Hosanna, loud hosanna
the little children sang;
through pillared court and temple
the lovely anthem rang.
To Jesus, who had blessed them,
close folded to his breast,
the children sang their praises,
the simplest and the best.
Palm
Sunday is one of the Sundays during the church year that children are most
visible in many mainline Protestant churches. In churches I have served
they have parades of children with palms during the first hymn, whether it is,
"Hosanna, Loud Hosanna" or "Ride On In Majesty."
I have
read a few different articles recently about children in worship.
One began with the question from parents: "Are my children getting
anything out of this?" While the author of that article raised some
good points, my answers to that question are different than hers.
My experience as a child in church comes from belonging to a small intergenerational church filled with supportive adults who became family. My context is not everyone's context, but that is the point of view I am writing from.
Not all of the things I learned in worship are "about Jesus" or even about church. Some of them just helped my formation as a moral human being.
Things I Learned Staying In Worship
(and I believe children can still learn today...)
1. PATIENCE
Worship is filled with reflection and quiet times, listening to others, and a lot of time that is essentially not about YOU. That practice in and of itself teaches patience and in our device and screen driven age fights against the loss of our attention spans.
2. READING
No kidding. The bulletin, the hymnal, and the corporate prayers are scaffolded reading instruction every Sunday, without the child knowing it.
3. MUSIC
I learned to read music in church from the hymnal. I learned to love music in worship. The first time I sang in front of people was in church.
4. ACCEPTANCE
Everyone at my home church did not act the same, talk the same, dress the same. I came to find out as a teenager that some of the adults in my church had developmental disabilities. As a child I didn't really care about that. They were part of my church family, and no one treated them differently so neither did I. Talk about the Gospel without words.
5. THEOLOGY
Yes, really. While this came a little later (definitely older than 6, for instance) I can still remember sermons preached when I was a child, and no not just children's sermons. They are vague, but certainly formational.
6. DIVERSITY of LEADERSHIP
In my home church everyone read scripture (all genders) and we had male and female pastors during my childhood. This sent me the subliminal message that the pulpit was open to me from the time I was aware of that being an option. Children notice these things, and here I am 25 years later getting an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary.
7. HOW to PRAY
My home church had corporate Prayers of the People where anyone could raise Joys and Concerns. The pastors would turn those into the Pastoral Prayer. While prayer is personal, it was a starting place of "how to pray" on my own.
8. THE LORD's PRAYER and the NICENE CREED
Memorized, not on purpose, just from being in worship.
What did you learn from being in worship as a child?
2 comments:
I hope to be in the area when you have your own church!
I learned many things, too.
1. I learned that church and my church family will always be my village. I've learned people are proud of me and who I am because they had a hand in my upbringing, no matter how large or small.
2. I learned how to navigate personalities -- people who don't talk much, people who are in and know everyone's business, people who don't like each other but are nice because they're in church -- we're not all perfect and we can still be real inside those 4 walls.
3. I learned how to deal with stage fright. Like you, Erin, church is where I first used a microphone, read out loud, and sang in front of people.
4. I learned the beatitudes and Apostles's Creed -- what they mean and how they apply to me.
5. I learned true, basic, and important life lessons through Sunday School songs.
6. I learned about my extended family as I'm related in some way to just about everyone there -- My great grandfather was a carpenter that helped build the church, my other great grandfather was an aluminum worker and made the original aluminum windows, my grandmothers brother carved the baptismal font, and I'm a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 3 times removed, whatever relative to just about everyone else there :-)
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