“For the LORD is good; His loving kindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations.” 

Psalm 100:5 NASB

As parents, we have the honor of guiding the spiritual development of our children. This is such a gift! One essential aspect of nurturing their faith is introducing them to the concept of a good God, which can lay the foundation for how they perceive God for the rest of their lives.

It opens the way for them to explore questions of faith, develop a personal relationship with the Lord, and deepen their understanding of who He is.

The Word tells us, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 John 4:16 NIV^TM)

Children thrive when they feel safe and loved, and when they face difficult circumstances, the knowledge that a good God cares for them provides them with solace and reassurance. It teaches them to turn to God for strength, comfort, and guidance.

Leading Our Children

Worship is such a powerful way for kids to connect with the Lord. Sometimes as parents, we feel like we need to facilitate the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, but let’s remember that He doesn’t need us to. We are responsible for shepherding our children, and He will do the rest.

An amazing resource for worship is “Good God” a beautiful new album from Shout Praises Kids that gives young listeners a chance to hear themselves as worshippers and engage in songs of truth. It offers a diverse range of songs that explore God’s holiness, strength, and worthiness.

Worship can be a shared experience where parents, siblings, and children can come together to lift their voices in adoration.

Let’s teach our children about the Good God that we serve as we inspire them to have lifelong journey of worship with a God who they know loves and cares for them.

My focus in my ministry has been specifically on serving the church with worship resources for children and families for the past fourteen years.

Every one of these experiences has formed my upcoming analysis. One of the most underdeveloped areas of discipleship in churches is worship. There I said it.  In my experience, I’ve seen it. In the conversations I have with leaders, I’ve heard it as they’ve described the issues they have while asking me for help.

Having Vision for Worship

Many church leaders would disagree because—in almost every case—they have a time for worship in their services. Yes, that’s true. But just as I wouldn’t say the definition of success for a church is to have wooden pews and hymnals, I wouldn’t describe most local churches in our community as successful at nurturing a heart of worship in Christ followers just because they have a spot on their run sheet in Planning Center for three songs to be sung.

Just because you have and even do a worship time each week when you gather doesn’t mean you have a vision for it. Allotting minutes in your service to worship doesn’t mean you have leaders who have a revelation about the subject and passionately want to see people grow in their relationship with Jesus through worship.

Casting New Vision

Somewhere years ago, many of us lost our way. Maybe it was in the busyness of making it all happen in church services week after week. I mean, church does happen fifty-two weeks a year. I get it and please feel the virtual hug I’m sending to you right now for your hard work in making that happen. Maybe as we juggle all the areas of ministry we oversee and make happen, articulating our vision for worship somehow fell by the wayside. I truly believe there is more available to us than we are currently experiencing.

This is your invitation to lean back and just dream … and pray … and wrestle with how to instill the value of worship. What kind of adult worshippers do we want to have in our church? After their years children’s and student ministry, what do we want them to know? How do we want them to be engaged? What kind of posture do we hope Christian men and women will have as they stand in the sanctuary on Sundays? Let’s define our goals, and then let’s use the many years we have to lead them intentionally week by week.

Strengthening Discipleship

This isn’t just about singing songs. It’s about forming a heart after God—the kind we see exemplified in Scripture by David. This should be our goal. It’s the type of discipleship that is often lacking. I would never stick a child on a bike and just tell them to “ride the bike.” You wouldn’t expect them to succeed without any help.

Yet pastors, leaders, and teachers way too often just say “now it’s time for us to sing in worship” without giving any instruction, help, and hands-on training. Are you getting more of a sense of what I mean when I say the most underdeveloped muscle of many Christ followers is the one that gives a sacrifice of praise? Too many don’t understand how to enter His courts with thanksgiving or bow down in reverence.

Intentionality in Worship

I define worship as our response to who God is and what He has done. When you have revelation and understanding of the greatness of God, you are inclined to respond to that with joy and celebration but also with awe and wonder.

Worship is a communication method we have with God, very much like prayer. As we sing song lyrics, we are often singing prayers and statements that are the cry of our hearts. We are learning how to articulate His goodness. We are learning how to express reverence and a heart of thanks.

So much of the mission of children’s ministry is to help kids experience Jesus and Scripture in the right bite-size piece for each phase of life. So many churches are doing that really well. Most would never think of watering down the truth of the gospel “because they’re kids.” Kidmin leaders make the bites smaller. We insert a bunch of fun. We intentionally choose our language, paint colors, and even small group leaders.

Worship for kids deserves the same intentionality. Let’s not water it down to make things easier. Let’s not rely on the songs that worked great five years ago so we don’t have to spend any budget on “singing a new song to the Lord” or investing the time it takes to learn and lead those new songs. And let’s not just stick kids on a bike without deciding to first be present. Let’s teach them elements of what worship is, why it matters, where we do it, when it’s a choice, and how it moves the heart of their Heavenly Father.

Collective Growth

Your children’s ministry should be fun and engaging, but entertainment isn’t the main focus. I believe your goal is to help kids experience God at work in their lives. Worship is the perfect way to allow kids to encounter His presence. I am convinced if they can taste and see who He is they will hunger and thirst for more of Him.

Our worship time should be less about “songs” and more about “encounters.” Those encounters utilize a song to make the connection and create space for them to sit at His feet.

Sometimes that looks like being still. Sometimes that looks like teaching them about taking steps and learning why we can lift our hands. Yes, there are times worship looks like a party, and the whole room jumps up and down. It’s not one of those things. It’s all of them.

Your kids need all those things. Different students learn and experience things differently. Every one of those ways to engage will reach and connect with a different segment of your group. You need them all for the collective growth of your group.

Evaluate

I invite you to truly evaluate what kind of worship ministry your kids’ program has. Sit down with some other leaders to really articulate what you’ve been doing. What is lacking? What is working? Are there places where you could be more intentional? You know down deep that there could be more. Talking things through out loud with others will help you to more quickly identify the places that need modification to grow to a new level.

I challenge you to go to your church leadership. Senior Pastors, Worship Leader, Student Ministry Leader, all the team. Ask this question: What kind of adult worshippers do we want to have? This will help you define your goals. This will help you look for ways to not just sing songs each week but intentionally disciple those under your care to be the worshiper God created them to be.

I want to help them learn the heart of worship beginning as a preschooler, and on through elementary and preteen years. May they continue to develop in middle and high school and beyond. There are days coming in their lives—maybe next week, or when they’re getting ready to graduate, or having a mid-life crisis, or as a senior citizen—when they will need to run to the heart of God.

May it be said of our ministry that the place they first learned to do so was in (your program name). I use songs and times of worship to help kids fall more in love with Jesus. I believe it works. Will you join me?

66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Download your free guide

Free Guide

66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Download your free guide

Free Guide

66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Download your free guide

Free Guide

My favorite mind-blowing moment for many people is when they realize they can recount the lyrics to a song from their teen years without batting an eye. What you listen to matters. Maybe you’ve seen a study on the effects of music and memory when it comes to Alzheimer’s or aging.

The Gift of Music

We were given a gift from God when He created music for us to experience and enjoy. There is nothing like melody, harmony, rhythm, and rhyme all blended together. In church ministry, we can utilize this power-filled gift of music to help children learn and memorize Scriptures and even the godly character we are discipling them in.

I am passionate about helping kids learn to worship God and develop the reflex muscle that is seen exemplified in David’s life. He worshipped God. Period. It was a muscle he built up in his life that meant on the best days, he worshipped. When he needed shelter and a hiding place, he worshiped. And when he was in a valley, he worshiped.

I desire to see this generation of children we are leading fall in love with experiencing God’s presence and drawing close to Him in the process. Through weekly worship sets, I am helping them learn the path of running to the Father. Why? So they can learn how to get there on their own for the days on the journey that I’m no longer the one standing beside them.

