Children in the Worship Service:
A Confessional Lutheran Perspective 
by Corrine Burmeister                

Originally composed for a Children's and Family Ministry class in December 2023; Adapted for OSLC Summer 2024     

The concept of “Children’s Church” was unheard of in Christianity before the 20th century. Shortly after the 1950s, however, the practice of removing children from the worship service in order to attend their own separate, “kid-friendly” worship service spread quickly throughout American Christianity. Within the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), there has been a variety of responses to this trend. Some congregations have chosen to remove children for all or part of the service, citing the need for more orderly services, a break for parents, or a perceived need to engage children at an easier level. At Our Savior, we have intentionally kept children in the service for the entire duration alongside their families and the whole intergenerational church community. Why do we do this, and is this the right approach? 
 

To answer this question, we must first understand how children are viewed within Confessional Lutheran theology. Along with Scripture, we confess that all humans are conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5, ESV) and that “there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:3b). Adults and children alike lack “not only the act of fearing and trusting God, but also the ability or gifts needed to produce such fear and trust” (Ap II.3).[1] Because of this, both adults and children face “the punishment and penalty for original sin, which…is death [and] eternal damnation” (FC SD I.13).
 

Infants and children are like adults not only in the fact of their sinfulness but also in their capacity for and actual possession of faith. In his seminal work, Christian Dogmatics, Francis Pieper points out that “scripture…not only ascribes faith to children, but in addition tells adults that they must first be reduced to the state of children before they can enter the Kingdom of God.”[2] Infants do not try to hide their dependence on other people. As we grow, however, we tend to take increasing pride in our own self-reliance. Knowing this, we adults can actually look to young children as a reminder of the type of faith God desires – one that has unfeigned honesty about dependence on Christ![3] At the same time, we also recognize that children are not in church simply to encourage adults. As Pieper points out, “theirs is not a potential but an actual faith, that is, one they have now as children (Matt. 18:6; 1 John 2:13).”[4] Children have faith, and in that faith have equal standing with adults before God. Thus, children need access to God’s blessings in Word and Sacrament just as much as adults do!
 

Because of of the fact that Scripture very clearly tells us that all humans are conceived and born in sin and that children have the same capacity for faith as adults, Lutheran Christians have always taught “that it is necessary…that one should also baptize children, who through such baptism are entrusted to God and become pleasing to him” (AC IX.1-2). We know that baptism brings about the very real benefits of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. This is a vertical reality (between the person and God) that also has implications for our horizontal reality (our relationships with each other.) Dr. Peter Scaer, from our seminary in Fort Wayne, points out that “as soon as children are baptized, they are considered members of the church.”[5] Being members of the body of Christ and heirs of eternal life means that children are to be included in the full life of the church. This includes the worship life of each child’s congregation!
 

In order to address how children are to be included in a congregation’s worship life, it is necessary first to define “worship,” as there are a wide variety of ways American Christians understand this concept. For Lutheran Christians, worship is something that consists mainly of God’s action toward us, not our action toward God. “This is how God wants to become known and worshiped, namely, that we receive blessings from him [emphasis mine], and indeed, that we receive them on account of his mercy and not on account of our merits” (Ap IV.60). The confessors also note that “the chief worship of God is to preach the gospel” (Ap XV.42). Thus, for Lutheran Christians, worship is not something we do together in order to feel a certain way or to understand at a certain level, but is rather a gathering in which we hear the Gospel and receive the gifts Christ offers in His Word and Sacraments.

Having established this understanding of "worship," we remember that Christ desires to bring all people to Himself, including little children, “for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 19:14). Christ’s gifts are for all his people. Thus, any decisions we make about children and their place within the worship life of the congregation must ensure that at the very minimum, children regularly hear the Gospel and are able to receive the blessings God intends for humanity in His means of grace (Word and Sacrament) together with other members of the body of Christ. For very young children, this means hearing the Word and having access to Baptism. For older children who are able to examine themselves and discern the body and blood, the gift of the Eucharist is included as well.
 

We do well, however, to think beyond what children must be included in minimally in order for us to be doing our due diligence to them as members of our congregation. Children, like adults, benefit from the rich heritage and symbolism of the entire worship service. Dr. David Scaer, also from our seminary in Ft. Wayne, says this well:

From the youngest to the oldest, each person, depending on intellect and with emotion and experience, grasps at a level appropriate to his or her development what is happening in a church service. With the crucifix affixed to the processional cross, the candles, and the book of the Gospel, the pastor comes from the back of the church to the chancel at the beginning of the service. Children take it all in and sometimes blurt out an “Amen” at the end of the prayers, especially the Lord’s Prayer. Their minds wander, and in this way they are not unlike the rest of us.[6]
 

