As a parent, church is one of my favorite places to take my daughter. She loves “Brooklyn church.” We even have a song about it that we sing on Sunday mornings to express her anticipation: “we’re going to go to Brooklyn church, Brooklyn church, Brooklyn church, we’re gonna go to Brooklyn church, because it is so fun.” That’s just the first verse; the song goes on forever, because she names everyone she wants to see at Brooklyn church, and everyone gets their own verse. Generally the song ends with, “we’re gonna see Aunt Sarah…and she is gonna chase me…and I’ll get scared and run.” At that point Clare is usually overcome with delight and the song is done.
I love it that at church, even if I can’t see/hear where she is or what she’s doing, I can count on the fact that someone else is watching out for her. It’s not just that it’s a couple hours of free babysitting. 
I love it that Clare gets to experience a whole community of grown-up people (well, you know, we’re mostly all “grown-up”) who care about her and watch out for her and teach her, just like I do. And this constitutes “normal” for her. She knows I love her, and her daddy loves her, but she also knows that this whole roomful of people love her too. And she loves them: she makes up stories about them and takes them on imaginative excursions with her and sings songs about them and names them as friends.
And that’s beautiful.
This coming Sunday we will welcome and bless CCfB’s two newest and youngest members. As part of the thanksgiving and blessing service, the full assembled community of CCfB will be asked,
“Church, will you as a community of faith and family of God welcome these children into your loving care, share responsibility in their growth toward fullness of life in Christ, and surround them and their parents with your love, encouragement and support for the strengthening of their life together?”
And we will answer,
“We will, with God’s help.”
