Churches in America are heavily focused on children and families. As they should be. Afterall, if the church is to continue, we’ll need to raise up leaders and disciples to keep our churches running. But young parents today just don’t seem to be doing enough to get their kids into church. Sports, music, coding classes, math competitions, art lessons… the list goes on. Many choose these activities at the expense of time spent at church. I often pray and ask why. Why does church so often seem to sit lower on the priority list than these other activities?
Afterall, church attendance is tied to discipleship and making disciples is what we’re all commanded to do in Jesus’ Great Commission. Well maybe it’s not that simple. A parent is called by God to “raise up a child in the way they should go so that when they are older they will not depart from it. Is that not what these parents are doing? Many of us are concerned about our children’s future and see how other families plan their time, filling every moment with something important that will make them into better people in the future.
Six or seven hours of school, two hours of sports training, an hour of arts or music practice, two or three hours of homework and what’s left? What about dinner around the table? What about a family reading and praying together? What about relationships with friends? Is this packed to the brim life producing the desired results? I don’t think they are.
“According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 1 in 3 of all adolescents ages 13 to 18 will experience an anxiety disorder. These numbers have been rising steadily; between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in children and teens went up 20%.”
And yet we’re the church. We’ve got peace like a river, don’t we? Or have we (churches broadly) turned into just another place to perform? Is it yet one more thing clamoring for the time and efforts of families already stretched to the breaking point? One night at Knights of Agon I decided to take the group through a silence and solitude exercise. I didn’t really know how this group of energetic kids would react to being asked to stay silent for two full minutes while just listening to what God may be saying to them. Imagine my joy when one of them says “wow, that actually felt REALLY good in my brain”.
It seems to me that the Prince of Peace would love to have some time with these young people if they could just do a little less. Maybe if they could spend some time just lying in the grass or counting the stars then they could hear God calling out their name. I don’t claim to have the answers to todays’ very difficult questions about kids and families in the church, but what if the church is a place where young people just sit and experience the Peace that passes all understanding rather than a place that asks even more of them?
