Immerse Blog
Going Deeper With Brad Griffin’s “Sticky Faith”
by Patti Gibbons on September 12th, 2011 -- filed under Church
Looking around the congregation during the course of my first months on staff, I noticed that families didn’t sit together for the service. Children sat with their friends, while adults rocked babies not their own and elder adults shepherded toddlers trying to make their escape down the aisle. This congregation was raising its children together. As the pastor who urged me to check out this church said to me, “The big ones care for the littler ones right down the line.” It was remarkable.
Why was this church so different? What made these adults invest in children who were not theirs? Who trained them to step into the mix of one another’s lives? This church had no programmed men’s or women’s ministries, and youth ministry was brand new.
Sunday school for all ages occurred before the main service; children’s church only met during the sermon time. If babies or toddlers made noise in the service, people smiled. If the children ran, skipped or otherwise acted like children, no one complained. If teenagers were gifted in music, prayer or service, they were invited into situations to offer those gifts to the congregation. This church put feet to the scripture that says, “Let no one look down on you because you are young.”
When the young people I observed in those early months grew, graduated and headed for college, they not only found places to worship; they stayed involved in ministry.
This small, urban congregation was marked by trust in one another.…
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