Children and Worship

We have been struggling as a family, as we read God's Word, how we are going to approach every aspect of training our children in the knowledge of the Lord.  We find ourselves in quite a predicament at times.  First we want our children to see Kevin and I as True Worshippers!  We enjoy worshipping at home as a family and individually.  We try to make it fun, and age appropriate.  When we go to church we feel as though that is a chance to worship with more people with the same heart for the Lord and that Sunday morning is the peak of our worship week (this is our desire, sometimes the sin in our hearts permits this).  

Anyway i have thought alot about this whole thing, studied Scripture and have come to the conclusion that our kids are to participate in corporate worship!!!  This is not a popular idea in the traditional baptist church.  We as a family have received some negative feedback, and then of course there are always the looks!  Last Sunday was so much fun for me to worship (hard at the same time, keeping an eye on my extremely active 3 yr old boy).  We were sitting on the front row as a family, and the music was fun an upbeat.  We were clapping and singing, then Elijah started jumping and clapping, then it went to break dancing and then the ultimate, the cartwheel with the shoe flying in the air.  OOPs!  It was such a spiritual moment to see him dancing and singing and clapping.  I thought to myself, this is what we are training him to do,  freely WORSHIP the ONE TRUE GOD!!!  Now don't get me wrong, i love all of the age appropriate things that go on in Sunday School and Extended Session, but is that really how God intended it to be?  Segregating our children, to learn from others about the Scriptures.  I think alot of parents leave it at that.  They think they are doing good by just bringing their kids to church, but in actuality the Word tells us in Dt. 6, that it is not the churches responsibility to train your child in the knowledge of the Lord, it is the Parents job!  

So the big thing for us as a family, is the fact that, there are some people in the church that think children are a distraction.  In addition, Kevin is an employee of the church and with that comes a great deal of pressure for our family to meet the expectations of others.  I fight this hard, because i DO NOT want to teach the boys that this is a show, that we have to be a certain way to be a christian.  That you have to dress, look, and be the same as everyone else. YUCK!  that is why God created us soo uniquely.  

That being said my problem is this:  How freely do i allow Elijah to worship, at what point is too much?  And on the other end, how do i discipline him, when it is time to be quite and sit.  I dont want church to be a battlefield between us.  What do i do when he is bored and asks to go to the nursery?  These are the things that are heavy on my heart.