| rev:text
| - Worshiping God was denied at this church?
I recently moved to this new area, and was looking for a church to attend. I went alone several times before bringing my wife and three kids to the church. At first, my 2-year old child sits in with me and my wife in the back area of the sanctuary as we worshiped. My two older kids are enrolled into the kids' ministry. As we continued to attend the church, we transitioned our little two-year old child into her ministry. Everything was great a first. We even invited friends to come to church with us because we love to come to a place where fellow christians can pray and worship together in the same room. The worship music and messages of God were awesome. It put a fire and passion in me. That is, I was hungry for God and attend this church on Wednesdays.
Until...one evening on a Wednesday night church, my kids, wife and I were to meet up with our friends at the church for a night of great worship. Coming to church on a Wednesday night is not easy, especially when you have to work the day, taking care of 3 kids and come home and getting the family ready for night church without having dinner.
Hungry, tired, overwhelmed and stressed out the whole day, but that did not matter to us because we were excited to come and worship God.
When we arrived at the church, we went to drop off our kids at their ministry classes. For some reason, on this particular night, my two-year old did not want to be in her class as she had told us she wanted to be with us. So we three went to the sanctuary to meet up with our friends ready for the worship and to hear the message.
As I approached the worship room, I opened the door. Suddenly, came popped out one of the ushers right in front of my face. I barely even put my foot inside the room, the usher had blocked the pathway to prevent me from coming into the room, and told us to go outside. I asked the usher why and he said that we could not stay in the worship room because the seats there were reserved for first-timers to the church. My wife and I were surprised. I had told him that we had sat in the back several times without any problems. His response was that since we have been attending church regularly, we cannot bring in our child into the room because the child has to be in the kids ministry. All of a sudden, this new rule. Where did that come from? When I heard that, I was heart broken due to the fact that I am not able to come in and worship God with my family and friends.
Am I being punished to have a two-year child with me? My child wasn't bothering anyone in the church. We didn't even make it inside the room and was already asked us to go outside and sit in the lobby to watch the service on T.V. Really? If I wanted to do this, I could have stayed home and watch it live online. The whole purpose of coming to the church is to experience the worship time with God along with our friends and with other fellow christian sisters and brothers live face to face.
To sum it up, my wife and I are sadden that we were not allowed to worship with our child. It just killed our excitement for attending church. I cannot explain this feeling of sadness. Because of this, we are most likely will not return to this church. Basically, we felt like being pushed away from worshiping God at this church. We have been to many different churches, and not one has every told us that we cannot have our kid with us to worship.
Please do not assume and generalize people with kids. There are some parents with kids are respectful of others around them. You never know where they come from and what the story is behind them.
If you want non-believers, new believers, or returning christians come to Christ, please have compassion and make them feel welcomed. But, most importantly, if you know they are on fire for God, please do not break their stride for God or you will make them go back to the wrong path.
Because of this experience, I now understand why some non-believers will not attend church. Please do not extinguish the fire to those who are on fire for God or they will turn away. We want all people come to Christ but do it with love and compassion.
This review is not to criticize any one or the church. But, rather, I wanted to address a concern because I would like to see people feel love rather than sadness. Please do not turn people away from wanting to come and worship with friends, family and fellow christians.
Calvary Chapel is great place to come to search for God. Worship music is awesome and the messages are great. Great pastors and all.
Thus, I do recommend this to all people. However, if you have kids, you may want to reconsidered. You may check out other churches that will accept kids with you in the worship room.
Matthew 19:14
God bless to all!
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