One Family Under God

Here's an excerpt from One Family Under God, Tom Ascol's contribution to the March issue of Tabletalk.

He was asking a question that I had heard multiple times during my years as a pastor: "Do you have children's church?" This time, instead of giving an extensive explanation for our practice of not segregating our church worship gatherings by ages, I decided to give a briefand accurate yet intentionally provocative answer. Here's how it went:

"Yes, we do. Every Sunday."
"Great. Can you describe how it is structured?"
"Sure. We have singing, prayer, Scripture reading, giving, and teaching. We also observe the Lord's Supper monthly, and periodically we observe baptism."
"That sounds interesting. Are adults allowed to attend?"
"Absolutely! In fact, we encourage adults to attend these worship services with their children."

My conscience wouldn't let me leave this young father with a false impression, so I went on to explain that while we do have worship for children, we do not have a separate worship service exclusively for them. Rather, our worship, like our church, is designed for all ages.

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