Is church mandatory in your home?
March 11, 2009
Hey parents, I’m curious about something…
How many of you insist that your kids come to church? I was going to say “force your kids to come to church”, but that sounds a bit harsh.
I’m curious how many of our students come by their own choice, and how many come because mom says so.
I know this is a loaded question, and that every family and situation is different. I’m just curious how much freedom your kids have in choosing whether or not they come to church.
I’m pretty sure that most of our kids want to come each week. And I’d even bet that the kids that are required to come probably would come anyways.
So how do parents make these decisions? How do you respond when your child doesn’t want to come any more? When are they old enough to make that decision on their own?
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. .
9 Comments Add your own
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1. Shameeron | March 12, 2009 at 12:08 am
Hi Ryan,
As a family we have always made church and worship a priority. It is just what we do and we love our church family so we all ove to come to church. As our kids have gotten older they have conflicts that sometimes get in the way of church, such as sports. While we don’t like it, we remain flexible about it. Our kids generally want to be there. I think they are no different than adults. If you have to decide whether to sleep in or get up for church most of us don’t really want to get up. But because of our commitments to God we make the decision the night before, so we do get up. Thankfully our kids want to go.
I do think your question is loaded and i am looking forward to about 16 years from now when some of the youth leaders have kids.
2. ryanguard | March 12, 2009 at 12:11 am
16 years from now? haha! Not if Lindsay has anything to say about that
You probably mean “have teenagers”. The best high school pastors would probably those that have teenagers, but by that point most of us are cooked! In the meantime, I’ll just keep asking you guys for all the right answers.
3. Cathy Norton | March 12, 2009 at 4:31 pm
So, Shameeron and I read this blog.
The rule in our house is you go to church unless you’re dying.
If you go to a dance the night before, and it’s prom, and you get home at 4 am, you are going to church. It’s a priority. If you can’t make it to church because you’re too tired, then guess what? Next time you don’t get to go to the dance.
Because He’s GOD.
4. Anonymous | March 12, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I have 2 teenagers who have grown up @ Calvary. They are expected to attend Sundays as being part of our family worship. However, this year they have both been extremely resistant about attending Wed. nights, so we are not ‘forcing’ them to go. Honestly, we are searching out other alternatives during the week. I am also of the opinion that if we did not ‘expect’ them to go on Sundays, they would choose not to. I am currently praying about this because it goes deeper than just not wanting to ‘get up’ or whatever. They are not connecting and this is a concern for us.
5. ryanguard | March 12, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Anonymous, I’m sorry to hear that they’re not connecting. I know your kids, and our team has been talking about and praying for them this year a lot. I’d love to help out in any way I can.
I do know that both of their LifeGroup leaders would say the same thing. In fact, I know that their leaders have gone the extra mile to reach out and include them. I like to think that we’ve got pretty long arms. I’m also comforted knowing that they are infinitesimally smaller than God’s arms.
Please let us know how we can specifically support you guys.
6. Allison Yates | March 13, 2009 at 4:34 pm
We are a family that expects our children to go to church. It is part of our family….we have always said to our kids about things that they don’t understand why we have to and other families don’t on lots of issues: “we are the Yates Family and that’s what the Yates family does.”
It is a priority in our family….since birth. As parents we have to live it out….go to church to worship Jesus….even when we don’t feel like it.
We try to teach our kids that it’s not about them…we go to worship and perhaps along the way will minister to someone else that came to church that day!
We have always said that God is priority….we need to give God our best…..
In the big picture the sacrifice is soooooooooooo small compared to the sacrifice of Jesus!
thanks for asking the question…..can’t wait till the next one!!!!
7. Karen | March 14, 2009 at 2:32 am
Sunday morning church is an important part of our family life. My daughter loves her small group leaders and girls in her group. She looks forward to seeing them each week. I think she would go with our without us. She does not have Sunday conflicts because she is not involved in anything that would conflict with Sunday morning.
8. Jen Torok | March 14, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Generally the rule is – we go to church on Sunday as a family. It’s a priority, and our kids want to be there. We haven’t really had any opposition to this yet – and we don’t really expect to. …but it just might happen, and we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it…
9. Cheryl Schuch | March 22, 2009 at 5:18 am
Hi Ryan,
I missed a whole couple of weeks, I guess, sorry my response is so late. Sarah makes the decision to go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, I don’t force her to go or even ask her, she just always wants to go. She even arranges transportation on the Sundays that I have to work. Sarah is always disappointed on the Sundays that she has a conflicting horse show and she has to miss church…that says A LOT for what you guys are doing for these kids, because horse showing is Sarah’s passion!! Keep up the awesome work!!!