Children in church

Recently, Stephen preached a couple of sermons about Public Worship. In the second sermon, he focused on the question of whether children should be in worship or not.

As promised in the sermon, below are a number of helpful resources on both the theology and practice of having children in worship from as early an age as possible, as well as a number of related issues. Note that a link isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the author or everything they have written.

Articles

Rich Holdeman (RPCNA) - Where should your children be during worship?

Daniel R. Hyde - Training children in worship

R. Scott Clark - The mystery of children’s church

Jeremy Walker - Attendance of children in public worship

John & Noël Piper - The family: together in God’s presence

John Piper - Should children sit through big church? (audio below)

Chad Bird - The church doesn’t need children’s church

Micah Anglo / Carl Trueman - How skipping church affects your children

Erik Raymond - Helping children benefit from the sermon

Scott Brown - Why You Ought to Have Your Children With You in Church

Ben Zornes - Corralling the kids as an act of worship

Christina Embree - Church is boring

Nick Batzig - Five reasons to keep the kids in

Tricia Gillespie - Teach kids to sit still

David Robertson - Children, the family and the church

Nicholas Davis - Let the little children come into big church

Neil Stewart - Remember, remember

Books

Robbie Castleman - Parenting in the Pew

Daniel R. Hyde - The Nursery of the Holy Spirit

Jason Helopoulos - Let the Children worship

Previous sermons

Stephen has previously touched on this topic in sermons on Mark 10:13-16 - once at a baptism the week we started our current crèche (where he explained the intention that children would need it for as short a time as possible), and once as part of a series on Mark’s gospel.

Both times he quoted Gordon Keddie, formerly the RPCS minister in Wishaw and now in America, who said:

‘One of the huge errors in Scotland been the banishment of children from church life until they were in their teens. At which time they rightly said if you didn't need us till now, you won't need us from here on’.

Audio

Video

Scottish Reformed Conference: RP videos

The Scottish Reformed Conference takes place every May at Hamilton College. The last two years have featured RP speakers - in 2017 it was Rev. Warren Peel from Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and in 2018, Rev. Kenneth Stewart from Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

The videos of their sermons are below. Videos from other years are available here.

The God Who Speaks

On Saturday evening we’ll be watching The God Who Speaks - a film about the reliability and authority of the Bible. You can watch the trailer below:

This is planned to be the first of a number of movie nights over the winter, and will be held in the manse at 7pm.

Representing Scotland in Canada

Last month, Stephen represented the RP Church of Scotland over two day-long meetings of the RP Global Alliance Advisory Committee.

The RP Global Alliance was established in 2015 and has representatives from the RP Churches in Scotland, Ireland, the United States and Canada. RP works in Japan and Asia are represented through the RPCNA.

L-R: Bill Matthess (Ireland), Andrew Stewart (Australia), Matt Filbert (US - via Skype), Andrew Quigley & Matt Kingswood (Canada)

Here’s an introduction to the work of the Global Alliance, taken from its constitution:

It has become clear that in recent years the Reformed Presbyterian denominations worldwide have seen new Churches established in regions where hitherto no Reformed Presbyterian Churches had existed. In addition there are further opportunities for expansion in Asia and South America. These developments are to be welcomed, encouraged, and supported where possible.

We are of the view that the time is now opportune to build on the existing relationships which have been nurtured and developed over the past 200 years.  These relationships have placed us in the very privileged position of being able to share in fellowship and mutual help at an international level, even though we are, for the most part, small national Churches.

As part of their work, the Global Alliance oversee a website and Facebook page, which are regularly updated with news from the RP Churches around the world.

On the Lord’s Day evening prior to the meetings, Stephen preached in Russell RP Church. The minister there is Matt Kingswood, who spoke at the RP International Conference in Ireland during the summer.

Former Stranraer striker speaks of suicide attempt

Former Stranraer FC striker Christian Nadé recently opened up to BBC Sport about the time he attempted suicide - two years before he joined the club.

He described how speaking to a pastor helped him turn the corner:

“I managed to talk to a pastor. I opened up to him and he started to talk to me about God and made my faith very strong. Now it doesn't matter what's happening to me, I feel very, very strong and never lonely because I've got the faith that God is always with me and he loves me no matter what.”

Earlier this year Stephen attended a 2-day Mental Health First Aid Course as part of his role as Stranraer FC chaplain. Footage from the course has since been used by a documentary on mental health in football - Tackling the Mind: