I’ve been stewing on this discussion for the past few days. I’m one of the pastors at Clearnote Bloomington, and our practice has been explained by Tim above. So that’s where I’m coming from.
We are arguing about a particular practice having to do with corporate worship, and we actually all (or pretty close to all) agree about most of it:
- We agree that it is a good thing to be in corporate worship with the people of God.
- We desire to train our children so that they love to be in the corporate worship of God like we do.
- We believe in the preeminence of preaching as the powerful tool that God has given to His church to spread the gospel.
So what gives? On one side, Mark Jones says that if you send your children out of corporate worship you must think 1) that children do not belong in the kingdom of God, and 2) that they have nothing to contribute to the body of Christ. Children should always be present during corporate worship.
I grant that some churches who send children out of corporate worship do believe those things, but is there anyone here who wants to actually accuse us of that? Seems ridiculous to me.
I think our position as a church is pretty clear, so I’ll just add this observation: This discussion reminds me of the debate regarding instruments in worship that we sometimes have with our RP friends. And my answer here is the same as it is there: would you please acknowledge that your position isn’t quite as strong from Scripture as you think it is? I understand that you have your reasons for your practice and beliefs, and God bless you. But please acknowledge that there is liberty in these matters, and let’s try to be at peace with one another.