Happiness and Sadness at church

This morning at our church's early service at 9:00 a.m., I was amazed to see all the preschool children that were there. At last week's staff meeting, someone observed that when one is single at Belleville, they go to the 11:00 a.m. service. But when they have young kids, they go to the earlier service. We definitely are part of this trend. As many children seem to be being born at Belleville (as the baby dedications of today and the last 2 weeks indicate), one observable phenomen is that more children and their parents are going to church earlier.

I was thrilled to see our son and daughter as part of the group of children spontaneously standing up front and waving banners. I think that Jesus would have smiled at this, as He attracted children and welcomed them into his arms.

At the same time, I felt sad and even had some tears in my eyes. I think that the reason for the sadness was the following question: How many of these children will still be at Belleville (and other churches) in 10, 20, and 30 years if things don't change. The seminars with Brian McLaren of the last two days have raised a lot of questions in my spirit concerning the Church as it now is, as well as my local church context.

There is so much about Belleville that I appreciate. The worship is moving; the teaching is Bible-based; we have friends there; there is some obvious life here that isn't so obvious in many churches that we know.

However, I wonder if we are willing to pay the price and make the necessary changes to build into the lives of our young people. Certainly there have been some good changes this year. However, I wonder if these are enough. I wonder if, rather than a retooling of the activities, we really need to make some changes at the very core.

Are we willing to really invest in the young people, particularly the young leaders? Does the current structure allow a place for them? How high can they rise in the current structures? Or is this one reason why some of them have moved elsewhere in recent times?

I have more questions than answers right now.