As Scaer points out, adults do not pay perfect attention during the church service, nor does every adult understand the different aspects of the service to the same depth. Do we rate adults on their ability to focus or theological prowess in order to place them into separate worship spaces appropriate to their level of learning or capacity for understanding? Certainly not! We know that faith does not consist primarily of our head knowledge. As the Confessors state, “the faith that justifies is not only a knowledge of history; it is to assent to the promise of God, in which forgiveness of sins and justification are bestowed freely on account of Christ” (Ap IV.48). There is much to be learned from participating in the full service, even for very young children – learning the liturgy through repetition, hearing the pastor teach extensively on the Word during the sermon, learning hymns, saying portions of the corporate prayers, etc. All these contribute deeply to the child’s lifelong religious schema. Just as a new convert will not understand everything in the service but will gain more and more by repeated exposure, so too will children. “Children, as regular participants in the worship within the church, learn their Christian doctrine by hearing the Scripture read and hymns sung. The consistency of the liturgy Sunday after Sunday allows them to commit it to memory.”[7] If we would not separate adults of varying intellectual capacities into worship services appropriate to their IQ or to their level of theological knowledge, why would we do so for our youngest members?
 

Another question to consider is whether we see any examples of children being separated from the worship life of the congregation in the Bible. While there were most certainly opportunities for children to learn the Scriptures from individualized instruction (the boy Jesus in the temple is a great example: Luke 2:41-49), the children were by no means excluded from worship. As Christian scholar Joel R. Beeke points out, "The Scriptures teach us to view the assemblies of the church as gatherings of the household of faith….When the Israelites celebrated the feasts of the Lord, the law required them to come to the sanctuary as ‘households,’ including sons and daughters and even servants (Deut. 12:7,12).”[8] In Jesus’ day, we see that “children were also present in the synagogues where Christ taught (Matt. 18:2, 19:13-15).”[9] Additionally, in the New Testament era, “Paul’s letters, intended to be read to the churches, assume the intelligent presence of children (Eph 6.1-4; Col 3.20).”[10] There is a vast continuity in Scripture – children have always been fully included and integrated in the worship life of the community. We should thus be resistant to those who would advocate completely removing children from the divine service. If God has consistently and intentionally included children in the full worship life of the congregation in both the New and Old Testament Church, who are we to say we know better? 

           

Those who argue for separate children’s and adult worship spaces often do so not from a theological standpoint, however, but from a place of concern for the child’s faith development. “If we can help children engage with Scripture in a fun, developmentally accessible way, that will lead to better long-term faith retention.” Or, “Making children sit through boring services that go way above their heads tells them that Jesus isn’t relevant to them.” As Lutheran Christians, our highest priority is upholding the truth of God’s Word and implementing practices that are most in line with that Word. At the same time, we would be foolish to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we could never benefit from modern scholarship. We are to use our intellect and discernment regarding today's best practices, fitting the most helpful pieces into our churches where appropriate, while yet always bringing everything into submission to Biblical doctrine and practice. So, we must ask: does modern research agree with our theology?

Gratefully, the theological reasoning we just walked through is in lock-step with the research on this issue. Scottie May, Katie Stemp, and Grant Burns, all specialists in the field of children’s spirituality, summarize the research as follows:  

Common themes in these [scholarly] works [from the 1980s-2010s] include the incredible capacity that children—even young children—have to experience and reflect on God. These scholars emphasize the formative value for adults and children alike to worship together and the significance for intergenerational participation in God’s story while also hearing each other’s stories. They also point out the importance of equipping parents for the powerful, unique role that they have in the spiritual formation of their children.[11]  
​

In her article for the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, Heather Ingersoll echoes this conclusion: “participation in the worship life of the congregation is found to have a positive influence on children’s spiritual development and is considered by many scholars to be a best practice in the nurture of children’s spirituality.”[12] She also notes that  “the growing body of literature around children’s spirituality and the rights of children as agents and participants in their own social contexts should continue to provide a framework to better understand children as spiritual agents.”[13] This agrees beautifully with Lutheran Christian theology – children are full members of the body of Christ and deserve to be in worship for all the same reasons adults deserve to be in worship. As Pieper notes, “Though we are unable to describe in detail the faith of infants according to its inward operations, we know that it actually apprehends Christ. Scripture states explicitly that little children ‘believe in Me’ (Matt. 18:6).”[14] If children have faith, that faith needs to be nurtured utilizing the means God has given for that purpose alongside the whole body of believers.

