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| By Jamie Doyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| I have a feeling that I will be touching
an interesting subject in this article. So many churches don't deal with
it and therefore so many children's churches or services don't deal with
it. I'm talking about the proper use of an altar in your church or service.
Unless room for response is made, many times people will only go to an altar
a few times in their life; once when they get married and/or when they get
saved. And possibly if they come when they have no where else to turn. I
believe an altar time plays a vital role in the maturing of the child's walk
with God as well as the intensity of the service.
Where will children respond and receive unless you give them a time and a place to do it? Everywhere else the world has the attention of your children most of the week. These kids have been given a time a place to respond and receive from the world on an hourly basis. Think about commercials, television shows, peer pressure at school and even in your own backyard. "Here, try this… this is fun… just do what I do… you need one of these… buy this!" And then comes the response from the children… "Ok, I'll try it… this IS fun… mom, I want that… I need that… buy that for me!" You need to give them a place to respond and receive. The words I love to hear on Sunday mornings are, "I need that… I want that… Lord, give me that… I want more!" Where else can children go and receive every time? Give them an opportunity when the atmosphere is right. Deliver a message and invite children to respond. Don't expect them to go home and respond. Yes, some might do that too. But I'm not going to take the chance. The Holy Spirit will begin to prepare the hearts of the children as the Word of God is preached. If you don't give children a chance to respond to the work that's being done in their heart, then the Holy Spirit is being held or bound from doing what He wants to do. The timing and types of altar calls must fit the purpose and message in your service in order to determine how effective the time at the altar will be. I use the "hour-glass" method in developing my children's service. I start on an up note, put the serious things in the middle and then progressively build the excitement and end on an up note. This could be a typical order of service for me.
You see the intensity comes to a very serious point about two thirds of the way down and then will pick back up again from there to the end. The reason that I put the altar call toward the middle and then more stuff at the end is simple. The altar time needs to be given as much time as the Holy Spirit needs. We have already covered the other bases of a children's service… Praise & Worship, Giving of tithes & offerings, and the preaching of the word. Prayer time has now been allotted 15 minutes of we keep the remaining events after the altar time is over. But I have also tried to be strategic in choosing the last items for the service. The last items like the review questions, the review game and the closing song can be sacrificed. Yep, that's right! We plan stuff that may never happen. Because that will give the "right of way" to the Holy Spirit's moving and timing to another 15 minutes. So now we have time for a 30 minute alter time. And if it lasts only 20 minutes we still have options to fill the remaining time. And those last items aren't just time fillers because we can throw them out. Children can still benefit from review and another praise song. I never put the altar time at the very end because I don't want hurried parents to interrupt a special time that may end up going until after 12:00 noon. ** You probably noticed that I give several different times to respond. One for salvation… how will the children in your church ever get saved unless you give them a chance to respond? One for the message that was preached. This is a special time for you to make sure that your children are really having an applicable experience that makes it relevant for them. And finally one for other needs. This will be an important time for children to lay before the Lord's feet their needs and requests. I want to make sure that children have some one that will pray for them as they come to respond. If they are responding to salvation, we have some folks that will take those children to the back of the room after we pray and instruct them on what has just happened. We have people who will come and pray for children as they respond to the message or as they lift up requests and needs. And guess what? 90% of those who come to pray for the children are children. I encourage it. I teach and instruct on it. Use your children that can pray and you will be surprised. Children are the church of today and they need to have an time to respond to the Holy Spirit and his leading. You be the one to provide that time and meet that need. You will have a better children's service and you will be building into children a desire to respond when you make the room.
© 1998 Jamie Doyle This article may be copied to help others. This article may not be used for profitable purposes unless permission from the author is granted. |