The Worship Factor
5 Mar
Every kids ministry leader knows the beauty and challenge of leading kids to authentic worship.
We all have a worship element to our weekly experience. Designated segments within the hour to sing, dance and celebrate God alone. These segments serve multiple purposes.
- To get the wiggles out. Kids can only sit for so long. Peppering in a few worship songs gives them the chance to move around
- Raise the energy level. Sometimes you want to amp it up a bit… a lively worship song is a great solution
- Unforgettable close. When you’ve got an engaged group of kids and volunteers there is nothing like closing out the experience with worship. You just can’t top it
But the thing about worship that continues to stump me is…
How do we effectively teach kids how to worship?
How do we teach them that worship is more than choreographed movements to a song but rather a posture of the heart?
The trend I’ve seen in my experience is that I capitalize on music to engage and energize the crowd. I’ve inserted slower, more thoughtful songs in the set, but even then there is more emphasis on engagement with the motions rather than coaching them to internalize the words. I’ve not found an effective way to coach kids in how to center their minds and hearts on the Lord during worship.
And because I’ve not found a solution here I’m transitioning kids into youth ministry that don’t know what to do during worship.
I can successfully transition a 6 year old into the elementary experience by teaching them the right ways to move when a worship song plays. I can successfully draw in the 2nd & 3rd grader to engage physically to a point they aren’t self-conscious.
But how do I lead them through a shift from physical movement to spiritual submission?
I recognize that the Holy Spirit is the key player in spiritual submission. But there must be a clear path to it and I think that ball is in my court.
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Great thoughts. My experience is that churches and kids ministries are not teaching kids to worship. They are looking for an element Ora wayto get kids to participate. So they do a fun high energy song. Just like the rest of the Biblical principles we are trying to teach worship needs to be in the list. How does that happen? Relevant music, age appropriate/accessible songs, leaders that model worship (leaders on stage and off) and week by week teaching what worship is and how we do it. Kids are easy to be led in worship it just takes someone leading them to do it. I am burdened with this topic and the void that seems to be missing in alot of ministries. I plan to provide some more tools, thoughts and instruction in the years to come. Ive been part of a thriving kids, preteen and student worship program. Taking steps and connecting the dots which all starts with vision followed by instruction will reap a crop of kids with a worshipers heart!
I am no expert on the subject – I’m not even in kids ministry. But I do have a 7 year old. And what I have noticed is that when the lyrics of a song match what he has learned from scripture, he gets it. He gets that he is connecting to God. I have heard him say things like “that song was straight from God, because it is God’s word”. Of course for that to work, someone had to teach Him about the power of scripture to be our connection to our creator. But I guess that is a topic for another discussion…
Great post here. I would recommend “Teaching Kids Authentic Worship” for some ideas on things you can do to help facilitate some experiences in your worship time too.
I really agree with Yancy’s comments….
Worship is so much more than a song. Singing / Dancing is just one way we can express our adoration to God. Personally, I think that true worship moment you are looking for during your worship set is most likely to happen when:
1. We take the time to explain what we are singing.
2. Repeat songs often enough so that they kids can focus more on to whom and what they are singing rather than focus on reading the words on the screen.
3. Empower leaders who model authentic worship for kids.
4. Give kids opportunities to respond outside of exclusively singing a song. (the book I mention above has some great ideas)
And part of it is really letting go of what we are seeing on Sunday. Most likely, even those kids who won’t engage with us on Sunday are singing in their mirrors while getting ready for school. It’s hard to measure the condition of the heart. But if we can take time to explain why we worship, what our words really mean, and then give kids opportunities to respond in personal ways to worship, I think that we are setting them up for a great journey.
Joy,
I’ve read this book and I agree. There are many helpful tips. One of my big takeaways was her challenge to pray for an entire minute w/o a pronoun. This is something I challenge kids and parents to often.
When all we do is sing, I think the we can never teach kids/students/anyone “how” to worship and that worship is “more than choreographed movements to a song but rather a posture of the heart”. The method is the message. What we do is what we teach/learn.
I firmly believe that everyone is always worship. The questions isn’t “when?” but “what?”. At Mars Hill we teach our kids and students that worship is finding God and you can find God in whatever you do (we even call our “worship segment” Whatever You Do). Sometimes we sing and sometimes we don’t. At Fifty6 – the fifth and sixth grade ministry – we always end Whatever You Do with “Stop and Breathe” where we do exactly that: we stop and we breathe, reminding ourselves that God is always as close as our very breath.