I want to build in them the habit of giving God praise. We shouldn’t be satisfied just entertaining children for an hour when we could be developing a generation of Christ followers who will choose to live for Him all the days of their life.

The Impact of Music

In thinking about how to help children celebrate God’s wonder with a song, I can’t help but recall an impactful experience that certainly shifted how I look at what I do as a songwriter. About a dozen years ago, a man named Dana Key passed away. Dana was one half of a very well-known 80’s Christian Rock band named DeGarmo & Key.

After Dana died, multiple friends of mine posted tributes to him and about the impact his music had made in their lives. Through dozens of different posts, I kept hearing the same testimony: “His music shaped my theology.”

Now to be honest, I don’t think most artists create music thinking of that kind of responsibility that their music carries. That statement is weighty. Music shaping theology. Really? Really.

I realized that day that what I’m doing in writing songs with lyrics and melody had a holy responsibility to make the gospel easy to understand. It was a weight of accountability that I want to be worthy of carrying. It was a call to be intentional in what I say and how I say it in the songs I create.

The Importance of the Music You Choose

Now, let’s flip the table around. As a children’s pastor, ministry director, volunteer, worship leader, or whatever title you have: when you choose songs to use in your ministry, are you thinking about how those songs are shaping young hearts and minds?

Have you ever stopped to consider that the songs you choose to lead are going to be locked away in kids’ memories for literally decades into the future? Are the songs you’re currently using worthy of that privilege? Will their theology be formed to build their lives on the rock?

Are they songs that are filled with the truth of God’s Word? Or are they songs that are only fun and games? Are they songs that serve a purpose in forming a resilient faith? Are they songs that help you reinforce the messages you’re teaching in the lesson?

How do the songs you’re choosing help kids make wise choices when they are faced with a big life decision and a song from their childhood randomly comes to their remembrance and they sing every word without missing a beat? Do your songs give them the vocabulary they need to put into words how good God is and how amazing the gift of His sweet love is?

Think about the songs you choose to lead as putting God’s praise on their lips. Make sure you are choosing songs that declare things you want them to say, sing, shout, and ultimately remember. We serve a God of wonders. He delights in our praises; but as creation, we should also take delight in honoring our wonder-filled Creator.

Being Intentional

Music is art. Beautiful music will only heighten your senses to better understand the beauty and greatness of God. How it sounds is important. I want to present music that sounds enjoyable because I want to invite others to give praise to an enjoyable and wonderful God. 

As a worship leader, I long to help people be filled with awe and wonder for the God we serve. I have to choose my songs wisely for that to happen. It means I’m intentional in my song choices. I don’t just fill in slots on a planning sheet, but I consider what is being taught and what kind of experience I want to lead kids into. Then, I choose songs to help me accomplish those things.

The same songs you sing on Sunday can influence the families you serve the other six days of the week. You literally can multiply their impact.

Ways to Encourage the Families You Serve

Create a playlist on Spotify or Apple Music of the songs you use in your ministry. You could create this annually, quarterly, or even monthly. Share links in emails or social media. Put a QR code with a link to the playlist on take-home pages you send home. Equip parents to push play on the right things for those car rides to school or in the sports carpool.

You can disciple parents to disciple their kids in their musical choices simply by providing a free resource (that only costs you your time) to these families. It will reinforce the songs you’re singing, introduce new songs to your ministry, write songs on their hearts forever, and help them choose obedience and to hear God’s voice. What a gift!

Creating a playlist is a win-win for you and for the families you serve. By encouraging them to share it with other families, you are helping them testify of God’s wonder to their friends too.

Don’t sell the music that fills your hallways or pre-service playlist short. Don’t be satisfied with just singing a few songs for worship time in large group. Every song has the ability to shape the theology of this generation of children. Give them incredible messages to sing, remember, and declare the wonder working power of our super wonderful God!

Wonder Ink

What if Sunday morning was just the starting point? Wonder Ink is a customizable digital curriculum and toolkit for creatively engaging kids and families in God’s Word. Wonder Ink sparks curiosity and guides children on a journey of faith through the wonder of God.

Explore Wonder Ink

I was made to love You, it’s all I really know for sure
All I am is wrapped up in You, the center of my world
And I was made to love You, from my beginning to my end
And You’ll be my forever, my forever amen

– Steffany Gretzinger, Forever Amen

Worship is part of who we were each created to be. It is woven throughout our lives. Worship is your song, but it is also significantly more than a song. The amount of wonder revealed through worship depends on our posture, our hearts, and, ultimately, God and His desire for us.

You can find Worship on the very first page in Genesis all the way to the last of Revelation. Just as it is woven in our lives, it is also woven throughout Scripture. We see it in the context of creation, the life of Jesus, within seasons, songs, and in the lives of those who love God.

There are different kinds of worship. Worship that is set apart allows us to focus in and enjoy His presence. Worship shown in our daily lives—based on how we live—points to God. Both are important, and one usually fuels the other.

Identity in Worship

As He has given each of us identity with different abilities, desires, and personalities, our praise to God can look different. When you look at the 7 Hebrew words for praise found in Scripture, you’ll see yâdâh, hâlal, zâmar, tôwdâh, bârak, tehillâh, and shâbach.  If you’ve not looked these up before, I encourage you to!

The 7 Hebrew words for praise tell us that our worship doesn’t always have to be the same, nor should it be.

What a Wonder He Is

Come, let us sing to the Lord!
    Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
    Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth
    and the mightiest mountains.
The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
    His hands formed the dry land, too.

Come, let us worship and bow down.
    Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
    for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
    the flock under his care.

—Psalm 95:1-7 (NLT)

In my life, the one constant is God and His goodness. Even when I didn’t see it, didn’t acknowledge Him, and maybe even ran from Him, He was good to me—faithful is the best way to describe it.

I think that alone inspires wonder in me.

Psalm 95 talks about us praising God. It depicts Him as the King above all kings, the Creator of the world, and our Shepherd. To think that the Creator of all things loves me enough to be faithful to me when I am anything but faithful to Him … that inspires wonder in me. To think that the King of all kings loves me enough to give me a seat at the table … that inspires wonder in me.

To think that He fully knows me, fully loves me, and chooses to lead me … that inspires wonder in me.

Because of His devotion, I get to be devoted back.

I get to worship.

I Get To (Keyword: Get)

When my worship is self-centered (which unfortunately happens), I notice I never get to where I think I’m headed. I don’t love well, I don’t see well, and I definitely don’t reflect God well. It’s typically selfish and ugly and worthless.

But when I focus where I’m meant to, I remember that I only love because God first loved me or that I am gracious only because God is gracious to me. When I remember that I am only full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control because of the Holy Spirit at work in me, my worship looks a lot different. And the fruit of my worship is different. It’s wonder-filled at its core.

When we realize that in all of our mess, in all of who we are, that God desires us, we realize how amazing it is that we get to worship and love Him back. So often we look for that love in other people, in creative outlets, or in things—but we never find it there.

Because no one can love me with unrelenting love outside of the One who created me. No one or no thing will ever desire me that much—only God will.

It really is full of wonder.

So, when I raise my hands on Sunday, or lead the congregation in song, or love my kids through the heart of the Father, or do my everyday work as if for Him, I get to reflect and shine a really big light on His great love. And that is wonder-filled worship.

Wonder-filled Worship

May we never lose sight of that. That because He knows me, loves me, and leads me, I get to be part of His Story.

I get to shine a big light that points to Him so that others may know the freedom and love and goodness that He has for them. So that others can be covered in the cloak of grace from Jesus Christ Himself. So that when you see me, you see Him—because He has covered me and filled me with His fullness.

There’s literally nothing better.

