Keep them in worship.
Certainly parents can sneak out for diapering or severe tantrums, but planning for children to leave worship has several negative meanings to me: that we don’t want them there, that they somehow don’t belong, or that they are unable to learn to worship.
Rather than planned exits, I think churches should plan to be sincerely welcoming to families with young children. Hold a hymnal for a mother nursing a baby. Befriend parents such that you could be trusted to sit with their child or hold their baby. Don’t expect to preach to a quiet assembly.
The quandary I am in is with regard to nighttime services during holy week. Can parents of a toddler really begin Good Friday at 7 p.m? I’m not so sure. Still working on that.