​

Having established this beautiful agreement between Lutheran Christian theology and contemporary research, do we then conclude that we have permission to go on exactly as we always have, secure in the knowledge that we are already doing everything right? The answer is of course, no - we can find ways to more meaningfully include children in the worship life of the church. In their 2021 published research among United States Churches of Christ, Shannon Rains, Jennifer Reinsch Schroeder and Ron Brunner note that “Churches with children present in corporate worship typically look for moments of engagement rather than planning for intergenerational community.”[15] This is convicting. Many LCMS congregations include children’s messages as part of their services, which is definitely a positive step in engaging children. At the same time, if this is the only way in which children feel able to engage, we should think critically about how our services are experienced by children. Simply adding more opportunities for children to stand in the front of church to sing, while a positive means of helping children feel valued, is not ultimately a solution to the problem of engagement. As Robert Devries writing for Reformed Worship, aptly notes, “Children should not be ‘showcased’ any more than adults should be the focus of worship. But they can and should be active participants in worship.”[16] Being an active participant means that we must teach, empower, and equip parents to be the main faith-teachers for their children that God intends them to be. Coloring pages and busy bags are nice touches and aids for beleaguered parents, but we can go deeper.

Over the next several months and years, I and the board of Parish Education will work to continually improve support to Our Savior's parents by providing quality children’s worship materials, instruction, and modeling so they feel equipped to help their children learn to meaningfully participate with the whole people of God, receiving the gifts God desires to give. We do not have to “dumb it down” to make the service appealing to children. David Ng and Virginia Thomas agree. “Worship can have the depth of content and the integrity that reflect the highest of biblical and traditional standards and at the same time have appeal to children….[This] can be done without restoring to gimmicks and distortions that are mistakenly thought to be appealing to children.”[17]

Children will soak up all that they see and hear - let's give them something substantive to learn about and wrestle with! Removing the history, symbolism and mystery of our services in favor of something simpler and more "kid friendly" removes the intrigue and the incentive for them to keep digging into God's Word and the life of the Church. By robbing them of these experiences, we end up communicating that faith is something that can be mastered and is not necessary for life in the adult world.

​

This review of evidence paints a clear picture that LCMS congregations would be ill-advised to remove children from the corporate worship service. If the practice of having a completely separate “children’s worship” is being practiced, we can educate gently from God’s Word and the complementary research evidence to advocate change. In congregations where children are already included in corporate worship, we can think critically and creatively about ways to make the service accessible for all children of God, recognizing that all generations benefit from each other’s presence. We must find ways to do this without compromising the depth and integrity of the service itself. These are tall orders, but orders we can receive in joy, for we know “that in the Lord [our] labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58). We “are serving the Lord Christ” (Col 3:24).

 

 

​

 

Footnotes

 

[1] All quotations from the Book of Concord are from Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).
 

[2] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Volume II  (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 448.

 

[3] I owe this wording, “honesty about dependence,” to Dr. Michael Eschelbach, who, during a Hermeneutics class I took from him in Spring 2023, used this phrase repeatedly when translating and interpreting the word πίστις (pistis): "faith.”

 

[4] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Volume III  (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 277.

 

[5] David P. Scaer, “Infants and Children in the Church: A Lutheran View,” in Infants and Children in the Church: Five Views on Theology and Ministry, ed. Adam Harwood and Kevin Lawson (B&H Academic, 2017), 87.
 

[6] Ibid., 92.

 

[7] Ibid. 101.
 

[8] Joel R. Beeke, “Children in the Church,” Puritan Reformed Journal 4, no. 2 (July 2012): 207, https://cui.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLAiC9Y190430000698&site=ehost-live.

 

[9] Ibid.

 

[10] Jeremy Walker, “Attendance of Children in Public Worship Services,” Banner of Truth (July 11, 2002), https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2002/attendence-of-children-in-public-worship/.

 

[11] Scottie May, Katie Stemp, and Grant Burns, “Children’s Place in the New forms of Church: An Exploratory Survey of their Ministry with Children and Families,” Christian Education Journal 8, no. 2 (Fall 2011): 282, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/073989131100800204.

 

[12] Heather N. Ingersoll, “Making Room: A Place for Children’s Spirituality in the Christian Church,” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality 19, no. 3-4 (2014): 170, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1364436X.2014.979774.

 

[13] Ibid., 175.

 

[14] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Volume II  (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 449.

 

[15] Shannon C. Rains, Jennifer Reinsch Schroeder, and Ron Brunner, “Ministry and Worship with Children among Churches of Christ in the United States: A Quantitative and Qualitative Investigation,” Christian Education Journal 18, no. 2 (August 2021): 186, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739891320961111.

 

[16] Robert C. Devries, “Both Seen and Heard: Why Children Belong in Worship,” Reformed Worship 36 (June 1995), https://www.reformedworship.org/article/june-1995/both-seen-and-heard-why-children-belong-worship.

 

[17] David Ng and Virginia Thomas, Children in the Worshipping Community (Atlanta: Westminster/John Knox, 1981), 24. https://archive.org/details/childreninworshi0000ngda.​​