So, may we worship in wonder. In wonder at the God who placed the stars in the sky and who calls us each by name.

May your worship, and mine, lift His name higher and higher so that the rocks will never have to cry out in our place. May we join with all creation, and all of heaven, pointing to the King of kings who is near—who is God Immanuel.

Friends, I pray that wonder would fill your hearts today. And that you would know fully that “[n]o power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39 NLT)

We were made to love Him. That’s our purpose. Let’s live in this wonder-filled worship. And let’s shout it from one generation to the next.

Wonder Ink

What if Sunday morning was just the starting point? Wonder Ink is a customizable digital curriculum and toolkit for creatively engaging kids and families in God’s Word. Wonder Ink sparks curiosity and guides children on a journey of faith through the wonder of God.

Explore Wonder Ink

“Can I really lead kids in worship that are two, three, four, and five?”

I want to respond to you with a resounding YES! It matters. It’s important. What you’re doing isn’t just music. It’s not simply a time-filler or a box to check off. Kids worshipping is power packed! It’s valuable, and it’s an important way to disciple children in the way they should go.

In fact, the Bible talks about it and Jesus even quotes it in Matthew 21:16 (NIV), “‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ they asked him. ‘Yes,’ replied Jesus, ‘have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?’”.

Jesus is quoting my favorite verse for kid’s worship in His response to the question.

Psalm 8:1-2 (MSG) says: “God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name. Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.”

Take a few extra minutes to study the Scripture in a variety of translations. Look for how God has created, fashioned, perfected, and taught children to praise Him! What beautiful imagery and promise. Look it up in The Passion Translation too. It’s a verse packed with power.

Making Space for God to Work

I believe when you push play on a song to lead kids in a time of worship, you are unleashing the power of God to be at work in your classroom. It spills over into the hallways and family cars. As children recall and sing the songs you’ve taught them while they are playing on a weekday, others will be impacted by their worship—whether it be a friend or a family member.

You may wonder where to begin. Here are a few things that will help you focus and begin to disciple preschool kids in worship:

1. Develop a vision for it.

What do you want to see happen in and through preschool worship? What kind of engagement do you envision? And what do you want to make sure every preschooler understands about worship when they move up to the elementary area?

Discuss these questions with your team—including your teachers and volunteers. Help everyone to grasp what Scripture says about kids worshipping and share the vision you have for it.

Children’s worship matters. How do you plan to encourage children to give God praise?

2. Be intentional about creating time to worship.

Make time to worship in every class. I believe it’s our responsibility as leaders to help kids learn and obey Scripture. Scripture specifically talks about children giving praise.

When you gather, choose to use music to engage kids to worship. Just like you’re going to have a snack time and potty breaks, it’s important to become intentional about creating space for kids to celebrate God’s goodness in their lives. Make space for them to respond to Him with their love.

You’re not just singing songs—you’re leading these kids to worship God.

3. Have FUN and engage them.

Different songs call for different responses. Have fun, up-tempo, active songs that are naturally engaging in their lyrics. Songs that talk about taking specific action are an easy way to get everyone involved, moving, and participating.

Help kids celebrate, dance, jump, clap, spin, wiggle, shout, whisper, waive their arms, give a high five, and more. Great preschool songs include those things.

Remember to consider attention spans as you choose where to place songs. Length of song and vocabulary use are very important in keeping their attention.

4. Use props.

I have props that I use on certain songs. They may tie into the theme or message of the song—like a racing flag, superhero cape, bath toys, or palm branches. I also have some plush and foam instruments so I can invite a few kids to come up and help me with a song.

You don’t need a prop for every song you do or for every child in your class. Props are a great tool to help you keep things fresh and creative while engaging kids in different ways as you lead.

5. Slow songs are possible.

Every song doesn’t have to be a dance party where the whole room is bouncing from start to finish. You can lead young children in a slow song like “God Is Good”, “How Great Is Our God”, or “I Love You Lord”.

It may work best to allow the kids to sit as you sing a slow song. I often place a slow song after something very high-energy where they are maybe even a little bit tired—maybe after a song that included a lot of cardio.

You can then invite them to sit down and think about something they are thankful for from God. Encourage them to sing this song to show God their love and thankfulness.

6. They love routine and familiar.

Preschool kids love the same thing over and over. Find freedom in the fact that you don’t need a thirty-song repertoire.

Many churches sing the same songs every week for a month. Other churches have a theme song for the month that reinforces what they are teaching. They sing it every week and then mix in a couple of other songs for variety.

Try a few methods out and see what works best for you, your kids, and your team.

7. Define the win.

Remember: it’s all a process. Lead children one step at a time—one song, one week, and one month at a time. Set a goal of what you’d like to see or what you want to teach them.

Use what you want them to learn to help you better engage them.

Realize these goals are moving targets. Your goals for this month may be very different from your goal in six months or even next year.

Define what a win looks like for this week. Use this win to guide your song choices and what you are going to share in the transitions as you lead kids in worship.

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Each week, I join with my church family to sing about and lift up the Name Above All Names. But worship is more than those sweet moments together. It’s a way of life. It’s doing all things as though they are for God.

Worship is cleaning toilets, changing diapers, feeding the hungry, and caring for the widows and orphans. Worship is set aside in our alone time and done in community.

It is obeying God and keeping His commands—it’s loving one another in the same way that God loves us. Worship is changing our priorities to what God would have us do. Worship is following Christ.

It’s a posture.

The Slouch

Google defines posture (noun) as “the position in which someone holds their body when standing or sitting.” It goes on to say, “a particular way of dealing with or considering something; an approach or attitude.”

Every day we have the opportunity to tune in to God or tune Him out. To tune in to Him, we must be intentional. Intentionality changes everything.

You see, most of the time, I work at a desk behind a screen. After working for a while, I start to slouch in my chair. I’m still focused on the task, but the way I’m sitting has changed. My posture has weakened.

If I’m not careful, by the end of the day my body hurts because of how unintentional I’ve been about sitting properly. The same thing happens in our spiritual lives when we don’t keep ourselves in check.

By the end of a long day, after a stressful doctor’s appointment, after an argument with our spouse, we are slouching. And it all starts to hurt. We are no longer intentionally living in a posture of worship.

Living Sacrifice

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Romans 12:1 (NIV®)

Living sacrifice.

Wow. Talk about a commitment and a posture.

Life gets hard. There are days that I don’t intentionally live out my life in a manner pleasing to God. I think we all have been there. We’ve experienced a bad report at work, a call from a family member, or discouraging news from a friend.

Some of us are feeling the weight of empty chairs at church—maybe as a result of COVID-19. I get it. There’s so much in any given day that could go wrong and then shift our focus from one place to the next. But the beauty of who Jesus is, the beauty of what He has done for us, is that He has overcome this world.

Everything that could get in our way, He’s taken care of already. And we need to keep our eyes fixed on Him. Each morning, I read a devotional by Paul Tripp where he dives into God’s mercies. It really is beautiful. In a recent one, he said this:

Discouragement focuses more on the broken glories of creation than on the restoring glories of God’s character, presence, and promises.

It is only when you look at life through the window of the glory of the One who has been the source of your meditation that you see reality accurately.

Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

When we focus on Jesus and who God is, our perspective changes. We get a clear view of reality. Our perspective always impacts our posture of worship. And Scripture says that nothing can separate us from His love. Nothing.

Accepting God’s Love

Live in a posture that accepts that love. One that breathes it in and out every day. Live in a posture that is holy and pleasing to God.

In every season, there is worship. In ALL things we are to give thanks. Worship is different for all of us, and I think that is the amazing realization of the body of Christ—the differences that bring us together, the unity we have by being who God created us to be.

You see, David danced.

Paul and Silas sang.

