What is the family integrated church movement? Why do people attend family integrated churches? Here are seven reasons!

Table of contentsFirst, a Family Integrated Church Fits the New Testament PatternJesus Had Children Present When He TaughtPaul Had Children Present When He TaughtPaul Expected Children to Be Present When His Letters Were ReadSecond, a Family Integrated Church Allows Parents to Spend More Time with Their ChildrenThird, a Family Integrated Church Encourages Fathers to Be Spiritual LeadersEncouragement for WivesFourth, a Family Integrated Church Allows the Church and Home to Look Alike"What If My Children Don't Sit Perfectly in Church?"Fifth, a Family Integrated Church Surrounds Children with Adults and InfantsSixth, a Family Integrated Church Surrounds Children with Wisdom Versus FoolishnessSeventh, a Family Integrated Church Gives a Family to Those Without FamiliesWhy Aren't More Churches Family Integrated?My Personal Burden Because I must "Give an Account"

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What is the family integrated church movement? Why do people attend family integrated churches? Here are seven reasons!

My previous post on having children in worship examined Old Testament verses. This is part two and it examines New Testament verses.

First, a Family Integrated Church Fits the New Testament Pattern

Matthew 21:12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

The religious leaders were upset about two things:

First, what Jesus was doing—healing the blind and the lame.

Second, the children in the temple—they didn't want them making noise and crying out praises to the Lord.

But Jesus wanted the children there, and He defended their presence and praise.

Jesus Had Children Present When He Taught

Mark 9:35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Notice not what Jesus said, but what He did. Jesus was in the middle of teaching, and He reached down and grabbed a child. He didn’t have to tell one of the disciples to go get a child from somewhere to serve as an object lesson. He had children around when He was teaching.

Mark 10:13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

First, we see another instance of Jesus rebuking people who tried to keep children away. Second, He argued that children are central to the kingdom of God. That’s a strong statement that I think argues for children to be present during worship. If the kingdom of God belongs to people who are like children, then we should probably have children worshiping with us.

Paul Had Children Present When He Taught