Instilling a Lifelong Passion for Worship

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Permalink Reply by Cindy Bishop on June 2, 2008 at 5:16pm

I agree!! This is a fairly new calling for myself. I started helping with the children's choir at our church last year. Now my husband & I will be working with the Jr. High Worship team as well. It's a big challenge & a lot of responsibility. But it's great seeing the kids grow both spiritually & musically. My boys (7&8) are both in the children's choir & they really enjoy it.

Permalink Reply by Noelle Mena on June 3, 2008 at 1:44am

What a wonderful new journey God has you on Cindy! And your husband! How wonderful to do together. Are you leading P&W or do you let the youth worship team do it- or how do you approach it? Working with kids is always challenging, and ever so rewarding. Sometimes we dont always get to see the fruit, but we know we are plowing the field and spreading the seed!

Permalink Reply by jeff L. on July 15, 2008 at 5:35pm

I lead a worship band for the 5th and 6th grade kids at our church. It is challenging and fun. I have learned more about this age group than I thought I would ever learn. My daughter joined this group this last fall. That even opened my eyes more to this group of kids. We have another "youth led" band that alternates with us, that has mostly youth members. The issues we see, are how to get the kids involved and not give them too much pain in the process. If they don't like the music, they seem to feel disconnected. We try to cater to their age range for music choice, arrangement of music, dialog, etc.
This age range seems to open up mentally, with a few trivia questions and engaging them with that type of personalization. I will talk about a principle in the Bible and share a short story, usually less than a minute or two. I may include a prelude to the story by asking for involvement..."Who has a really old item with them today?" Someone will dig out a coin or something like that and go, "OOOH, I have a really old penny I was saving from 1991." I can then talk about how nothing is the age of God (Ageless and Eternal)...or how nothing comes before the A in the alphabet (Alpha and Omega can be thrown in) and that nothing comes before God.
This is something I started trying out in the last year and the kids have responded positively during the dialog and then better responses during the worship songs.
I have realized this year, that kids need to feel important, recognized and that they want attention. Hopefully we can give them personal positive attention. They also like to have an identity as a group, separate from the rest of the church groups. This is helping me with my 11 year old daughter in reaching her on a spiritual level. I couldn't believe the complex world of 5th and 6th graders. I started off the ministry with Adults and did worship for 3r and 4th graders after the Adult service.
I moved, and started worship with 5th and 6th graders. I usually just played the style of worship that they liked and thought that would reach them...ha. I had a lengthy learning period. I wish I would have had a good forum like Worshiptherock to help me out, when I started with these kids.
Kids need God and we can be instruments for God to minister to the kids, if we are willing and called.
Resource... http://www.childrensministry.com/Article.asp?ID=1073
Also have a bible trivia book I use. Plus I google trivia for things like animal trivia...they must all watch animal planet.
If anyone has ideas, I am always wanting to learn new ways of communicating to kids.
Jeff L.

Permalink Reply by Noomi Rebecka Kallstrom on October 20, 2008 at 6:02pm

I also have a passion to lead to work with children through worship and praise and my dream is to see how children are drawn into the presence of God and how they can minister other children and also adults to know Jesus. I have started a little group in my church with children but we are very few since it is a little church. I hope though that this group will grow and that God can use me to draw children near him. I work in an english academy, teaching children, teenagers and adults in english. My heart is burning that those children can get to know jesus and i think that through the music and the worship this could be possible. It is a challenge to start with something like this and I would ask you if anybody has got any advice how to start a project with children through the worship??
Noomi