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Originally posted by truelove:
How exciting.... Well, it's to be expected that you would have some questions and concerns since you have been going to a church and had lots of structure I'm sure. I just think it's so neat that you are coming away from that to allow everyone to participate. Let me just share what happened in my house when we gathered. We came in at around 5 pm and had a shared meal.. Adult's and children shared their hello's and happenings, people just kind of naturally socialized and some were busy putting all the food together that was brought. But no designated person, usually the house owners, usually us, kind of were busy about and then some others just kind of offered to help. It was very unstructured, usually parent's just watched over their own children as a parent would probably do in most environments; at the grocery store, at the park, maybe at a homeschool group of homeschooled, or a family reunion...
Following the preperation then our coming together in prayer and thanks to God. We'd sit to eat, if you have a big enough dining table for all that's always nice. If not just try to sit close together somehow. But, everyone if possible eats and sits close together for it to really be a time of sharing a meal together. Kind of like you would do at dinner with your family at home. During that time we'd take one loaf of bread representing the body of Christ and we'd pass it around for everyone to break a large piece off just for a reminder of how we are all part of the Body and Jesus said himself, "when you come together, do this in remembrance of me".. It was always different on how that went, sometimes one person or two would be led to share a Scripture, sometimes we'd just start giving thanks in no specific order, but randomly, giving thanks for something. Some times we'd break the bread eat of it and then take a sip of the juice and all hold our glasses up and harmoniously say, "Thank you Jesus".. It was very Spirit led without a prefabricated way of doiing things.
There would be lots of discussion going on amongst people, but usually if it's under 8 or 10 people one person would speak at a time and everyone just listened. When it gets bigger than that people tend to have a couple of conversations going on.. But, it wasn't preordained to be that way, it just kind of happened and dialogue just took place. Usually, it was kind of harmonious when everyone would kind of get up, bring their dishes to the sink and then head into the livingroom and gather around on comfy chairs and sofa's, or pillows on the floor. But, right in the middle of the room on the floor was a special place dedicated for the children. It would be a large blanket with some paper, crayons, colored pencils, maybe coloring books, or printed out pictures for coloring, and sometimes a special craft depending on the age of the kids, and a couple bowls of popcorn, etc. The teenagers would take the initiative to sit down with them and help the smaller ones in whatever they were doing, or maybe just let them sit on their lap. That's not to say that if a child wanted to sit with mom or dad that it couldn't happen. Sometimes a child just needed to sit in mom's lap or maybe stand by another older person. It just happened naturally. Of course there would be a need for some guidance. But you just would deal with it as it came up at any time. People just work together and understand. That's family, that's life..and we allow for the extra minutes it takes to quiet Sally and get her situated. Now of course if one was being unruly the parent would take him/her out of the room and deal with her child however that happens in their own home. But, really nothing different than what any parent would do if their child was misbehaving at any place, such as the grocery store, or the doctor's office, etc.
The children would all get comfy on the blanket and the parent's would start sharing or singing or whatever someone felt lead to do. The kids listened, they were encouraged to sing along, and at times during the gathering asked if they had any songs they would like us to sing, if we had a particular discussion on a certain topic, which often times seemed to just happen naturally, anyways, the kids would be asked very simple, general questions on what they thought about it, or however we could include them in the discussion, at any age, of course not babies. Teenagers, middle schoolers, elementary, and toddlers alike. But, they would share along with us and we applied grace to the wiggle worms or those who had a hard time sitting still. We didn't allow running around, but we didn't force them to contribute, we just encouraged it and allowed it and showed interest in them, we encouraged them to dialogue along with us. It was simply amazing.... some of the prayers, as well as the things they would share or add to a topic that would just bless our hearts and I came to understand the beauty of children being allowed to participate along with adults. Suffer not the children to come unto me.. Remember how the disciples tried to stop the children from going to Jesus, obviously they probably thought like many adults think, "children should be seen and not heard",, But, Jesus said, "don't stop them from coming for such is the Kingdom of God"... Wow, so let them come, let them be in with you, try not to seperate them because of age or by age, for they will speak from the same Holy Spirit that is within others and they will truly learn from everyone at any age and the adults may learn from them as well, if nothing else, the beauty of youth. And those who aren't saved yet, will learn about Him in a very beautiful environment, that which is modeled after the family.
Hope this helps.

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