A woman gave everything in her alabaster box.

Abraham obeyed even when it meant sacrificing his son.

Hannah worshipped in spite of her barren womb.

Job submitted and praised God in spite of losing what he thought was everything.

Daniel prayed.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow before a false God.

Jesus gave everything.

God’s Desire

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4:23-24 (NIV®)

God desires our worship. He desires intimacy with us. God cannot have intimacy with us if we are not intentional about following Him. He cannot have all of us if we do not give all to Him.

“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”

Isaiah 29:13 NIV®

May our worship be more than a ritual we have been taught. May our worship be a heart-soul connection with God that is lived out in spirit and in truth.

Let’s be in sync with God and His purposes for us. He has promised freedom, He has proven faithfulness, and He has shown us mercy and kindness.

And with His grace, we all have the opportunity to be made new—whole.

He is Good

God loves us. He pursues us. He wants the very best for us.

The most beautiful, humbling thing in life is that God—the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, the God who parted the sea, the very God who sent His Son to die so that I may live—wants relationship with me.

He wants connection with me. Even though I don’t deserve His love, He gave it anyway.

And that matters.

You see, at the end of the day, we love because God loved us. We understand humility because Jesus displayed humility. We give grace, because without it we would be condemned.

Megan Marshman depicts Christianity so clearly in her book SelfLess. She talks about how Jesus climbed down the ladder to meet us where we are. On our own, we cannot climb up to earn God’s love, but because Jesus came to us, we can go up the ladder with Him. That’s grace.

God is good. He is the God of peace. He is the one, true God. And that is why we worship. That is why every day we submit ourselves, whatever that might look like in our relationship with Him.

Because the posture of worship, it’s personal.

It’s yours. I encourage you to own it.

Additional Articles You May Like

• How to Make Space for Worship Response in Your Kidmin
• How to Lead Kids’ Worship When You Aren’t Really a Worship Leader
• 5 Surprising Solutions for Better Kids’ Worship
• How to Engage Boys in Worship Without Embarrassing Them
• Where to Find Uplifting Kids’ Worship Songs Online
• What Scripture Says About Children’s Ministry

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God speaks to children and He pursues them long before they realize it. But our world is noisy and easily drowns out His voice.

Worship as response is simply creating space to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to the kids in our ministries.

As they learn to recognize His voice, they are compelled toward postures of love, gratitude, and adoration, just to name a few!

But how do we create this worshipful space for children?

Picture being at a party with a noisy roomful of people. Through God’s incredible design, your ears are capable of drowning out all noise around you except for the one person you want to hear—even though that person may not be right next to you.

Similarly, God can reach us through the noise. But we need to listen attentively, or we’ll miss it.

As parents and ministry workers, we want our children to know God’s voice and be compelled to fall on their knees and worship Him! But how do we get there?

Allow Space for Response to God

First, We must believe that children are capable of hearing from God and that God is capable of reaching them. And second, we must create environments where the Holy Spirit can transform lives even at the youngest ages.

Scripture gives us some examples of God’s people responding after hearing His voice and seeing His miraculous works.

We find one example in 1 Samuel 3 (NIV®) where we see God calling out to Samuel who was about 11 years old. Meanwhile, Verse 7 tells us, “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”

Samuel did not recognize God’s voice when He called him because he had not experienced Him yet.

However, the high priest Eli wisely instructed Samuel how to respond: “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening’” (v. 9).

Eli told Samuel what to do, then he got out of the way and let Samuel hear from God.

I used to work at a church in Southern California that created a worship-as-response environment during their weekend adult services.

New to the church, I remember asking why they backloaded their services with worship songs.

And I’ll never forget our teaching pastor’s answer: “When you hear God’s Word, it should move you to respond to what you have heard. We are creating space for our faith community to do that.”

It was a game changer for me.

It was at this church that we began experimenting with worship as response in our children’s ministry. We had a three-part plan—lay the foundation, model the life of a worshipper, and get out of the way.

Lay the foundation

We first trained our volunteers. Then, we created environments with practical expressions for children to talk with and listen to God at the end of each of our services after hearing God’s Word.

We did this both in a large group setting and in small group classrooms. Through all this, our goal was to create space for even very young children to encounter the Holy Spirit.

We used practical expressions like:

Model the Life of a Worshipper

As staff and volunteers, we made a commitment to model worship through our lives.

We used Romans 12:1 as our guide, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Then, we encouraged parents to do the same. We invited them to join us during our response time or to take their children into the adult service for their response time.

There was nothing more precious than seeing young parents standing and worshipping God with their toddlers on their hips!

Get Out of the Way

We recognized we needed to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit do what only HE can do!

At first, it was uncomfortable—the awkward silence was deafening. But we reminded each other this was not a sprint to a finish line. We were simply helping families begin a journey.

It wasn’t our job to lead it, it was our job to set the table and invite the children to pull up a chair.

I’ll be honest—it didn’t always turn out the way we had hoped, but for the times it did, it was well worth being out of our comfort zones.

The effects of allowing the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of the children in your ministry through worship response will probably not be visible overnight. But you can be sure their hearts are being shaped.

They will never forget their first true encounters with the living God.

Response Looks Different

A Verbal Response

One of my favorite memories is of a group of Pre-K and Kinders (four-to-six-year-olds). We invited them to sit quietly. Then when they felt like it, they were to stand and call out an attribute of God.

We gave them a few examples, and then we waited. It felt like we waited an eternity when suddenly a sweet little four-year-old girl stood and said, “God is awesome!”

After that, We all watched with tears streaming down our faces as one by one these children began to call out who God was to them.

God is my friend! He is my Savior! God healed my mommy! On and on it went until almost every child had spoken beautiful words out loud to God.

A Quiet Response

Another small church lined an entire wall with butcher paper in the third-grade classroom.

After teaching small group, the leader explained there was one color of pen to write prayer requests and another color to circle the request once God has answered the prayer.

As a result, week after week students ran to the classroom to see what God had done. At the end of every class, they were given quiet time to thank God for answered prayers.

In short, that simple piece of butcher paper became a tangible symbol for an amazing God we can trust to answer our prayers.

Consequently, it let the children know that God is alive today—we are a part of His story; He didn’t just speak to His people and do miracles during Bible times.

Most importantly, our goal is to raise a generation of children who have unique relationships with God that the world hungers for.

Worship as response offers a path for children to encounter the life-changing God who keeps each of us coming back for more.

Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?

Get ready to help families with their most important task, in our guide from Ministry Spark: 7 Ways to Encourage Today’s Parents as Spiritual Influencers at Home.

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Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?

Get ready to help families with their most important task, in our guide from Ministry Spark: 7 Ways to Encourage Today’s Parents as Spiritual Influencers at Home.

Download your free guide

Free Guide

Ready to help parents create an environment for spiritual growth?

Get ready to help families with their most important task, in our guide from Ministry Spark: 7 Ways to Encourage Today’s Parents as Spiritual Influencers at Home.

Download your free guide

Free Guide

The people on your team and the staff and volunteer positions in your ministry may look different from your colleagues in ministry, and that’s ok.

Your children’s ministry may have a dedicated, paid worship leader, but it’s more likely that you or a key volunteer fill that role.

Regardless of what that looks like in your church, you can lead kids to experience the presence of God during worship.

I’m a music girl through and through. I love singing and playing music—I write and even produce music. All of those things are important. And there’s nothing like leading people—especially kids—to worship God.

But I’m gonna be honest and pull back the curtain a bit on worship leading in kids’ ministries.

