Integrated and Invested Families

This post is the next in our series looking at the Seven Foundations at Christ the King. You can also read about our new Mission and Vision statements. 

Today, we will consider our fifth foundation: Integrated and Invested Families

God Made the Family

As God created and filled the earth with life, at the end of each day he saw that his handiwork was good. Then, on the sixth day, after creating mankind in his own image, he looked out at his finished work and saw that all things were very good (Gen. 1:31). Something interesting occurs, however, in the next chapter of Genesis as we zoom in on the creation of man and woman. 

God at first creates Adam from the dust of the ground and breathes life into him. It is here we read that something is not good. “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’” (Genesis 2:18). Adam was not created to be alone, and it follows that none of his children (you and me) are either. In response to this aloneness God made Eve, and together they formed the first family and were given the mandate to be fruitful and multiply.

From the very beginning of creation we see that God created the family and he has always worked through the family. The family is the foundation for all of society, and that includes the church.

Adam and Eve were given the promise that their Savior would be one of Eve’s offspring (Gen. 3:15). And throughout redemptive history, we see God working through families, preserving his people, and bringing about the birth of the offspring, Jesus of Nazareth.

It is evident throughout Scripture that God loves families, and at CTK we want to love and serve families too. That is why our fifth foundation is Integrated and Invested Families. In this short post, I want to consider both parts of this foundational value.

Integrated

First, by the word integrated we emphasize the importance of families worshipping together on Sundays. Fundamentally, we believe that church is who we are and not something that we do. We value our children staying through the whole worship service because we believe that the whole worship service is for them. Our mission is to minister the King’s gifts to his people, and that includes all his people, even the littlest members of his church.

This emphasis on including our children in our worship is a core part of our underlying theology. We believe that our children belong to God, and thus belong in the worship service. Sometimes our theology is referred to as covenant theology, because we see the covenant(s) God makes with his people throughout history as central to our understanding of Scripture and of our relationship to God.

In simplest form, the covenant God makes with his fallen, sinful people is a gracious covenant in which Jesus Christ is the mediator. He is the promised offspring of Eve who crushes the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). He is the offspring of Abraham through whom all the nations of the earth are blessed (Gen. 22:18). And this covenant made with Abraham, which is fulfilled in Christ, is an everlasting covenant that is made to believers and to their children (Gen 17:7). God has always worked through the family, and he continues to do so today.

As a quick aside, this is also why we believe the children of members in our church should also be baptized. Here is a short, biblical argument for infant baptism:

God made a covenant promise to Abraham that he would be a God to him and to his children (Gen 17:7-9). This promise is reiterated to the church by Peter (Acts 2:38-39), demonstrating the unifying nature of the one covenant of grace. The administration of this covenant with Abraham had the sign of circumcision, which was replaced by baptism after Christ (Col. 2:11-12). In both administrations, it was a sign and seal of God’s gracious promise (Rom. 4:11-12) and is properly given to children of believers as they are considered holy unto God (1 Cor. 7:14).

In light of all the above, we want our children in the service with us, even when they are loud and fussy. We believe that the net gain of their presence far outweighs any possible downside.

Invested

However, we also do not want to minimize the downsides either. We know that it is hard for parents to wrangle their kids during the service. It makes it hard for them to feel like they are fully participating in the worship as they are being pulled (often literally!) in many different directions by their children. But it is worth it!

We want our families to feel invested in the church, and also invested in by the church. We want our families to be serving the church together, and being served by the church. That is why, we encourage families to consider how they can serve with their kids on our different serve teams, like helping to prepare communion, or serving as greeters. 

We also are always looking for more ways that we can better serve and equip our parents to love and care for their children well. Here are a few things that we do currently,

• We have started printing activity kits for our children to use during the service. These kits are available in the foyer, and include a clipboard with a kids’ bulletin, coloring pages, crayons, and other items. 

• We do have a loving and safe nursery available during the service for children four and under. Parents do not need to check in their children for nursery, but we know that sometimes our toddlers just need to run around and get their wiggles out. There is a TV with a livestream of the service in the nursery so that volunteers and parents who need to step out for a moment can still follow along with the service.

• The back area of our sanctuary is a great place for children to also roll around if needed, with some comfy chairs for parents to sit in, if they need to take a quick break from sitting in the pews.

We are always looking to hear from parents with other ideas of how we can love and serve our children, so if you have any ideas or comments, please reach out to us!

Finally, we care about the discipleship of our children. Two ways we do this currently is through Sunday school classes for our children, and encouraging parents to be doing family worship.

We have two kids Sunday school classes for PreK through 1st grade, and 2nd through 5th grade. Both classes are going through the Biggest Story Curriculum to learn the story of the Bible. We rely on volunteers to teach these classes to our children every Sunday, so if you are interested in volunteering to teach or assist in teaching, please let us know!

In addition, we strongly recommend and encourage family worship. In the busyness of life, especially with all the extracurricular activities our children are involved in, it is unfortunate that family worship is one of the first things to go. Don’t let that be the case for your family! Fathers especially need to set the tone and make family worship a priority. 

It does not need to be daunting. Start small and focus on consistency. Reading one chapter of Scripture and praying the Lord’s prayer together only takes five minutes, yet the compound interest of doing this consistently day by day over the course of weeks and months and years is incalculable. As habit is formed, families can add more prayer to the routine, and hymn singing together. Parents can also ask their children questions based on the portion of Scripture just read. There are many helpful resources with sample questions and study materials, like Joel Beeke’s Family Worship Bible Guide.

Keeping children in worship service can be hard. Teaching children the truths of Scripture can be difficult, and maintaining consistent family worship a daunting task. But our children are worth it. More than that, God loves our children and he calls us to disciple them in the faith (Eph. 6:4). We are committed to doing this at Christ the King, and may God bless our efforts!