From: mdw@cbnewsg.cb.att.com (mark.d.wuest)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: cell group churches
Date: 10 Sep 92 07:36:45 GMT
Organization: AT&T

In article <Sep.9.04.45.07.1992.22330@athos.rutgers.edu> seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna (S.M.) Watson) writes:
>I have for some time been interested in the idea of cellgroup churches.
>A group that I am in a bible study with has discussed it from time to time.
>One problem that has occurred to us, and has not been dealt with in any
>information that I have seen is, What do you do about children?  The 
>problem starts with infants, who need babysitting with all its attendant
>problems of availability and cost if both parents are to be involved in 
>the fellowship. As children grow older, they need to have spiritual
>growth as well.  How does the small group paradigm provide fellowship
>and teaching for them in a way they (the children) find significant and
>interesting?  From what I have seen, the cellgroups are targetted to 
>provide fellowship for Christians, and outreach to (adult) non-Christians.
>My husband and I are both "1st generation" Christians (he was raised agnostic;
>I was raised Jewish).  We would like to see our children be Christians,
>but have no experience as to how this might be done outside of the regular
>church/Sunday school/youth group paradigm (and of course the less formal
>teaching and fellowship we have as a family), especially in a cellgroup 
>focussed fellowship.

Background:  I am part of the NYC church of Christ.  Our Sunday worship
varies from the entire congregation (3000+) in the Jacob Javits Convention
Center in Manhattan to "sectors" meeting geographically and having around
300-1000, to "zones" having around 100-300, to "house churches" or
"family groups" having from 10-40 (numbers all include children).  I am
part of a sector in northern New Jersey which is over 1/3 children (!).

No matter which arrangement we meet in, there is no separate "Sunday
School" before the sermon, like churches I grew up in.  Instead, we
have classes for the children *during* the worship service for the
adults.  Yes, this means the teachers do not attend the regular worship
service, but have their own "teacher's service" before (some zones may
do it after, I don't know) the regular service.  In our family group,
the children have usually been at a different house than the adults
(we have a *lot* of children).  In our sector, teachers teach for a 6
month rotation (with so many children, and our high teacher:child ratio,
everyone gets to help).  One thing that has helped me when asking someone
to help teach:  Jesus loved children in a special way, and, "Whoever
claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." (I Jn 2)

A major point (ok, it might go without saying, but I'm saying it anyway):
Your children will learn to love God from you at home.  Check out
Dt 6, do a study on children, etc.  Allow me to *generalize* a little:
If you love God and are living as Jesus' disciples, then so will your
children.  I was raised to love God, and for that I am *very* grateful.

That said, you probably are observing that we still have classes for
children.  My wife and I have no children of our own (oops, I just negated
my whole previous paragraph!), but we both *love* kids!!  We coordinate
the teachers and lessons for our sector (there is a full-time person
who actually *plans* the lessons for the entire congregation).  When
our sector has met in family groups, it has been rather ad-hoc as far
as lesson plans in the different family groups.  What we *want* to do
is help each family group leader by distributing the lesson plans to
*them* and helping them select teachers who will help the children most.

I personally believe that, in a family group setting, there is no reason
that pre-teens (4th/5th/6th/7th grade) should not be with the adults.  If
the lesson/worship is too boring for them, *maybe* it's too boring!  OTOH,
there *are* times where material needs to be addressed that might be
"over their head", so to speak.  More often than not, these children
are too young to have made a decision to be a disciple.  (I realize this
goes against what others believe, but this is what *I* believe God
says.)  At our last family group, we let the pre-teens be "teacher's
aides" for the cradle roll.  This was a unique situation because there had
been a special devotional just for the pre-teens earlier that morning.

Anyway, I'll stop before I start rambling.  Hope this helps!

Mark
-- 
Mark Wuest                            *MY* opinions, not AT&T's!!
mark.wuest@att.com
mdw@cheshire.att.com (NeXT Mail)