This video got me thinking about the nature of pastoral ministry and preaching. I think that’s really what is going on here. And I think it’s a faulty, though prevalent, view which causes a pastor to stop a sermon to rebuke a mama and her noisy baby.
I think we’ve put the preaching moment on a pedestal and given it a weight that it cannot bear. And yet at the same time I don’t believe our view of preaching is lofty enough. What I’m attempting to say is that there is a very earthy component to preaching and yet at the same time an otherworldly aspect. The pulpit is a sacred space in sacred moments but its inhabited by a faulty creature attempting to obey a perfect God.
And so I agree wholeheartedly when Zack Eswine says, “pastoral ministry is creaturely”. What he means by that is that only a couple hours before entering the pulpit I likely drank a Mt. Dew, wrestled with feelings of pride or inferiority, tried to decide if I needed to use the bathroom before or after the sermon, and etched out a few notes so I wouldn’t forget to make important announcements then promptly forgot to make those announcements.
It’s forgetting these things that causes a pastor to stop a sermon mid-sentence and rebuke a mom. I get the notion that we only get 30-45 minutes per week to exposit the Word for some of our folks. And it seems like telling a mom to exit with her baby and watch the sermon out in the lobby is somehow exalting the place of the Word of God. “We don’t even let a crying baby get in our way of hearing the Word”, we think we’re communicating. But in reality what we’re doing is denying the Incarnation. God’s Word is enfleshed. He came as a crying baby—thus making God’s Word and the exposition of God’s Word a creaturely enterprise.
A noisy kid is what the exposition of the Word is all about. God’s Word doesn’t meet us in the serene it meets us in the chaos. Yes, the preaching of the Word is a holy moment. Yes, it demands our attention. But not in a way that robs us of our creaturely status or doesn’t meet us in the ordinary parts.
At Calvary we encourage families to worship together. Even if your kids are noisy. Even if you have kids with behavioral issues. Even if you fall asleep because you worked the night shift or your meds make you uncontrollably sleepy. That’s not to say we don’t attempt to teach our children to give attention to God’s Word. It’s simply to say we believe God’s Word meets us in the chaos. And so the preaching moment doesn’t need a “little Lord Jesus with no crying he makes”, it’s quite the opposite. The Word creates in chaos not in the lobby.
—
Photo source: here
I also know there is another point here to be made about parents/guardians teaching kids how to listen and give respect to those speaking. But my thinking is that the glory of God is captivating. Preach Jesus full and passionately and you’ll see kids engage.
