Divided

Back in 2004, Darin and I started thinking about what a rat race church was becoming for us.  It was a huge hassle to get all our kids into their age appropriate classrooms (big church, long lines) and then ourselves into the service on-time.  We started thinking about just taking our kids into church with us. 

Then a friend of ours loaned us the book, Parenting in the Pew.  This helped us start getting a bigger picture of what we could accomplish by taking our kids into church with us.  It started to become more than just a way to get out of standing in line.  We also came across Vision Forum Ministries.  This site has a lot of great articles about bringing the families back together in church.

Just as we were starting to get into a groove with the idea of our family worshiping together, the leadership in our church decided that children 7 and under were not allowed into the service.  I am not exaggerating when I say that the Children's Pastor stood up and LITERALLY said, "We can disciple your children better than you."  I'm not kidding.  He said it.  I know for sure because when I looked over at Darin to confirm what I heard, he would not make eye contact with me.  And that was our last day at that church.

So now we are members of a great church that allows us to bring our kids into the service with us.  It's not a thing that many of the other members do, so we do get quite a few stares when we walk in with our crew.  Sometimes we do get encouraged by those sitting around us who give Darin and me the ol' punch in the arm by saying, "Your kids are so well-behaved!"  But the goal is just for our family to worship together.  To be on the same page about what we heard at church and to be able to have a discussion about it at lunch.  It's nice.  :-)

SO...all that to say, this weekend Darin, the kids and I watched a great movie titled Divided.  A lot of us have heard about the Barna Survey that shows that 80% of church youth are leaving the church when they graduate from high school and go to college.  This movie explores why and what can be done to lower that stat.  I really recommend this movie.  You can watch it for free RIGHT HERE.