Behind the KidMin Worship Curtain

Whether I’m at a conference talking with a Kidmin leader or contributing to a conversation on a Facebook group, I often get asked questions like these:

• How do I lead worship when it’s not my forte?
• I can teach a Jesus lesson with no prep. But worship time? I feel like a fish out of water, and the kids can tell. So what can I do?
• We are smallish, so the teachers lead the worship time. And they’re not all gifted to lead worship… Is it okay for me to coach and train our worship leaders when I don’t know music?

I get it. I think this is a common issue in Kidmin. But my answer is “Yes!”

• Yes! You can lead worship even if you don’t know music.
• Yes! You can lead worship even if you can’t sing.
• Yes! You can train others to connect and engage a classroom during worship.

Here’s why.

The same qualities that make a great storyteller a great storyteller and that make one of your best teachers one of your best teachers, are some of the same characteristics of a great worship leader.

A great worship leader knows how to lead and engage their audience.

The Key to Leading Worship

The key to leading worship is to keep in mind you’re not just singing songs and filling time in a service. You are leading others and engaging them in a time of worship.

Above all, leading worship is a heart matter—it’s not a musical one.

I like to say it like this: Leading worship is more about your leadership ability than your musical ability.

But what I’m NOT saying is: Even if you know you can’t sing, you should project your voice into a microphone through a sound system to victimize everyone nearby. Ha!

If your voice makes people think of nails on a chalkboard or a howling cat (or wish they were hearing that instead), then, by all means, use the pre-recorded vocals. Don’t sing into a microphone.

But even if you shouldn’t use a microphone, you should:

• Model to others WHAT to do.
• Share with everyone HOW they can participate.
• Teach WHY a certain posture is needed at a certain time during worship.
• Lead a conversation about WHERE and WHEN we can worship God.
• SHOW what the joy of the Lord looks like in the life of a believer.

Experiencing God’s Presence

Leading a time of worship and navigating the journey from song to song and then to other segments in class enables kids to experience God’s presence and to actively participate in one of the core things they were created to do—praise their creator.

1 Peter 2:9 says: “But God chose you to be his people. You are royal priests. You are a holy nation. You are God’s special treasure. You are all these things so that you can give him praise. God brought you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (NIV).

The essence of being a worship leader is not a musical thing. Of course, if you have musical giftings or awareness, that increases your ability in this area.

And it may even enhance how you coach others to lead.

Having musical talent isn’t a downside at all. But you don’t have to have the voice of Celine Dion to lead kids’ worship well.

For the sake of this conversation today, we’re gonna lay that requirement down. Go ahead—erase it. Or if you prefer, cross it out.

I hope many of you feel liberated—like a burden is lifted!

Even more so, I hope you understand and even believe that you can be a great kids’ worship leader—regardless of how well you sing.

And I hope you feel empowered to step on stage with more confidence than ever before.

Or you may need to encourage the others on your team. Maybe you’ve entrusted them with this role, and you need to encourage them to own it and really embrace leading kids in worship.

Worship Requires Participation

The songs you sing don’t just fill time in your service. They plant seeds that will get watered and nurtured again every time the person sings those words.

We all know songs from over the years that we can sing word for word right now even though we haven’t heard or thought about them in years.

That is a gift of music.

Consequently, the songs you sing will reinforce the message of your lesson and fills kids’ hearts and minds with Scripture and God’s truth.

So if you want to make the lessons you teach each week stick, choose songs that go hand in hand with those lessons. And choose songs that kids really like to sing.

Using music in our classrooms can accomplish a lot. Music can create energy, excitement, and engagement. It can help us feel and better grasp a concept we’re teaching.

Think of music as a tool, a piece of hardware, well-crafted equipment, a prop, or a vehicle for an experience or journey. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Embrace what worship can offer you and the kids you minister to.

For unique insights into worship issues and how to troubleshoot them in your ministry, check out 5 Surprising Solutions for Better Kids’ Worship.

Worship Is Not a Spectator Sport

Again, reflecting on my conversations with ministry leaders, I will hear them looking for a miracle drug. They want to just show music videos on a big screen with the expectation that all the kids in the room will magically start to worship.

When was the last time you watched a video on your phone, computer, or even a show on TV and hopped to your feet, started dancing, and broke into a time of worship for fifteen minutes?

I’m doubtful you could answer that question.

We aren’t wired to participate in what we watch. When we watch something, we just sit there as passive observers.

But the good news is that here are fabulous resources out there for kids’ worship!

WorshipHouseKids.com is a great place to get videos with the group viewing permissions you need.

Some of my favorites are by OrangeKidsMusic, Hillsong, and, of course, the KidminWorship.com series I do for preteen/elementary, and the LittlePraiseParty.com series I created for younger children.

But even the best songs and videos still need someone to lead them. That’s what a worship leader does.

A Worship Leader LEADS the Songs

When I spent time studying the Psalms and looking at David’s example, I realized that he showed us what to do and how to do it.

Your kids need that same type of instruction throughout your time of worship.

It’s not enough to say something before the first song and then never say anything else to coach them through the songs. We humans get easily distracted.

All it takes is for one kid to tap them on the shoulder to be a distraction.

Their stomachs begin to growl, and they start thinking about lunch.

Or maybe they’re going to a friend’s house after church and are super excited, so they start daydreaming about what all they’re gonna do later.

It could be as simple as a fly buzzing by and their eyes starting to follow it around the room.

There is a list of reasons a mile long for why your kids may suddenly stop participating during a song.

And 99 percent of them time they’re not intentionally thinking, “I will not take part in worship. No matter what they say, I’m not gonna sing.”

That really isn’t the heart of the majority of the kids you lead. They just need some guidance, understanding, and—most of all—reminders to get involved, be engaged, and take a step.

So, before the song begins, tell them about what they are to do or what the songs is about.

Psalm 66: 1-3 is a great reminder of why we worship: “Shout to God for joy, everyone on earth! Sing about the glory of his name! Give him glorious praise! Say to God, “What wonderful things you do! Your power is so great” (NIrV).

Give Instruction and Encouragement

Even if you’re using pre-recorded music, you can be the pilot and utilize the music in the arrangement of the song to lead your kids well with little nuggets of instruction.

During the instrumental sections of songs, you can insert instruction and encouragement.

Lead your kids by saying things like:

• Everybody, clap your hands!
• Let me hear you!
• Sing it louder!
• Don’t stop! Keep on singing!
• Everybody, sing!
• Lift your voice!
• Lift your hands and sing!

If there’s a really long piece of instrumental music within a song, encourage kids to interact with each other so they stay engaged in worship. Lead your kids by:

• Prompting them to tell three people, “God made you special.”
• Encouraging them to give each other high fives.
• Asking them to repeat a prayer.

Use the music to steer the ship where you want it to go. You need to control the track—don’t let the track control you.

Parts of a Song

For all of you non-music folk, here’s a little descriptive list of the various pieces of songs:

• Intro—any music at the beginning of the song before the singing starts.
• Verse—generally the first section of the song. There are usually at least two verses. The verse is less catchy and doesn’t have the hook of the chorus. Sometimes the verse words are the same—especially in kids’ songs—but in most adult songs the verses will have different lyrics.
• Chorus—the most sing-able, catchy part of the song. It’s the part that’s easiest to sing along with and tends to get stuck in your head.
• Turnaround—the time between a chorus and another verse.
• Instrumental—a music-only section that may happen before a bridge or that final chorus.
• Bridge—a third section of the song that normally ties the bow lyrically and musically speaking.
• Tag—the last line of a section that repeats.
• Outro—any music that’s at the end of the song after the singing portion has ended.

Keep inserting prompts throughout the songs and as you segue between the songs to remind everyone of the “what, why, where, and how” of worship.

They need you to remind them how to engage.

Think of the Trainer / Coach Model

Leading worship is a lot like being an aerobics instructor or personal trainer. But I don’t say that because of the motions and cardio that are often part of the kids’ worship!

