Yes. The Bible’s pattern is that little ones are present when God’s people assemble.
Moses said, “Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones … that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 31:12–13). Joshua read the law “before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones” (Joshua 8:35). Joel called “the children and nursing babes” to the solemn assembly (Joel 2:15–16). After the exile the women and children rejoiced with the assembly (Nehemiah 12:43). Paul addressed children directly in a letter meant to be read aloud in the church (Ephesians 6:1–4). And Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them” (Mark 10:13–16).
There is no New Testament command that uses the modern words “keep the children in the room,” because their presence was simply assumed. There is also no biblical example of removing children to a separate gathering during the preaching of the Word.
One of the clearest proofs is that the apostles spoke to children directly in letters written to be read in the gathered church. Scott Brown has pointed out that when Paul wrote, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1) and “Children, obey your parents in all things” (Colossians 3:20), he expected those children to be present to hear the letter read. You do not address people who are not in the room. The direct address to children in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 3 is evidence that they were in the meeting of the church, hearing the Word alongside their parents.
The Gospels and Acts show the same thing in narrative form. Children cried out praise in the temple, and Jesus defended them from “out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise” (Matthew 21:15–16). Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of the disciples as a living sermon (Mark 9:36–37). When Paul preached late into the night at Troas, a young man named Eutychus was present with the church, fell asleep, fell from the window, and was raised (Acts 20:7–12). And again and again whole households were baptized and gathered together. Scott LaPierre gathers much of this in Seven Reasons to Attend a Family-Integrated Church. The assumption everywhere is that children belong with the covenant assembly.
Keeping children in the worship service is not a quirk of one movement; it is the historic practice of the church. The dividing of congregations by age during worship is the recent development. Church & Family Life lays out the historical case in Is Age-Integrated Worship a Historical Norm? For the broader biblical and historical argument for discipling the generations together, see A Biblical Case for Age-Integrated Discipleship.
This is the most common objection, and Scripture answers it. Faith “comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17) — and children cannot hear the Word preached if they are not there to hear it. Paul reminded Timothy that “from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15); the word translated childhood refers to infancy. God is pleased to work through the ordinary means of the preached Word in hearts we would think too young. Moreover, the covenant promise is explicitly generational: “For the promise is to you and to your children” (Acts 2:39). We do not wait until children can pass a comprehension test before we let them sit under the Word any more than we wait to speak to an infant until he can reply. Understanding grows because they are present, year after year.
None of this denies the obvious: keeping young children in the service is work. They wiggle, they whisper, they need training. But the answer of Scripture is not to outsource the most important hour of the week; it is for the church to help parents disciple their own children in the presence of God’s people. Little ones learn to sit, to sing, to bow their heads, and to fear the Lord by being there — year after year — while the Word is preached. The training is the point, not an obstacle to it.
If you are new to this, it helps to understand the wider vision of the family-integrated church, and to build the habit of daily worship at home through family worship, so that Sunday is not the only time your children hear the Scriptures read and explained.