What to do with the children

I have seen over the last couple of weeks/days some questions pertaining to the children and “how to” incorporate them into the house church setting.
Questions to ask yourselves.
What is a house church?
Who is the house church for?
When a child joined the family, was it born into the life of the family, or was the family born into its life?
Are the children disturbing the adults?
Have we alienated our children from church because we have made it about a meeting?
We have been meeting as a house church for over 2 years. We now have ages 4-19 in our midst. We do not send them away or off to another space. They are a part of it because house church is our life. We are not doing meetings, we are becoming a family.
They help us pick out worship songs. And we have flags and musical instruments out for them.
They share their struggles of life as we gather in a circle to hear the good and bad.
We pray together and bless one another.
We break bread and eat a big long meal together.
We gather for a discussion of the Word and find application.
We are not driven by programs or agendas, we are meeting together to become a church ready for whatever is coming. It has taken some time to train them to participate as it has taken us adults time to unlearn the simply sitting and receiving. We were together 6 hours yesterday, loving one another. You cannot get that by 90 minutes a week, and sending them into a room apart from the whole body. If children are leading street meetings in other countries, why cannot ours here??
So yesterday, a 12 year old fascilitated the meeting. She had the music ready, started the prayer time and had the youth share their lives while the adults listened and encouraged. She over saw the bread and juice being passed around and helping another youth bless it.
Then after eating, they ran into the woods to play. Someone got hurt, and they loved and prayed together. THAT is life! No
program is going to teach or demonstrate that.
The Word shows us that the youth became kings over nations, surrounded by advisors, but young nonetheless. Have we done a service to ours by prolonging growing up?

What to do with the children part 2.
I was encouraged by the responses on the posting about the children I thought I’d share another tidbit.
Last week we decided to share our testimonies. The adults had to do theirs in 5 minutes. We had 2 adults that failed at 12 minutes! But we made it through! We let the children have fun with the timer as adults can be long winded and drag on! We decided to do this because sometimes our adult issues are weekly and boring. And now that we have a house church setting, and they are not carted off to Sunday school, why not take the time for them to hear the real testimonies of those who came into the faith. Some are dramatic, some not so much, but they need to hear those stories and how our God is faithful.
The models we came out of left the salvation stories to the select few and sometimes to those dramatic ones that the youngsters did not need to hear. Why not? They hear it from their hopeless friends. They see the hypocrisy of “going to church” but not us adults being the church. Sometimes adults say they are saved but then act the fools at home.
We are changing that! We want our lives to be the same at home as they are in front of our friends. And let me tell ya, holding a meeting in the home will make things real! And the children are quick to call parents and adults out!
When did we reach a place that excluded the families and help each other raise our children together? If the public school system can make statements such as “it take a village to raise a child.” How did we think that bringing them up in the ways of the Lord would be different?
We have some within our group that are great at playing with the children. So we throw some toys on the floor and let them play. Guess what, they ARE listening to us. They are learning to get along! If we adults are going to spend eternity together, so will they! Why not get a jump start and help them out! BTW, there might be some future son in laws and daughter in laws that are forming solid relationships right in front of us as we adults start to like each other and become a family! Crazy? Sure, but why dream and helping the children learn to respect and stay pure within the safety of our homes?

Amber Alcoser 11/8/2020