In 2021 Megan Hill gave a talk titled, “Teach your kids to love the local church.” [You can link to it below.]

At her church, volunteers sign up to take turns cleaning the church every Saturday. Each family signs up for two slots each year.

When they showed up for their first turn, they brought their kids. The elder who showed them around and told them what to do looked at the kids and said this:

“This doesn’t seem like important work. Here you are on a Saturday cleaning the church. But it’s very important work. This is how we serve Christ. If we didn’t do this we wouldn’t be able to worship on Sunday… Cleaning the church is a way to serve the Lord.”*

The local church is the body of the living Jesus Christ. It is important. We all benefit, and we all contribute. We may not all preach sermons or make big decisions around an elders’ table or at a deacon retreat. We may not all coordinate a community-wide project to clothe the homeless or go to a far-flung country on a mission trip. 

But “normal” things are anything but normal when we do them for God.

And that’s true for toddlers, tykes, teens, twenty-somethings and above.

Jesus said: “The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matthew 23:11).

The local church is the body of the living Jesus Christ. It is important. We all benefit, and we all contribute.

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Notes:

–Megan Hill, “Teach your kids to love the local church” on The Gospel Coalition (U.S.) Podcast. Posted October 21, 2022: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/teach-kids-love-local-church/

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.