HelenM

I know that my church is delighted when atheists actually want to come and hear what they have to say!

love
Helen

K

wildernesse:

I wasn't offended at all. I didn't read your message as implying anything. I was just indicating my reasons for wanting my son to have a chance to attend a church service even though he is too young to get anything out of it.

It's tough to tell what people are thinking just from reading posts. I know I've gone back and read some of mine and felt that they probably gave the wrong impression. But I didn't read anything malicious in your post whatsoever. Plus, I'm pretty thick skinned. I tend to get amused far sooner than offended.

Infinity Lover

For the sake of avoiding misinterpretation alone...

the church delighted to hear what the atheists have to say, the other way around, or both?

Marcel

HelenM

My pastor was on the radio on Monday and I liked that he advised Christians who want to share their faith, to ask people how they are doing and then LISTEN.

I hope that at my church we would listen, one on one, to people, no matter what they believe. That we would care about them as people and not just see them as 'targets for conversion'.

But, it's a church not a public debate or discussion center and so the public preaching and worship will, of course, reflect their beliefs; there is not open mike for people who believe otherwise to counter, etc...

I just noticed where K lives! K, I'm in Oak Park - if my church ever turns out to be the one your son wants to visit, I hope you'll let me know so I can meet you/sit with you, whatever...

But I don't expect it's one of the ones you drive by all the time.

love
Helen

K

Helen,

It's not. We live in Naperville. If we do go to Oak Park, I'll let you know. I think he'd be expecting quite a show for anything longer than a 15 minute drive .

HelenM

Originally posted by K:

Helen,

It's not. We live in Naperville.

Fair enough

If we do go to Oak Park, I'll let you know. I think he'd be expecting quite a show for anything longer than a 15 minute drive .

Uh-oh . That would put the pressure on, then!

Three of our four services have contemporary music with a band; I go to the other one usually but based on experience I think most kids prefer the contemporary ones; plus the volume level is high enough that kids could be in.

So - compared to some churches it probably wouldn't be the worst sort to take a three year old to, at least for the first 30 mins or so.

But when you get to the sermon it's not at all aimed at children and it's a straight 25-30 mins of sitting still and listening. I don't think I know any 3 year olds who'd sit through that. Or at least, not without heavy bribes/distractions which kind of take away the point, really. I mean, it's probably not an association you want to establish - "Let's go to church because then I get to eat candy!" etc

But - I'm sure you have similar contemporary music services closer to you. (I'd guess that Naperville Bible Church - now renamed Grace Point? - might be similar)

These wouldn't necessarily be in the magnificent buildings...but really, I wouldn't know. More and more churches are going over to more contemporary music, in my experience.

The worst ones for protocol are the liturgical ones with traditional music. They are quiet and solemn; you are jumping all over the place in their service book and they tend to suddenly go into these sung responses which you don't know unless you go there regularly...yikes...

Anyway I think your approach of prioritizing going to a church service at a building he's already shown curiosity about makes sense, at this stage.

But when he's older, if you are serious about showing him what's out there, there's quite a range in terms of conservative/liberal and styles of service; so I would think you'd want to be more systematic in finding out what to expect at a given service.

I've said church but I do realize you may be thinking not necessarily Christian - sorry about that...I didn't intend to imply you'd only visit Christian services...

take care
Helen