Whether or not they ever sing a “worship” song again, I don’t care. But I want them to continue to find God in all people and all places. The song itself isn’t “worship” but is simply helps me find God. It is a finger pointing at the moon and too often it seems we become infatuated and fixated on the finger rather than that to which it is directing us.
(Sorry for the rant, but I have a few thoughts/opinions on this topic!)
Jim,
I hear what you’re saying and I appreciate the ‘rant’. It’s entirely welcome. Especially on this topic. I agree with your thoughts on the definition of worship. Everything we do, singing or not, is worship. In this post it’s simply easier to address that segment that most people refer to as “worship”.
I think the thing that you hit on (as well as Yancy and others) is that there needs to be a coaching element to this part of the experience. Choreographed movements and peppy music doesn’t turn out kids that know how to focus their hearts and minds on Christ.
So, in that sense, how do you apply coaching? Is it in every transition to music? Do you talk to the kids during the song helping them to focus their thoughts? Do you have a particular message series that focuses on this discipline? Would love to hear your thoughts here.
I think that one of the best ways to ‘teach’ children how to worship is to allow them to spend time worshiping with the main church body, probably at the start of the service. Rather than just seeing kidmin leaders doing actions to cool songs up the front (which is how they often interpret worship in kidmin), they see adults engaging in authentic, spirit-filled worship. They aren’t just surrounded by other kids who are as confused as they are about it. Also, they become part of the church body as a whole worshiping God.
Here’s what we do.
1. First of all, our senior pastor refers to our adult singing part of the service as “song time” because he really wants to emphasize that there are lots of ways to worship God and singing is just one way. So, our language for kids reflects this.
We teach kids that we also worship God by giving offering, serving, etc. It’s not a huge deal- we still call our “song leader” a worship leader. I just think that we purposely indroduce worship in a number of ways.
2. We also clearly explain that we are singing to worship God. Each week we’ll do something a little different. Maybe one week before a fast song, we’ll read a quick Biblical example of dancing before the Lord, or we’ll read a verse about raising our hands, etc. We always try to point kids back to “why” we’re jumping around, etc. We try to show them where it’s found in scripture. Everything comes back to God’s Word.
3. We pick songs that help us to coach kids to think about specific attributes of God- Mighty to save, etc.
4. Our worship leaders keep their eyes open for the most part so that they can see what the kids are doing. Are they copying movements always? Do most of the kids seem like they understand what they’re singing? Do they know the words? Goofing off? Look confused? Our worship leaders pay attention to see if there’s something that needs to change for future services, or if the kids need a little coaching right now.
5. We do a little teaching every week. Not a ton of talking by the worship leader, but a little, focused coaching or scripture reading each week.
6. Remember that we can’t always tell what’s going on in the hearts of kids. Sometimes there’s one or two kids that really do not want to move during the service, but they raise their hands, etc anyway. Their willingness to participate I think is a sign of the posture of their heart. It’s like they’re saying, “God, this doesn’t really come naturally to me, but you deserve worship and I’m willing to do whatever… even if I feel uncomfortable.”
7. I think that we make time for what’s important to us. It’s funny b/c I just ordered Hillsongs Big curriculum for Wed nights and I noticed that they had 4 songs pre-programmed into the curriculum for the first week. Something inside of me said “What? 4 songs? Do we have time for that? We’ve been a 3 song church for a long time…1 fast, 1 medium, 1 slow…” How silly! Sure there’s enough time for 4 songs sometimes. Sometimes it should really be a bigger priority to linger a little with praise and worship to our awesome God!
8. I have 1 hour and 15 minutes every Sunday. That’s it. I think that’s one reason that it’s so easy to rush through worship/ song time b/c of the time crunch. So much to do- so little time…
Very good topic, something I’ve been trying to work out for the past 7 years!
Here’s what I’ve worked out so far…
It depends what your church values when it comes to worship. Our church has a huge value on worship by singing together, there are loads of examples in the bible of God’s people worshiping together this way, it’s got power! So we value the same thing in our kids ministry.
Kids do need to be coached through a worship session. Never assume that everyone there knows what is going on. Even if they are new to it, they can join in, but they just need to hear why and literally be told how to do it.
I remember the first time I lifted my hands in worship as a teenager. I felt so self concious and it took a lot of courage, I don’t think it should be like this. So when we’re coming up with actions for “slow” songs we like to use lots of lifting hands, it gets kids used to doing it.
More then anything else, it’s important to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit wants to do during that time.
For me the goal isn’t just to get kids to a place where they know what to do when they get to adult church but actually encounter the life changing presence of God and bring Him glory. Thats something they don’t have to wait till they grow up for!
Looking forward to hearing more ideas!