As much as possible the Jr. Church should set-up to resemble the sanctuary service. This includes all the main furniture.
Chairs
Chairs should be set-up to accomplish 2 main things
- They should resemble the rows and spacing that they will find in the sanctuary service. If your Jr. Church has pews, the same applies.
- Isles are important to allow for freedom of movement for both the speaker and the workers. Depending of the size of your Jr. Church you should have no more that 5 seats between isles (we will cover more of the why later)
Pulpit
When possible, the pulpit should resemble a pulpit found in the Sanctuary service. Naturally it doesn’t need to look exactly like it but, kids should be able to see your Jr. Church service as a Holy, set-apart and sanctified place to worship.
Communion
When ask about communion I answer this: too risky. A Bible Believing church will know that according to 1 Corinthians there is a warning to those who would partake of the Lord’s supper unworthily.
1 Corinthians 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
In this arena I would prepare them as to what will happen, but as to allowing children to partake outside of the sanctuary service… I wouldn’t.
Baptism
Baptism is a fundamental of the faith and should be observed, in the sanctuary service. When a child in the Jr. Church program identifies that they have accepted Christ, an appointment should be set with the child’s parent to discuss what has happened and what to expect. (see below) Once the parent grants their permission, schedule a time to have the child brought at the end of the sanctuary service for baptism.
If there are regular professions of faith then try to get them all scheduled on the same day, perhaps once a month. When feasible, bring in the Jr. Church kids to observe this fundamental of faith in practice.