Lesson: The Spiritual Discipline of Worship

This simple lesson plan will help introduce children to the concept of worship as a spiritual discipline. It’s designed for a smaller group of children, but could be adapted for any Sunday School or Children’s Church setting.

Bible Topic: Ways to Worship God
Scripture: Psalm 100:2
Target Age Group: Elementary (1^st -5^th grade)
Learning Context: Any small group setting like Sunday School
Target Time Frame: 30 minutes
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Lesson Objective: Children will learn about the spiritual discipline of worship.
Setup: Before class, you will need to print off or handwrite ways to worship on pieces of paper.  These should include: singing, reading your Bible, praying, clapping your hands, dancing, worship alone, corporate worship, etc.
Introduction: Begin the lesson by reading the key verse to the children. For older elementary, encourage a volunteer to read this verse to the group.
Explain: Give a definition of what worship means.  Worship comes from the Old Saxon word “worth ship,” meaning something we would assign worth or value to.  To worship God is to assign the proper worth to God.  Another way to define worship is to say it is giving glory and honor to God.
Talk about worship: God calls us to both private worship (being alone) and corporate worship (with other believers).  Both of these can include Bible reading, prayer, singing, preaching.  The point of worship is that our hearts are prepared to glorify and honor God in all that we do.  We should seek to view every moment of the day as an opportunity to worship God.  Worship doesn’t just have to happen at church on Sundays; it can happen throughout your week while you are at home or school.  We can worship God by singing along with our favorite Christian song or by thanking Him for the beautiful sunshine He provided.  Worship is about showing God our love and respect in everything we do by giving Him glory and honor.
Activity: Ask the children to name ways that we can worship God.  Post those that you wrote or printed before class on a board as the kids name them.  Help them review the ways we can worship.  Practice worshipping by having some read scripture, praying and by singing worship songs together.
Optional Songs: We’ve collected several children’s worship songs from YouTube. Have the children view these and sing along. Talk about the different feelings and facts represented in each song. Explain how both the emotions and the truth in songs can point to God’s worth.

More Ideas: You might enjoy another free lesson plan we’ve posted based on Psalm 100 called “A Heart of Worship. You might enjoy our prayer coloring sheets or our free love God coloring page.