I don’t get this at all.

I’m at church this morning and this young couple brings in a 2-3 year old child into the service. The ENTIRE time they’re being fussy and loud like a typical bored 2-3 year old. They finally took him out toward the end but subjected us to the disruption for nearly the entire service.

We have childcare available with a very good team and a place for them to play and do activities supervised.

We also have a large nice new lounge-y type place with video screens to watch the service, lots of space and seating for a child to run around, there’s coffee, juice and donuts there too.

This young couple chose NOT to utilize either and instead selfishly subjected us to their child almost the whole service.

What do you do in this type of situation? Say something to them afterwords? Maybe in a very nice way point out that we have those two separate accommodations? It’s tough.

They have had ushers in several churches I’ve attended. They would have suggested the couple take advantage of child care and divest themselves of the kid before the service started. If that fails, the pastor/minister could also make an announcement about on-site child care good, crying babies bad to reinforce preferences. If they still didn’t get it, just might have to accept the loss of a couple of parishioners in lieu of disturbing the entire congregation.

People are too scared to confront others about their kids . Be polite , but consider the bigger picture .You're offering then accommodations and they need to be considerate . If they get offended then so be it .

quote:

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein." Matthew 19:14 KJV.

Guess you need to suck it up according to 'The Good Book'.

And not only in church.

I have no offspring, but something I have come to believe is that many who do are completely oblivious to what their young children are doing. It’s similar to people who seem to be deaf to their dogs’ incessant barking. “Huh? What? What noise?”

The other possibilities of, “I added to the world’s population by being a parent and therefore everyone owes me their tolerance,” or simply, “I’m an asshole and don’t care if we disturb other people,” seem less likely in a church setting.

Nobody is advocating throwing them out .

Reading a Bible verse out of context is easy to do. Putting a 3 year old into Sunday School is exactly the opposite not receiving them in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is absolutely welcoming children to the Lord.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Reading a Bible verse out of context is easy to do. Putting a 3 year old into Sunday School is exactly the opposite not receiving them in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is absolutely welcoming children to the Lord.

Don't believe they had Sunday schools when Jesus was around. if anyone's taking the verse out of context, it's the people advocating removing children from a Church service. Still, if it makes people feel better, go ahead.

That’s why I stated that “it’s tough”

Yes the Bible states that Jesus said “let the little children come to me”

But…there are children’s ministries here where the children are learning about Jesus with other children their age and the lounge where they can also listen to and watch the sermon.

It just becomes frustrating when your concentration to the sermon keeps getting broken by a child yelling or crying.

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Reading a Bible verse out of context is easy to do. Putting a 3 year old into Sunday School is exactly the opposite not receiving them in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is absolutely welcoming children to the Lord.

Don't believe they had Sunday schools when Jesus was around. if anyone's taking the verse out of context, it's the people advocating removing children from a Church service. Still, if it makes people feel better, go ahead.

Again , nobody is " removing " the children . They are asking them to be considerate of others AND providing them with an alternative that works for everybody .

At my church, most parents who have kids with them offer reasons. For instance "she just got over an ear infection, we are leaving for the beach tomorrow, and I don't want her to catch something from the kids ministry participants today."

There is always a reason.

If only the parents would also "reason" that their decisions are selfish, their kids are disruptive, and therefore today is not a good day to go to church in person. Watch the service on YouTube, LIVE.

Aren't Christians supposed to be forgiving?

For a guy like me who isn't religious, I get irritated with a grown man telling me to give him money before I take care of my own.

Just another case of mother fuckers complaining about everything...yall want the world to be better, people to be more religious and righteous, but only if it doesn't bother you.

This post is disgusting if you ask me.

I agree with PASig here. It's quite puzzling to see people advocating for children disrupting the sermon and to go so far as to take scripture out of context while ignoring applicable scripture here.

Children sometimes interrupt the sermon...that's how it goes. If the little guys aren't actually banned from the service, someone is going to choose to bring them.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Reading a Bible verse out of context is easy to do. Putting a 3 year old into Sunday School is exactly the opposite not receiving them in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is absolutely welcoming children to the Lord.

Don't believe they had Sunday schools when Jesus was around. if anyone's taking the verse out of context, it's the people advocating removing children from a Church service. Still, if it makes people feel better, go ahead.

Again , nobody is " removing " the children . They are asking them to be considerate of others AND providing them with an alternative that works for everybody .

Again, that is not what the Lord Jesus said in his teaching in the gospel 'Suffer the little children, unless of course it interferes with your enjoyment, then of course, by all means stick them in another room to avoid any disturbance.'.

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Aren't Christians supposed to be forgiving?

For a guy like me who isn't religious, I get irritated with a grown man telling me to give him money before I take care of my own.

Just another case of mother fuckers complaining about everything...yall want the world to be better, people to be more religious and righteous, but only if it doesn't bother you.

This post is disgusting if you ask me.

Quite so. Follow the scripture while it suits, then ignore it when it's inconvenient.

Our oldest daughter had a hard time with separation anxiety when we started attending a larger church in the area.

We worked with her to allow her to become accustomed to mom & dad leaving her in the children's area while we attended service. She adjusted and we all benefited.


Also, people who have aught with Christians or other religious folk probably have high degree of confirmation bias which compels them to being agitated over a simple thing like courtesy with handling toddlers in an organized church setting.

Tangential situation. Sunday night service at a very crowded Pensacola, FL church many years ago.

Evangelist was preaching, people were receiving, altar call was started and while it was ongoing an adult female came to the front and began shrieking and being very loud. Evangelist calmly but firmly called for ushers to "Escort the sister to the back please"

There are no hard and fast rules about suffering disruptions to a church service because someone might criticize. They'll very likely find something (anything) else to criticize anyway.

My church welcomes families. On the first page of the worship folder is a paragraph or two letting the busy bodies know that children can be fussy/disruptive and that it's OK by us.

As to Luke 18:16, it seems that the KJV translation is confusing some people. The word aphete means to let or allow, which is how most translations render this word. To translate it as "suffer" is inaccurate.

aphete is in the aorist tense here therefore we know he's speaking directly about "these children".

These children he's referring to are children who had likely had an illness and their mother or father would try to squeeze through the crowd gathered around Jesus in the hope that Jesus would touch them and heal them.

If people need instruction on the raising of children, read Ephesians 6, Colossians 3:20, Proverbs 22, etc. Luke 18:16 and the parallel in the other synoptics is not a verse that is applicable in the OP's situation.

The case could be made that this verse could apply in a situation where a minor child wants to attend a church service (or be baptized which I run into frequently) and parents won't let them, but that isn't the situation described in the OP.