From the Pastor’s Desk…
Faith Chat:
Matthew 19: 14 “Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is such as these that the kingdom of heaven belong.’”
One of the gifts of Christian community is that we are multigenerational by default; Sunday morning worship is one of the few spaces in our society where all the generations gather at one time, in one place. We highly value this communal composition as we know that is how faith is passed on, how faith leaders are formed and nurtured. This tradition is quite countercultural as for hundreds of thousands of years, the value of children was dismissed and underappreciated. But not by Jesus. Jesus saw the value of children, their noise, messes, innocent exploring, questioning and growing. Jesus explicitly called the children to him, at a time when children were seen only as a burden, a risk
and unimportant to adults.
Jesus taught us differently, children are to be centered in the present; children are to be
encouraged, care for and are most definitely in God’s kingdom. I fear that we don’t do this well
as an overall society as more and more children are hungry, houseless, ignored, isolated and
fearful. This is the gift of St. Matthew I believe; we welcome the children as Jesus did.
One way that we are exploring to ensure that the children are welcomed is to have them be in our worship space with us and not segregated. The Faith Formation team will be integrating the
children’s items into the worship space so that families are included and welcomed as Jesus
welcomed.
Yes, we might experience a bit more noise and distraction, but we will also experience the joy,
grace and kingdom of heaven where we all belong.
See you in church!
Pastor Brigette Weier
One of the gifts of Christian community is that we are multigenerational by default; Sunday morning worship is one of the few spaces in our society where all the generations gather at one time, in one place. We highly value this communal composition as we know that is how faith is passed on, how faith leaders are formed and nurtured. This tradition is quite countercultural as for hundreds of thousands of years, the value of children was dismissed and underappreciated. But not by Jesus. Jesus saw the value of children, their noise, messes, innocent exploring, questioning and growing. Jesus explicitly called the children to him, at a time when children were seen only as a burden, a risk
and unimportant to adults.
Jesus taught us differently, children are to be centered in the present; children are to be
encouraged, care for and are most definitely in God’s kingdom. I fear that we don’t do this well
as an overall society as more and more children are hungry, houseless, ignored, isolated and
fearful. This is the gift of St. Matthew I believe; we welcome the children as Jesus did.
One way that we are exploring to ensure that the children are welcomed is to have them be in our worship space with us and not segregated. The Faith Formation team will be integrating the
children’s items into the worship space so that families are included and welcomed as Jesus
welcomed.
Yes, we might experience a bit more noise and distraction, but we will also experience the joy,
grace and kingdom of heaven where we all belong.
See you in church!
Pastor Brigette Weier
