Integrating the Next Generation into the Church

Jeff (age 14)  loves youth group. He arrives to church on Sunday morning with his family and attends youth group while his parents worship with the other adults. Jeff’s younger siblings, Karen (age 9) and Mark (age 5), attend the Kids Club during this same time. 

This is a fairly common scenario in American, UK, and Australian churches today. For some, this is simply the way church has been done for decades. Others have begun this approach more recently, as an effort to provide more “age appropriate” teaching.

An increasing number of youth workers, however, are asking the question: “At what age should children and youth start attending the worship service?” 

This is a good and important question for ministry leaders to ask. Our response should not be determined by comfort (“it could be distracting to have kids in the worship service”), but by biblical teaching about the worshipping community and a church-wide commitment to passing on the faith to the next generation.

Looking to Scripture

There are two primary texts that give insight into this question: Nehemiah 8:1-3, Psalm 78:1-8, and Ephesians 6:1-4. Of course, there are a host of passages throughout Scripture passages about passing on faith to the next generation, but these verses take place within the context of the gathered worship. 

Nehemiah 8:1-3 tells about Israel gathering to read aloud the Book of the Law as they dedicate the walls of Jerusalem. This was a corporate covenant renewal. It was significant. This wasn’t only for the leaders or for the men as leaders of their households - it was for every person who was “able to understand.” This also means, that there were some who could not understand, and they were excused from being present. Now, the semantic range of “understand” could be very narrow (literally, they were infants who couldn’t yet make sense of the words) or broad (they were young’ish and wouldn’t have appreciated the significance of what was happening). But the sense of the text lends itself to an interpretation that children were there - even if they didn’t understand the significance of everything, they could understand what was being read out loud and their parents would explain the significance to them. 

Psalm 78:1-8 is just one example of Israel’s corporate worship taking children into account. As a Psalm that would be sung during Israel’s corporate gathering, this Psalm begins with a prelude that explains the intention: to describe and recount the miraculous work of God for the next generation to remember and celebrate. If children were not part of Israel’s gathered worship, these types of Psalms would not exist. 

Similarly, Ephesians 6:1-4 is addressed to children. This is where it’s important to remember that the Epistles were letters, written to be read aloud during the church’s gathered meeting. The presence of this section (and also Colossians 3:20) strongly implies that Paul assumed children would be among those hearing the letter read aloud. 

Children and Teenagers in the Church

Although the above verses are brief, they provide examples of the biblical witness regarding children and teenagers as those who were present during gathered worship. There’s a lot more that could be researched about this topic (and I do hope that happens!), but it’s enough to persuade me that the next generation should not be separated from the adults in the church. 

Returning again to our beginning scenario: Jeff and Karen may go to the church on Sunday mornings, but they don’t actually go to church. They are not meaningful participants or contributors in the life of the church. At best, they’re seen as potential church members; and at worst, children are welcomed because the church wants their parents to attend. I think (hope!) readers of YPT will agree that children and teenagers are valuable members of the family of faith, and we dishonor them by creating this degree of separation and distance between them and the older generations. 

Children and teenagers belong in church. They don’t merely belong at church, but should be seen as valued participants and contributors to the church family. It seems safe to say that age 15 is “too late” to integrate youth into gathered worship. At the same time, the Bible does not call us to eliminate all ministry programming for younger children. Even further, there are a host of blessings a biblical youth and children’s ministry bestows upon the next generation when done in partnership with (but not during) the church’s worship service. Rather than offering a recommended age, I recommend for youth workers, church leaders, and a small group of parents to study and prayerfully discern for their own church what the right age is for your ministry context. With that said, it is wiser to ask “how soon can we integrate students into the life of the church” rather than approaching it wondering, “how late is too late?” The driving concern should not be parental comfort in the pew, but the twin concerns regarding biblical teaching regarding who belongs as part of the worshipping community and a church-wide commitment to pass the faith to the next generation.

Suggestions for Integrating the Next Generation into the Church

Slow Down, Be Deliberate

If you are reading this article and are fully “on board” with integrating youth into the church, that’s great - but you’re going to need a team. Resist the urge to make immediate changes. Instead, start a conversation with. your leadership team by discussing this article and others like it. Offer to read a book and study the topic together (this is part of the reason I wrote A Biblical Theology of Youth Ministry - for youth workers and elders/pastors to read together). Be willing to put some work into learning what others are doing and how they’ve made this transition well - and how they’ve made the transition poorly. 

Make a Three Year Plan

Usually, when we identify something we’re doing as “unbiblical,” we want to correct it immediately. Remember, you didn’t arrive at this new persuasion overnight. Making this shift will take time. Especially when it’s an institutional change, you need to think in terms of changing the culture, not merely the program. Work with those who are open to considering this change to begin with small changes (integrate children/youth into the worship service once per quarter, or once per month). 

Begin With Prayer

Many adults in your church will happily commit to pray for a teenager for the school year. Collect a list of names of adults, and then assign each of them one or two or three names (however you choose to structure it, probably depending on the ratio of adults-to-youth) and simply ask them to pray for those teenagers by name. Don’t require meetings or prayer-cards or anything. Just prayer, with occasional emails to share prayer-prompts for the prayer team. Let prayer change your church culture as it naturally draws the generations together. 

Make Space to Play and Laugh Together

It’s hard to love someone you can’t laugh with. If you want the generations in your church to love one another, to sing and pray together, and to embrace being one extended family-of-faith… then bring them together so they can simply be together. Maybe it’s an organized game night, or a church picnic, but finding ways to bring the generations together in order to foster friendships is an important part of integrating the next generation into the life of the church. 

There are so many more avenues for doing this in various contexts. If this is something you have navigated, please consider sending an article sharing your experience - what was happening, what persuaded you and your leadership team to make a change, how you did that well, and what you learned the hard way. Also, please consider joining the YPT Facebook Group in order to share your own context, questions, and reflections.