A church in Pennsylvania has unintentionally sparked a debate after publicly welcoming noisy children during worship. The Mt Washington United Brethren Church circulated a memo detailing “comprehensive procedures regarding loud children in worship”.
“The sound of children in worship is not a distraction”, it said. “It is evidence of life, growth, and the future of the church….If your child makes noise, you are not bothering us. You are blessing us.”
After the message spread on social media, critics argued that the church was not a daycare centre, and children should be taught to sit quietly during services. Others praised the church for its more compassionate reflection of Christian values.
Church Pastor, Alan Harbold, responded: “We were thrilled to see the idea of this post gaining so much traction not just from our posting, but the sharing and re-creations of the post, drawing the attention of many people to the idea of how important it is to have families worship together. Jesus Himself in the book of Matthew says to let the little children come to Him.”
While addressing the fact that it’s important for parents to be parenting their children, he added that ,”the most important part is getting the kids to church in the first place, and we want to have an atmosphere that welcomes families to come and worship without fear of being ‘annoying’ or ‘too much’”.
I bet many churches would be delighted to have a problem like that!
Read the story here.