There are some people who believe that the church should look like the nuclear family. This error is hatched out of the fallacious notion that the family is the defining society for all of culture. These folks would want to bring into the church their perceived "ideals" of what a church "family" should look like. Because of this, some of these people are strong advocates of "age-integration" of *all* facets of church life. For instance, they would be against the idea of Sunday School classes for pre-primary children, running up through adult classes.
But this perspective is completely skewed. It does not matter what the family situation at home looks like. It is of no consequence, even if a family maintained perfect "age-integration" itself at home, (which none of them do, by the way). All that matters is what the elders of the church, being guided by the principles of Scripture, choose to do, in best educating the members of the parish. If they choose to separate the congregants by age, so be it: that is their belief as to the best way to get the job done.
The only area that the Bible does clearly dictate must be age-integrated is that of the church's Lord's Day worship services. But other functions of the church life do not come under this same stricture.
It would be ridiculous for the church to seek to dictate "age-segregation" on the family. And it is equally ludicrous for the family to try to demand full-fledged "age-integration" of the church.
The Forum for Ecclesiocentricity is designed to educate Christians and non-Christians alike to understand the Biblical teaching concerning the Church (the "Puritan" church in particular), with regard to its principal role on the earth. When this is achieved, it is hoped that the Church would then be in a better position to convey Christ's redemptive virtues to the civil government (state), and the family. (You may email me at: markjhenninger@gmail.com)
