A sketch on children in church

Lucy Moore

On your marks:

We’ve used this sketch to get people thinking about the idea of ‘people looking at outward appearances and God looking at the heart.’

Get set:

It’s worth having at the back of your mind as you rehearse that either of these speakers might be right: sometimes children are worshipping in a way we don’t expect and sometimes they’re just messing about.

Go!

1 and 2 deliver their lines separately, not responding to each other at all, as if in two completely different conversations.

1 You should have been in church today. Those children!
2 You should have been in church today. Those children!

1 Running up to the front in the middle of the service! I mean, talk about showing off!
2 Running up without any inhibitions to admire the beauty of the altar brasses gleaming in the candlelight.

1 No concentration at all! Crawling about on the floor!
2 Lost in wonder at God’s creation – they spotted a common house spider and marvelled at it for a full ten minutes.

1 Lying down on the carpet! Totally inappropriate behaviour!
2 Relishing every opportunity to enjoy God’s colourful world as the sun shone through the stained glass on to the carpet.

1 Fidgeting all through the collect!
2 Shame they had no voice to shout ‘I don’t understand! Let me in too!’

1 No discipline – they were simply chatting through all those lovely hymns.
2 They were enjoying fellowship with other Christians.

1 Laughing like that at poor Mrs Smith’s unfortunate wart as she read the lesson.
2 Loving the humour of the camel trying to squeeze through the needle’s eye.

1 Interrupting the sermon!
2 Bursting with questions, alive with curiosity, desperate to know more.

1 Tramping up and down the aisle.
2 Dancing before the Lord.

1 Bursting in to tears so we couldn’t hear the minister. Pure attention- seeking.
2 Throwing themselves into the story of the last supper with all their heart and soul.

1 At least they were quiet in the prayers
2 A shame that ten minutes of prayers spoken in a monotone bored them all rigid.

1 After all, worship should be honouring to God.
2 After all, worship should be honouring to God.

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