It's a topic that comes up all over the place... Seminary classes, church discussions... And it seems that everybody has some opinion on the matter. Should the kids be in the "adult" worship, or should they be heavily encouraged to go to the Nursery or Sunday School?
It seems that so many people find children to be a distraction. Kids make too much noise, they say. They don't really understand what's going on, they claim.
Are kids too young to get the message? Is worship a place that should be limited to adults?
In today's journal entry, John Wesley writes of visiting a Society and preaching, when a large group of children descends on the place where he has gathered with the Methodist people. Wesley writes:
Twenty or thirty wild children ran around us, as soon as we came, staring as in amaze. They could not properly be said to be either clothed or naked. One of the largest (a girl, about fifteen) had a piece of ragged, dirty blanket, some way hung about her, and a kind of cap on her head, of the same cloth and colour. My heart was exceedingly enlarged towards them; and they looked as if they would have swallowed me up; especially while I was applying these words, "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins." (John Wesley, Journal, March 8, 1743)We too often have certain expectations of people in our congregations that are too difficult to meet. We have this idea that children should be well dressed, well behaved, and controlled at all times. Yet here Wesley tells us of this group of "wild children" coming to hear him preach. They weren't well dressed. They weren't accompanied by parents who were constantly shushing them and attempting to keep them under control.
Wesley doesn't seem bothered by their presence at his serious worship service. Nor does he seem to think that they are too young to understand the message. To the contrary, he says that the kids were extremely receptive to the message, so much that they looked like they could "swallow me up."
John Wesley welcomes these children with grace and love. He sees them as valuable members of the community, and as children of God. He doesn't ask somebody to take them to a different area and give them their own lesson. He includes them.
I love the language that Wesley uses to describe his inward response to these children. He says that his "heart was exceedingly enlarged towards them."
When was your heart exceedingly enlarged? Who do you need to learn to respond to with a large heart full of grace and love?
Thank you for taking the time to look at Wesley's writings. This is valuable and timely for the children of this generation.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me that so many people want to send the children/youth away during church. Granted as a young child I might have liked going and playing rather than sitting and listening, BUT, I also look back on those early days of church and I miss them.
ReplyDeleteI may have colored on the bulletin or layed down on the pew, but I remember always listening to the preacher and watching the choir and the rest of the congregation. I remember seeing the faces of everyone as the preacher spoke. The understanding looks, the amused looks, the confused looks. They impacted me.
Maybe the preachers words didn't make sense, but the facial expressions did. The ton of his voice made sense. I knew he was speaking of love, compassion, empathy, and desire by the tone of his voice. I felt it rather than heard it.
I also took in all the surroundings. It made me want to know more, why did the choir sit where they were, why was the cross over the big table, what was that table used for, why were the banners the color they were, why did the preacher sit on one side, why did they get a big bible up front but we got small ones? Why do we sit in rows, why is the carpet the color it is, what are all the candles for? Who is that person that lights the candle. Why do they all walk in together and out together.
Without the opportunity to see, feel, and ask questions, how am I as a child supposed to know I want to be a part of this community?