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Junior church

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Salty, Oct 6, 2010.

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  1. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Does your church have junior church? If not, why not.

    Is junior church really necesary? What would you say are the pros and cons
     
    #1 Salty, Oct 6, 2010
  2. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    We don't. In our "mother church", we do have Sunday School classes for up through junior high school but the rule is that they need to attend the alternate service (if they go to 11 am Sunday School, they go to 9 AM service or visa-versa.)

    In our new church, we've had a few parents asking for there to be a Sunday School for the junior high and I feel that it should not be necessary. By 7th grade (the age where we no longer offer Sunday School), they should be able to sit through a 75 minute service and a 30 minute message. I don't think we should keep pulling the kids out of the service and catering to their "baby-ness" of understanding but instead should bring them into the adult church to start learning more.

    Now one issue is the pastor or whoever is speaking at the time. Some people are hard to follow and I've found that even *I* have a hard time listening but I try to take something home even if it's hard. But to say "The kids are getting nothing out of it so let's get them something else" is not challenging them to learn how to get something out of it, you know??
     
    #2 annsni, Oct 6, 2010
  3. Mexdeaf

    Mexdeaf New Member

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    I will just say that I am not a fan of "Children's Church" or "Junior Church". But I am kinda old fashioned. I learned to sit quietly through a 90 minute church service quite nicely as a child.

    More seriously, I feel that families NEED to worship together. But I also understand that there are many single parents and bus ministry kids so a "one size fits all" approach will not work for every church.

    How's that for a definite non-answer?
     
    #3 Mexdeaf, Oct 6, 2010
  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Is the 30 minute message part of the 75 minutes or in addition to?

    Also are you talking about Sunday School only for 7th grader and below - or are you saying that Junior Church goes up to 7th Grade?
     
    #4 Salty, Oct 6, 2010
  5. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    The total service is 75 minutes. The message part is 30 minutes (so 45 minutes is worship, announcement and such).

    In our new church, Sunday School goes through 6th grade. After that, they are expected to sit in the service. I'm not sure if there's much difference between Junior Church and Sunday School though. :)
     
    #5 annsni, Oct 6, 2010
  6. pinoybaptist

    pinoybaptist Active Member
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    never heard of such a church....nor read of one in the Bible.
     
    #6 pinoybaptist, Oct 6, 2010
  7. Psalms11

    Psalms11 New Member

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    I'm like MEXDEAF, I learned to sit quietly with my grandmother or else something
    quick, quiet, and painful might happen. My church does have a "childrens church". I appreciate it in a fact that the curiculum targets their mindset but in the same breath I do believe that a family should worship together. Then again, that doesn't mean that we have to be in the same room. Although there are different classes for the ages, we function as a church in it's entirety.
     
    #7 Psalms11, Oct 6, 2010
  8. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Thanks for the info - I was going to say that a one hour 45 minute service would be long. (though I have been to a few churches like that)

    Just for clarification - are you saying that Sunday School for kids in grades 6 and under is held during the morning worship service - anotherwords there is no Sunday School for adults?
     
    #8 Salty, Oct 6, 2010
  9. Debby in Philly

    Debby in Philly Active Member

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    We all worship together at the beginning, and just before the long prayer and sermon the kids and their leaders leave for a "Sunday School" type experience of about an hour. There are three classes - babies/toddlers, age 4-grade 4, grades 5-8. We have no seperate "sunday school" type program.

    We have tried other models, but this is the one that works.
     
    #9 Debby in Philly, Oct 6, 2010
  10. abcgrad94

    abcgrad94 Active Member

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    We recently stopped doing Jr. Church. The teachers were the same ones teaching the kids' Sunday School classes and Wednesday evening program. They are getting older and burned out and honestly, the kids are old enough to sit through an hour service--15 minutes of which is singing, announcements, etc. The youngest child in our church is almost 9, so it's workable. At that age, they are expect to sit 45 minutes or so at a time in school.
     
    #10 abcgrad94, Oct 6, 2010
  11. StefanM

    StefanM Well-Known Member
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    I'm a big fan of age-appropriate instruction. We have age-graded Sunday School, and I don't see a problem with having an age-graded time of worship for small children.

    We can insist that they should try to get as much out of the sermon as possible, but the fact is that cognitively small children are not at the level required to comprehend most sermons.
     
    #11 StefanM, Oct 6, 2010
  12. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Yep! Our home church doesn't have adult Sunday School either. But what our home church DOES have is adult classes on Wednesday night when the kids are in their clubs (Pioneer Girls and Boy's Brigade with nursery for the little ones and junior high youth group for those kids). Right now there's a Dave Ramsey class, a class called "Focused Discipleship", another one called "Missions 101". Those are very much like a Sunday School class - but instead they are Wednesday School class. :D

    OH - and forgot to add - the new church has no adult classes at all right now. We only have the hotel for 3 hours on Sunday morning and so we have small groups in homes.
     
    #12 annsni, Oct 6, 2010
  13. ktn4eg

    ktn4eg New Member

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    Our church does have a childrens' church, but it's only for those children who are in ages K - 4th grade.

    Of course we leave it up to the parents to determine whether or not their child atttends it.

    And why do we have the cut off at 4th grade? Ask Jeff Foxworthy! :tongue3:
     
    #13 ktn4eg, Oct 6, 2010
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