For that reason, we intentionally keep our congregation whole. Without implementing youth groups or other age-segregated classes and programs, our aim is to provide biblical teaching that is simple enough for the youngest of minds to grasp without compromising on the profound truths found in the Word of God.
In every facet — every prayer meeting, every service, every study — we welcome everyone regardless of age into every space for the edification of the whole body of Christ.
Our church is blessed with ages ranging from nursing babes to great-grandparents, and integrating these individuals with one another has proved to be a great encouragement and source of joy for our church family. For the needs of small children, we offer a nursing mother’s room and a playroom.
Relationships with God and with each other are the vine, the programs are the trellis.
MHBC purposes to have programs (the trellis) that encourage and support parental discipleship and avoid programs that usurp the role of parents in the discipleship of their children. The family is an institution of God, and parents, especially the father, have the responsibility of discipling their children; bringing them up in the admonition of the Lord.
In other words, when we structure our Bible studies our goal is to provide resources to make it easier for dads, moms and everyone else to be equipped to fulfil their responsibility to learn, evangelize and disciple rather than take their responsibilities.
Singles are included as vital members of the family of God. Instead of isolating singles into their own groups we include them in the fullness of church life. Christian singles, like all true believers, are gifted by the Holy Spirit of God for the building up of the body of Christ.
All members of the church need to benefit from their spiritual gifts, and they need the fellowship, blessings, and gifts of the whole community of faith.
We believe that the Bible provides a complete and comprehensive guide for how a church should be organized and operate; 2 Timothy 3:16. The Scriptures are adequate in themselves to bring about the maturity of a saint for the work of the ministry, and define church practice.
It is evident in both the Old and New Testaments that the people of God are expected to come together in unity for worship. For example when gathering to worship, children are expected to be present. There is no example of children being excluded, there are many examples that indicate that the normal pattern was inclusion.
Deuteronomy 31:12“Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the foreigners residing in your towns—so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.”
This explicitly commands the inclusion of children when the covenant law is read.
Joshua 8:35“There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.”
2 Chronicles 20:13“All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.”
Nehemiah 8:2“So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.”
Joel 2:15-16“Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly… gather the children, those nursing at the breast.”
Even infants were commanded to be present for this solemn assembly of repentance.
Matthew 21:15-16“But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant. ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him. ‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read, “From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise”?’”
Ephesians 6:1-3 & Colossians 3:20“Children, obey your parents in the Lord…”
In these letters, the Apostle Paul addresses children directly. The children were present in the church service when the letter was read.
Acts 21:5“But when our time was up, we left and continued on our way. All of the disciples and their wives and children accompanied us out of the city, and there on the beach we knelt to pray.”
Every believer is gifted and responsible. Every individual is responsible to minister to God and bring glory to Christ. Church ministers are given to the church to equip saints for works of service for the building up of the Body of Christ; Ephesians 4:11-13.
Families are an institution of God. God specifically commands parents, rather than church workers, to be the primary teachers of their children’s faith. Christian parents are held responsible for the evangelism, and discipleship training of their children.
Deuteronomy 6:7Commands parents to teach God’s words to their children diligently in everyday life: “when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way.”
Ephesians 6:4Bringing up children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord” is specifically the responsibility of fathers, and the role of the church is to equip fathers for this task, not to assume it.