Tip # 1 for the musicians themselves
The sound of the music Something that I hear quite a lot about music within Kids Ministry is the comment made that, “Oh, they’re only kids anyway – they don’t realize” when the band has made some sort of mistake.
Now I am no biggie on believing that the music that we create and play somehow sounds better to God comparing to someone who hasn’t ‘perfected’ their musical ability or playing. I don’t think that God favours the guitarist who didn’t strum the wrong chord on Sunday, or the drummer who didn’t miss a beat, or the worship leader who didn’t come in on the wrong line. I believe that our worship to God is a sweet perfume to Him, whether to us it sounds good or bad or ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
However, I do believe with the talents and responsibilities given to us by God, it is our job to serve with it as best as we can. Creating a good sounding band or song helps open up a place for the Holy Spirit to move (but of course the Holy Spirit is not limited by our efforts). Playing a song that hasn’t been practiced enough and in effect does not sound too good, creates a place where we can be taking away from and distracting the kids from an encounter with God. Mistakes can and will always be made, I don’t argue with that, but we should always strive to improve what we do. Using the excuse that “the kids just won’t notice” isn’t true at all. The devil will use whatever he can to distract and stop the children from worshiping God and as leaders we always need to be aware of how we ourselves may be creating a distraction. We need to be doing everything we can to create a safe, comfortable and passionate place of worship for the children within your ministry.
Tip # 2 – The songs you are singing
The songs that your ministry choose to sing together are imperative to how enjoyable and relevant the praise and worship will be to your kids. Try to use a variety of styles of music so that you don’t begin only catering to a certain kind of ears. Depending on the demographic and ages of your kids, the relevance of certain music will change. A general rule that I try to apply within my church’s ministry is aiming up to the older kids – if you choose songs that are more focused towards and appropriate for the younger age bracket you will lose the older ones. The younger kids rather look up to the older kids in your ministry and will enjoy the praise time if everyone else seems to be.
When choosing songs for your song lists, steer away from:
- Very wordy slow songs (try to use songs with repetition – easy to remember and sing)
- One style of music (try to find a variety of music from different artists)
- Don’t introduce new song after new song each week (give the kids time to learn and understand the song first)
- Only playing fast paced songs because slow songs apparently don’t work in Kids Ministry?
Tip # 3 -Preparation
How your worship times within kids ministry grow and develop are very much affected by the preparation put in by leaders throughout the week before your Sunday service. This preparation being not only the band, but by all your leaders that will be involved in the service. Leaders need to ensure they prepare for the morning by:
- Praying corporately (whether it be on the Sunday morning) as a team
- Praying individually for the morning and for Gods hand to move
- Reading through and understanding the point or theme of the morning (so that each leader comes ready and expectant for the holy spirit to move in whatever way)
- Practicing and preparing for any part within the morning so that things run smoothly EG/ practising your music, your lesson part etc. Each bit effects the perception and flow of the morning for the kids
- Enjoying Gods presence throughout the week and growing in our own personal relationship with God. Let’s remember that we can’t take the kids somewhere we have never been. If we don’t have the relationship and ability to worship naturally and freely on a Sunday morning (on stage or off), the kids definitely won’t understand or learn how to either!
Tip # 4 – Your team’s passion on and off stage
Furthermore from my last point, we as leaders need to be the example to the children by our passion. If we behave as if being enthusiastic in our praise is a chore than the children will simply feel, or more so, behave the same. If we as leaders display a negative attitude towards doing what we do, even if it is hidden behind rehearsals and team get togethers, the children will pick up on it.
To be up on stage leading children into worship, you need to display and genuinely have a passion to guide and enthuse your own self to worship at all stages of your life. Worshiping out of a negative attitude or out of a lifestyle which does not involve a proper relationship with God makes it almost impossible to fuel the passion you need to lead what you are doing properly.
This too is imperative to other leaders who aren’t on stage throughout the time of praise and worship. Your passion as a kid’s minister for God should be just as noticeable and just as vibrant as anyone else’s. It should never just be left up to the worship leader. Kids will notice if their leaders around them seem to be just as unpleased as one another by the music and will seemingly imitate the ‘bored’ behaviour if that seems to be what’s ‘coolest’.
As leaders we are to be the example. We need to be willing and ready to worship our creator wherever we are. If we are behind the tech desk, in amongst the kids or on stage, never forget why you are serving – for God! Sometimes we get distracted by our task at hand but it is for God we serve for He is more than worthy. So always remember to show that to the kids by your worship throughout the music in the service. At every opportunity, let’s worship God with the passion that we all should have through Him and for Him!
Tip # 5 – Time allocation and attitudes
Here’s my last tip, and a very important one indeed. Time.
It can be such a barrier from allowing the spirit to move in your service and a barrier from teaching the children important lessons on ‘how’ (and why) to worship themselves.
Here are some things you should always be aware of when planning for praise and worship elements within your programs.
Without sufficient amount of time given to your praise and worship:
- You are giving a lesser of an opportunity for the spirit to minister to the kids
- Children will not learn that as Christians, we need to sacrifice time to God, even if it’s not ‘fun’
- With short allocations to the praise and worship time, the kids may get the impression that worship time isn’t as important as other areas of the program
- Kids won’t learn and be surrounded by what worship through song is in itself
Not only should we make sure we give time in the programming so that scenarios such as above don’t happen, leaders should never ‘give up’ when the children of their ministry seem disinterested or unengaged by the music aspect from week to week. Don’t give in to the children’s behaviour or attitudes, but create a culture and atmosphere of worship, modelled by the leaders, that this is in fact how we worship. If you give in to the kids when they are uninvolved then you may be stopping them from a viable encounter with God because of their inability to focus. No, I’m not saying continue with something that isn’t working but do something different! From a most recent experience of worship within my kid’s ministry, the Holy Spirit’s presence was so thick throughout the room. I myself was worship leading but was so aware of the spirit before I even went up on stage. Despite this, I found myself with children completely unengaged and uninterested in what was going on. I didn’t want to stop worshiping but what else was I to do? We pulled down the music and challenged the kids, told them we weren’t going to stop, pushed them out of their comfort zones and we found ourselves having an amazing time of worship together. If we hadn’t had, then they would have missed out! Never give up because there is always something good to grasp if you just push through those tough times. God is always ready to move if we are ready to worship despite attitudes, despite feelings, despite anything else. Let’s instil this attitude of passion, of worship, of preparation, of dedication, of love to our awesome God and see His holy spirit begin to move within our children’s ministry. It is possible if we travel along the right path to get there! Let’s never stand in the way of God moving in our programs and in our lives and see a real breakthrough in our worship times together in Kids Min.
