"Through [Jesus Christ] we [all] have access to the Father by one Spirit" (Eph. 2:18, NIV).

hen we gather to worship, we are all participants with access to God. Nobody should feel invisible, marginalized, or left out. So why would we design a service that is entirely over the heads of a sizeable group-the children?

Susan Scoggins tells of her precocious 2-year-old granddaughter Trisney. When questioned one week about Sabbath school, Trisney confidently reported that it had been about Jairus. When asked if she had listened to the sermon in church, the child responded, "No, it was in a different language."

Many older children feel the same way. Maybe that's why they bury their heads in their Guide magazines when the sermon starts. The big words and abstract concepts of a sermon are too often a foreign tongue to them. The whole church enjoys the service more when the children are included. -- Noelene Johnsson.