Basically you are discipling your children to understand and participate in community worship the way God wants us to.

Handling Kids in Worship

4. Teach and disciple your children DURING community worship.

- Discipline is a part of discipleship, so dont be afraid to use it. Disobeying you is disobeying God. Obeying you is obeying God.

Handling Kids in Worship

5. Encourage your children on the way home

- Encourage them where they participated properly - Think of ways to reward the younger ones during the week to reinforce the discipleship and participation.

Handling Kids in Worship

NO ONE will tell you this is easy. The work never ends until your children move out.

- But you are sowing seeds in their lives which will reap a harvest of righteousness later on when they become parents.