Why our Kids Worship With Us

Why Our Kids Stay With Us

Walk into a service at Footprints Church on any given Sunday, and you'll hear it before you see it: a baby's babble during the welcome, a toddler's footsteps down the side aisle, a kid's laugh landing at just the wrong (or right) moment. We don't wish that away. We've chosen it.

We know the more common model. Kids get their own space, their own lesson, their own version of church, while the adults worship down the hall. There's real value in age-specific teaching, and we still do it well before and after our service. But we've decided our main gathering is not just for grown-ups with children optionally attached. It's for the whole family of God, together, at the same time, in the same room.

Here's why.

1.  Faith isn't only taught, it's caught. When a child watches their parents sing, pray, give, and listen, they learn that worship is normal, not something reserved for a separate "kid version" of God. When the church watches a family shuffle in with snacks and a diaper bag, we're reminded that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

2.  Families spend too much time apart already.  By having our kids in service, it creates a family time, and a way to even have conversations after the service.

3.  Kids teach us.  We learn so much from the kdis in our services--enthusiasm, innocence, vulnerability and trusting faith.  

4.  Kids play a role in our services.  Our church strives to be intergenerational.  Kids will read Scriptures, and even help with worship.

5.  Our goal is to teach parents to disciple their kids, just do the work for them.  We will often do a kids Sunday or provide a resource for parents to do follow-up activities.

Communion Sundays. Baptisms. The moment the whole room goes quiet for prayer. We want our children present for these things, not sheltered from them, because we believe they belong to Christ's body now, not just someday.

Bring your kids. Bring the noise. This is their church too.

***Disclaimer:  We love kids, and we know it is hard, especially for parents of toddlers.  We do provide a nursery with background checked supervision for kids aged 1-3.