Instead, I say it because sometimes we go to the gym on our own with the best of intentions, but when it gets a little hard and uncomfortable, we stop for a water break that turns into a rest break that turns into a run to the closest Starbucks. Right?

I’ve been guilty of this and maybe you have too.

Alternatively, maybe you played sports growing up and had coaches and trainers who worked with you.

Maybe you’ve taken workout classes where someone is leading the way, verbally encouraging you to keep on, work harder, and push farther than you’d be willing to go on your own.

That is your job as a worship leader: To coach others by pointing the way to go and encouraging them to not quit.

Help them take a new step and try something they haven’t before. Invite them to “do it again, sing it louder, raise their hands.” The list goes on and on.

Vocal Inflection Is an Accelerator

Remember that what makes a great storyteller or any great teacher in your classroom is their ability to really engage and get the attention of your children.

You want the kids to fully embrace and participate in what’s happening.

Inflection is an important tool to use when it comes to engaging kids with your words. You have to make sure you’re communicating what you’re trying to share with the right inflection.

If you’re super excited and passionate, you need to be louder and more excited than when you’re being vulnerable, sharing a hard lesson you’ve learned, or explaining the message of a song.

Your inflection needs to help communicate your message.

Let’s say you’re having the kids repeat something after you. Maybe it’s some of the words to the song you’re about to sing.

Line by line, get louder and bolder to build excitement. They will repeat it back to you with the same tone and style you use to project it to them.

There are times during songs when I have encouraged preschoolers to sing with each line getting louder and louder.

This works especially well when there’s a lot of repetition like in the worship chorus “God Is So Good”. In between the lines, I coach them to “sing it even louder”.

The same can work with getting softer and whispering.

Be Aware of Your Audience

Make eye contact. For the most part, it’s good to keep your eyes open. It seriously is so cool to realize the power that you have by simply locking eyes with a kid. I dare you to try it.

You can correct behavior simply by looking at them. And making eye contact can help kids feel known—you’ll notice a smile burst on their faces when they realize you see them.

As a worship leader, I do my best to stay aware of my audience. I’m constantly asking myself questions even at times adjusting what I’ve planned.

When I can see that a group of kids is not participating with me, I ask myself, “What can I do or say right now to try to engage them?”

If you need extra help getting the boys in your class to participate in worship, read this post on How to Engage Boys in Worship Without Embarrassing Them—it will help you be more strategic to include them!

You may rely on recorded vocals, but there’s no recording out there that can see your room—and, more importantly your kids—and be led by the Spirit of God.

Ask the Holy Spirit to guide what you say and do to help your kids press in and take a step in their worship of the Lord.

Believe in Yourself and Be Confident

Someone believes in you enough to entrust you with this responsibility and give you this opportunity.

Kids are the easiest group you’ll ever lead in worship. Trust me! They’re so much easier than a middle-aged man or middle schooler.

Many times, we get scared as if the kids are going to throw tomatoes at us when they don’t like our joke. Let’s be real—for the most part, kids are not going to bite or attack us. That fear is unlikely to ever become a reality.

So, guard against the seeds of fear and worry that would consume you and restrict you from leading kids to experience the presence of God during worship.

Someone gave you this task. Do the job to the very best of your ability. Walk in the freedom and confidence that only Jesus gives. Be an example and a leader of worship. On stage and off.

Believe in yourself and choose to step up and rock the worship leader role in your ministry.

I believe in you.

You can do this.

What if We’re Failing Kids at Faith Formation? (And How Not To)

Have you ever wondered if we’re missing the mark? Research shows that young people are leaving the church and aren’t looking back. In this guide, we examine this difficult, challenging, and eye-opening question and seek answers to help change the trends. There is hope. We can make a difference.

Download your faith formation guide

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What if We’re Failing Kids at Faith Formation? (And How Not To)

Have you ever wondered if we’re missing the mark? Research shows that young people are leaving the church and aren’t looking back. In this guide, we examine this difficult, challenging, and eye-opening question and seek answers to help change the trends. There is hope. We can make a difference.

Download your faith formation guide

Free Guide

What if We’re Failing Kids at Faith Formation? (And How Not To)

Have you ever wondered if we’re missing the mark? Research shows that young people are leaving the church and aren’t looking back. In this guide, we examine this difficult, challenging, and eye-opening question and seek answers to help change the trends. There is hope. We can make a difference.

Download your faith formation guide

Free Guide

When I hear about what they are doing, sometimes the solution is simple. Other times it’s more complicated and, truthfully, is something that will take months to nurture, change, and lead to the place you want it to be.

Later in this post I’ll give five questions that can help you problem solve solutions in kids’ worship. But let me encourage you to start with these steps.

Tell Someone Else and Get a New Perspective

I have learned that many times you can solve a problem simply by talking through the issue. I’ve had times when a leader asks me a question and I wish I could play back what they just said to me. Because if they could hear themselves, they might realize the answer is obvious.

In a lot of cases, the answer you’re looking for is hiding in plain sight. You just need to stop and get outside of your situation. Try sitting down with someone else on your team to help you brainstorm out loud. Or write your problem down. Often the answer is right there between the lines.

Here’s an example. I’ve had people say, “We don’t do slow songs, because our kids don’t know how to respond to them.” I immediately wonder, “How are they ever going to learn when you’ve taken away the opportunity? You just took it off the table, so how are they ever going to worship God with a slower song?”

In that situation, the first step is to make time to worship with slower music. It may mean you have to start by allowing kids to sit down for that slower song as they warm up to this “new concept.”

Next, start teaching them a little nugget of truth about worship every time you gather. Every week give them knowledge about the “what, why, where, when, and how of worship.” Week by week, you will help them understand what worship time is and how they can engage in it. 

Always Look Ahead to Your Next Move

A few months ago, I was in a service where the comedian Michael Jr. was speaking. He shared that the whole time he’s telling one joke, he’s analyzing the audience and asking questions in the gap to decide what joke he’s going to tell next.

I completely understand that gap. Because as a worship leader, oftentimes I’m leading a song while looking at the room and trying to figure out how to make the time more engaging. What can I do or say to engage people who aren’t interested and get them to take a step?

What you do and think about in the gaps makes a big difference on the scale of good to great. Set aside time monthly, quarterly, or even semi-annually to self-analyze and brainstorm answers to issues you’re struggling with. Learn how to adjust and change along the way so you can be successful in the future. 

Ask God for Wisdom

When I was growing up, if I thought one of my parents had said my name, but they actually hadn’t, my Dad would always tell me, “If you hear it again, say, ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening.'” Another thing I can hear my dad saying over and over again is James 1:5. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (NIV).

It’s so simple, but what a genius idea for us to just stop as the children of God and talk to Him. Ask God to help you fill some of these holes and needs that you have in your ministry. I invite you to do that today as you are seeking wisdom and needing help. I believe that He speaks to our hearts and will reveal to you the next steps that you need to take for your specific church and community.

5 Questions to Help You Uncover Kids’ Worship Solutions

I want to give you a handful of questions that will help evaluate what you do in worship. By asking them, you’ll learn what you might want to change as you strive to lead kids to a place of worship every time you gather.

1. What does your music sound like?

Let’s be real. A lot of kids’ music sounds kiddie. And I have found that kids’ musical tastes are far more distinguished than adults give them credit for. I really, truly think that adults like hearing kid vocals on a recording more than kids do.

If you’re still using the music you heard as a child, mix it up. Some of those songs are great, but maybe the recordings aren’t. Good songs never stop being good songs, but styles do change.

Does the music you use sound like what kids in the current year would listen to when they aren’t at your church? I have a burden to help Sunday morning sound and look more like what Monday–Saturday sounds and looks like. I mean that in the creative, artistic, visual, and audible way.

