Kids don’t worship in a humdrum fashion — it’s always active, exciting and genuine. If you have the responsibility of leading worship in kids church, you may feel a little overwhelmed, even if you can play three instruments. As a children’s pastor, I am always looking for new ways to freshen our praise power! Here are a few pointers to remember when planning the worship portion of the service.
Tips for Worship Service
Pick short songs. Just like the lesson portion, follow the Minute Rule. If the average age of your children is 4, don’t teach in segments longer than 4 minutes. Also, the fewer the words, the better. Repeating a chorus over and over might seem boring to an adult but kids find comfort in repetition. Pick a song with easy and few words.
Teach kids the difference between praise and worship and they can’t help but get excited. One easy way I explain it is to tell kids that praise is when we brag on God but worship is when we love on God. Kids should know praise is upbeat and includes everyone. Worship is usually slower and is between you and God.
Demonstrate worship by participating in it. Simply leading isn’t enough, that includes your volunteers too. My teens and adult volunteers know that worship is a must!
Fun Ways to Worship
- Make a parade. Something there’s nothing better than a good march. Sometimes we’ll praise parade around the facility, down the sidewalk even in the sanctuary (with prior permission first, of course.)
- Stand and sing. Besides the typical stand in front of your seat praise and worship, have kids move into the altar area. Shout prompts like, “Stand on one leg!” or “Clap your hands!” It’s like Simon Says but to music.
- Build a pyramid. Divide your children’s church up into small groups of six to eight kids. Tell them when the song starts, they should start building. Tell them to cheer when everyone gets into place. (Have a volunteer standing by to help kids.)
- Hold a hand. Holding hands while you sing keeps kids focused on the praise. If you have a few silly kids who like to disrupt the worship, ask a volunteer to hold their hand. Or you could!
- Swing flags. We love waving our flags during the worship portion. At our kids church, kids pick up the flags during the offering service. They follow me at first, then I encourage them to worship freely. I do coach them to be safe though.
- Flash glow sticks. I love a good glow stick worship service! Turn off the main lights and give the kids a glow-in-the-dark stick, bracelet or necklace. Let the worship begin! They make good take home gifts too!
- Toss beach balls. For the praise portion, you can’t get more excitement than from tossing a beach ball around. Tell the kids that during praise, they need to keep the ball moving. Volunteers should retrieve run away balls.
Have fun! Kids love to worship!