Are children getting anything out of a worship service?

Taken from an article by Jason Parker.

While I don't totally agree with everything the article contains, his response to the question  "Do you really think that they are getting anything out of it?" contains some good insights...

Yes, we do. This question is motivated by two erroneous tendencies. The first tendency is to forget that corporate worship is first and foremost about what God gets out of it, not what we get. God has clearly said in his Word that he is pleased by the praise of children (Ps 8:2 and Matt 21:15-16; Matt 19:13-14). In fact, he has ordained it as an evidence of his glory to his enemies. Having said this, we do not intend to imply that worshiping God and personal edification are mutually exclusive categories. They are, in fact, profoundly complementary. But the point here is that when we decide whether or not to keep our children with us as we engage with God corporately, we should take seriously the fact that God delights in the presence of “infants and nursing babes.”

The second erroneous tendency is to think of “getting something” out of the church service in purely rationalistic categories. In other words, usually behind this question is the question of whether children can intellectually understand a 45 minute Scriptural exposition. If we realize that this is actually an issue for every person present, of whatever age, depending upon their background, previous exposure, personal interest, etc, then we will be less likely to improperly label this as a “problem” with having children in a church service. 

Actually, we believe that every child who is brought to worship God with his family is getting something out of the church service, even at an age when he is apparently unable to follow what is going on. This is so because of the incredible ability that God has put in human beings to learn.[2] For example, would it make any sense to say that adults should never speak English to their newborn babies or converse in English around their babies because babies don’t understand it? After all, language is incredibly complex, and even experts can’t explain it all. Yet we would contend that that is absurd, because we all know that the way babies come to learn English is by interacting with those who speak English. Similarly, the way that children learn about engaging with God is by being with those who are truly engaging with God. 

Furthermore, we would contend that children do get more cognitive content than they are often given credit for, especially if the parents are working with them at home. For example, memorizing a simple catechism gives young children a conceptual framework to which they can attach what they hear when they listen to a sermon. They might only get one point from the sermon, but that one point is a point well taken. 

In addition to the cognitive content that children receive in the service, they also receive affective content. They will begin to learn the proper posture of the heart in relationship to God - things like reverence and true joy rather than triviality and flippancy. When children are surrounded by adults who are pouring out their hearts to God in song and prayer and who are attentively listening to God’s revealed Word, they will be deeply impacted.