We know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The gift we are giving does not change, but the gift’s wrapping sometimes needs a makeover. Our packaging may need an update. Styles change, so periodically evaluating what your music sounds like is a key ingredient for getting kids to participate.

2. Who do you have on stage leading worship?

I know that’s a loaded question because you may not have anyone up there. I’ll be honest: pushing play on a video will never lead worship for you.

Videos are great. They are a wonderful tool that we have in ministry. I make videos, sell videos, and use videos every time I lead worship. But a video does not fill the need to have a person or a team leading worship.

Think about this: when you’re at home watching TV, are you fully engaged in a cardio workout? No. You’re probably vegging out or eating a snack. You’re sitting and watching, right?

In the same way, if kids are playing games or watching Netflix on an iPad, they’re just sitting. They’re not hopping to their feet and doing a dance routine. When you push play on a video, kids don’t know they’re not supposed to sit down. It’s abnormal for us to jump in and participate in what we watch on a screen. Rather than relying on a video only, you need someone who’s going to help you lead the songs from start to finish.

Your team must understand the importance of leading and navigating the worship time. Introducing a song or segueing from one song to another is crucial to lead kid in worship. Lastly, your leader needs to be a person who kids can look up to as someone they admire or want to be like.

This is especially true for older children and the boys in your ministry. If you have a preteen class, finding teenagers, college students, and younger adults to lead worship will be a huge win. Each leader also needs a worshipper’s heart and ability to model how to participate in the worship time.

3. Do your leaders look like they like to worship?

People on stage need to look like they are having fun. Are they happy and smiling, or do they look like someone’s forcing them to get up there and they’re scared out of their minds? Have them stand in front of a mirror and check for what a smile looks like versus what it feels like.

Sometimes we feel like we are smiling, but it doesn’t look that way to others. I learned this by watching back video of our worship services. I felt like I was smiling on stage, but it didn’t look like I was smiling. The attitude you’re modeling and displaying to the kids is so important as you think about what you’re inviting them to do.

Color and bold patterns in your clothes also speak the language of happy and fun. Yes, black is slimming—and it worked great for Johnny Cash—but color is happier. Wear color when you’re working with kids, and save the all-black outfit for another day of the week.

4. Do you teach why and how we worship?

I think this is a missing element in most kids’ worship ministries. Every week, you can teach something about the what, why, when, where, and how of worship.

When we study Psalms, we see over and over again David telling us what to do and how to do it.  He is a wonderful model. Look at Psalm 47:1, “Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!” (NLT) There are four pieces of instruction in that one short verse. That is your model.

I created a five-lesson curriculum series to help churches lay a foundation in their kids (and team) of a heart of worship. Take a look at Heartbeat. Based on the feedback of churches that have done this series, I believe it will be a game-changer for your ministry.

5. Do you listen to and get feedback from your kids?

If you work with preschoolers, this will be harder. But with your older elementary/preteen ages you can get feedback on current songs and even new songs you plan to introduce.

I spent one of the best hours of my life getting feedback from a 6th grader. She knew a lot about what her friends liked and even knew what was working for the boys. I started my time with this student because I was asking for feedback about new songs I was thinking about introducing. That feedback went so great that I opened my notebook of all the past worship sets that year to hear what she thought.

Sometimes I would find out the kids were getting tired of a song that was still working. That incredibly valuable information helped me pace how often I used the song so I didn’t wear it out and break the song.

Sometimes she would respond “Boys like that one.” And sometimes I’d find out “Girls like that song, but the boys don’t.” Again, valuable information! That doesn’t mean don’t do the song, but it made me more strategic in surrounding it with another song that is super boy-friendly.

I’m sure you have a group of kids in your ministry that you could take out for ice cream and let them speak into the worship songs you use in your ministry. Get feedback from them regularly on what you’ve been doing and new songs you’re considering. It will be well worth your time—I promise.

Final Encouragement

Thank you for being committed to helping kids learn and grow in the area of worship. I am convinced if we can help kids taste and see that God is good by experiencing His presence in our services and classrooms, they will hunger and thirst for more of Him in their lives.

It is a gift you can give the kids in your ministry: the knowledge that through worship they can run to God with anything they face in every season of their life. To God be the glory!

Ready to get some rest for your weary soul?

Get ready to pause, take a deep breath, and rest, in our guide from Ministry Spark: You Were Made for This: Caring for Your Soul as a Ministry Leader.

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Ready to get some rest for your weary soul?

Get ready to pause, take a deep breath, and rest, in our guide from Ministry Spark: You Were Made for This: Caring for Your Soul as a Ministry Leader.

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Ready to get some rest for your weary soul?

Get ready to pause, take a deep breath, and rest, in our guide from Ministry Spark: You Were Made for This: Caring for Your Soul as a Ministry Leader.

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Boys can and will participate in worship. I have seen it firsthand more times than I can count. And every time I do, I take a mental photo so I can remember that boys can and will sing.

If you aren’t seeing boys participate in worship, there are several things for you to think about as you evaluate what you currently do for kids worship. Read this post on 5 Surprising Solutions article to help you navigate potential next steps.

I believe the five things I outline in that post play a huge part in this topic of boys and worship. But there are a couple other areas I want to invite you to consider.

Do Your Volunteers Model Worship for Everyone?

Get your full volunteer team on board and active in the role of engaging kids—including the boys—in worship.

Do Male Leaders Worship Alongside the Boys?

Last summer I was leading worship at a preteen camp in Texas. I’ll never forget one morning in chapel. There were several rows of boys front and center who were engaged, participating, and all in to worship.

I was so happy to notice a counselor filming them because it was one of the many moments I wish my human eye could film the things I get to see as I lead from the stage. (You can see the video on my Facebook page.) Isn’t it incredible to see those boys giving it their all?

As I talked with the Kidmin Director of this group of boys, she confidently championed the role her volunteers have in modeling worship to everyone. The male volunteers who help in the class and lead small groups don’t stand in the back or on the sidelines. They take part and go all in, cheering the boys on through their example.

I asked her what she does to get her adult volunteers to be so involved in participating along with the kids. Here’s what she said.

“For starters, at our church, it starts from the top. Our men are modeled worship from the worship team every Sunday.

Secondly, I cast vision about worship for the kids and the leaders. The leaders know that I expect them to worship alongside the boys during our ministry times.

And thirdly, I think seeing fruit from it—the boys starting to learn what worship is all about—is what helps keep it going. Having committed male adult leaders worship alongside our boys has drastically changed the way worship happens in our kids’ spaces.

They model what worship looks like for the boys to see. It’s not always perfect, and we definitely sometimes have some flossing during worship time. But having male leaders worship alongside the boys shows them that worship is not just for females, and that it’s cool.”

I wholeheartedly agree that engaging kids in worship starts with vision. Model worship from the stage (in all classrooms in your church) and in the kids’ classroom. Help volunteers understand that nobody sits on the sidelines.

Every leader is there to help encourage and show kids how they can participate in worship.

Do Your Volunteers Know Worship Is Contagious?

Behavior is contagious in an audience. The bigger the crowd, the easier behavior spreads, because everybody feeds off each other. All you need is a spark to start a fire, and your adult leaders can help spark engagement during worship.

It’s so important for you to get this into your volunteers. They need to understand that they’ve got to participate. They can’t just stand there or sit there while you’re expecting the kids to be engaged.

Worship is not a “do as I say, not as I do” situation. Whether volunteers are in the aisles, the back of the room, the sides, or in the mix with the kids, they’ve got to join in and model the behavior we are leading kids toward.

Do Your Volunteers Own Their Influence?

