Heckler-Type

Comedians have them: hecklers! People that interupt a public gathering of people and distract the one giving a public ‘talk’.
Pastors have them too. Usually they’re not the drunk guy yelling at the pastor on the stage because his message is no good. Usually they are children.
I took a drastic step to get rid of child hecklers as I came on as pastor at my church. I extended the Children’s ministry to last the entire dureation o the service instead of just the speaking portion.
We have a host, ushers, and Children’s ministry coordinators who intercept parent ashen they arrive to make sure that their kid gets checked in. We do everything short of not allowing children into the service. But some parents refuse to check their kids in with a Children’s ministry! And to be fair to the parents- some kids refuse to go to a Children’s ministry out of fear- I’ve been the parent o that kid from time to time.
The bottom line, though, is that a church service is boring for little kids and if they are subjected to one, they will be restless and they will make noise. This not only distracts everyone from worship and listening to the pastor’s message, it really distracts the pastor from delivering the message as well.
And often times, when you have one of those kids in one of your services; their parents seem to be oblivious to the terrible distraction their kid is causing, despite all the glares and stares, and the awkward pauses by the pastor after each one of the kid’s screaches.
This past Sunday, as I was giving a very serious message on Hope, I had three such children in the service. Most of the people gathered kept turning and looking at the parents each time their child made some kind of distraction and I was frazzled out of my mind because of the comotion. I kept my composure most of the time, but several times I couldn’t help but make it clear that I was frusterated. It made a very hard to deliver message a million times harder.
Several people tried to get these mothers to check in their kids to Children’s church but each time the mothers refused! They could have at least stepped out with their children in order to no longer cause such a ruccus, but they were clueless!
So here’s my question: what do you as a leader do to make sure that you and your people are not distracted by a small minority of your body?

One Responseto “Heckler-Type”

1. Dee Roper says:

   November 8, 2011 at 1:45 am

   I would pray and ask God to give you the words to talk with those parents and I guess thats all you really could do. Or have the parents help in the class so the kids can see what they are missing. I know it is frusterating. With your church so small your going to hear the noise more. I’ll be praying!