I led worship for a preteen event called SuperStart. Throughout the different sessions, the groups rotate around the room. Every now and then during one of the sessions, I would end up with a group in the first couple rows who would sit there during a song—even though I had asked the whole room to stand. (They probably stayed up too late or were coming down from a sugar high, but still!)

I couldn’t believe how many times I saw an adult leader follow what the kids were doing and stay seated. As a leader, their role was to encourage the kids by standing and saying, “You’re going to stand right now. This is what we’re going to do.”

Help your team realize the power they have to disciple young Christ followers through the discipline of worship. Remind them that they need to lead and model well because young eyes are watching their every move. Champion your volunteers with the knowledge that they have power and influence to help lead worship from within the audience.

Do You Have a Compelling Purpose for Worship?

Many of you struggle with boys who have completely disengaged from worship. They may have unplugged because of a hardened heart, a negative attitude, a lack of understanding, or by following the lead of a friend.

I want to unpack a few things that I have wrestled with and processed about this. Thinking through what you are inviting kids to do in worship is incredibly important.

Are You Relying Too Much on Motions?

I’ll be completely honest with you. A lot of leaders in children’s ministry have bought into a false sense of worship engagement. They expect there to be motions from start to finish of every song.

When the whole room is bouncing a certain way or moving side to side on the count of three, it makes us feel good that there was a lot of energy and movement in the room. And that may have happened, but it doesn’t mean worship happened that day.

Do movements have a purpose? Yes, absolutely. But somewhere along the way we started equating kids’ worship with movement from beginning to end of EVERY song.

In the process we lost a lot of meaning and purpose. It’s like the difference between a diet of all dessert versus a balanced diet of protein, fruits, and vegetables. We know that eating only sugar is a highway straight to decay. It might taste good going down, but it’s not nourishing a strong and flourishing body.

The same is true for our kids’ worship. Is there a time and a place for the whole room to bounce and move? Yes, of course. But, that’s in addition to, not instead of, learning what worship is all about.

Is Your Worship Preparing Kids for Life’s Battles?

Worship is focusing the heart and mind, lifting our hands in surrender to say, ‘I’m all Yours, Father God. Pick me up. I need You.”

Life is full of battles. All kids today, including boys, are dealing with some crazy stuff. They need to experience the hiding place of God’s presence. They need this now, they’ll need it next year, and they’ll need it for decades to come.

Children are the easiest group to lead in worship. Discipling them now in the area of worship is setting them up for a lifetime prepared to navigate whatever battle they may encounter.

Through the worship songs they get to sing, boys learn a vocabulary and a heart posture to honor the Lord and trust Him through anything and everything.

Do Boys See There Are Many Ways to Worship?

Songs that are packed non-stop with motions are a good way to alienate the oldest kids—and the boys—in your class.

What are you inviting boys to do in worship? If all they see is a dance routine, lot of boys are going to say “no thanks” and tune you out.

Years ago, I had a song with motions. I could teach those motions to a group of preteens, and they would do them no questions asked.

Then I could do the exact same song and movements in a room that included preteens and younger kids. When it was a broad range of ages, the oldest kids in the class would suddenly not participate. I did the exact same thing but got different results.

This experience took me on a journey of reevaluating what I did, how I did it, and what I wanted to invite my audience to do. I repeated my experience in different states and cities. Again, I wondered why once the youngest kids were in the room these oldest kids wouldn’t do it?

What I saw convicted me. I felt weighted with a responsibility to ask, “What is making them uncomfortable and not want to do it?” This led me to the realization that having a broader number of ways for kids to engage throughout worship time is much more realistic.

Does All Your Worship Look the Same?

Some of your kids love motions. They want to do them all the time and that’s cool. But some of your kids (especially the boys) don’t. And if you’re showing that motions are the only way they can participate in worship, you’re pushing them away rather than drawing them in. That’s why you don’t have engagement from certain kids.

Pushing them away is unacceptable to me. I also believe the way we worship should prepare kids for the age group they will enter next.

What if your church’s middle schoolers don’t use worship motions? Set your kids up to win when they graduate your children’s ministry by showing them there are other ways to participate in worship.

On certain songs (or even parts of songs) start giving them a model and experience that is just standing and clapping or lifting their hands.

I noticed in watching Hillsong Kids DVDs and even at Camp Kidjam that everyone on stage isn’t doing the same thing. Worship leaders are just singing and leading. Dancers are doing motions.

Sometimes it’s a mix of those things, but modeling from the stage at least a couple different ways to participate opens the door to include more kids. When I do that, I have just made it possible to have a higher percentage of my audience engage in what we are doing. I’ve made space for different personalities to participate in worship.

Are You Strategic in the Motions You Do Use?

I have found that generic, simple, and selective movements help me engage a lot more kids. It also helps me win some cool points with those kids that don’t love doing the motions (like many boys).

Being selective and even strategic in the movements I choose also means that when I do invite kids to do a movement, they will engage. That’s because I haven’t been asking for motions non-stop in every worship song we do.

So in the clip from camp we were doing my song “Super Wonderful (Comic)” I have motions only on the chorus, and they are crazy simple. “Super big (arms up), super strong (muscle arms), super wonderful (wave arms left, right, left, right), God (point up).”

It wasn’t anything you had to study for months. There wasn’t spinning and a twirl and boot scoot boogie to the side. It’s very simple and generic, and, most importantly, it was selective. We’re not going to do it from start to finish of the whole song. We’re only going to do the motions on the part that makes most sense.

Asking yourself, “What is the most obvious thing you can do when you hear those words or that part in the song?” is a great place to start. Your motions should be obvious to increase engagement.

Are You Choosing Motions Boys Will Be OK With?

I’m always going to be about a clapping section, a jumping section, a fist bump section, and arms waving back and forth. None of those are super offensive to a boy.

They are simple things everybody can do and not look silly doing. They also don’t require you to study for six weeks or take a dance class to learn.

Putting It All Together

Ask yourself hard questions and evaluate what you are inviting boys to do in worship. Inspire the boys AND the girls with examples and leaders who are modeling for them how to engage and what a heart of worship looks like. (I have crafted five lessons to help you teach this to your kids through a series called Heartbeat.)

I hope you hear all of me say this in love and kindness. I am cheering you on and want more than anything for worship to be a WIN in your children’s ministry.

Discover the Enneagram’s Surprisingly Simple Approach to Engaging Volunteers

Ready to learn how the Enneagram can help you inspire your volunteers? The Enneagram is all the buzz right now, and we want to equip you to use it to motivate your folks for service! We’ve covered all 9 personality types, with helpful tips and Scripture verses.

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Discover the Enneagram’s Surprisingly Simple Approach to Engaging Volunteers

Ready to learn how the Enneagram can help you inspire your volunteers? The Enneagram is all the buzz right now, and we want to equip you to use it to motivate your folks for service! We’ve covered all 9 personality types, with helpful tips and Scripture verses.

Download your free guide

Free Guide

Discover the Enneagram’s Surprisingly Simple Approach to Engaging Volunteers

Ready to learn how the Enneagram can help you inspire your volunteers? The Enneagram is all the buzz right now, and we want to equip you to use it to motivate your folks for service! We’ve covered all 9 personality types, with helpful tips and Scripture verses.

Download your free guide

Free Guide

Jesus quotes Psalm 8 when he says, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:16, ESV).

Leading children into joyful worship is a key component of ministry. But with so many options available, where do you start? 

We put together the following ideas to help you discover worship songs for your next Sunday morning or midweek gathering.

Streaming Kids’ Worship Songs Online

YouTube

YouTube is a fantastic way to research worship music. Before you use YouTube in the classroom, though, make sure the content is there with its creator’s permission and that you are abiding by YouTube’s Terms of Use.

(Check out these guidelines on showing YouTube videos in church.)

If you find a kids’ worship song on YouTube you love, purchase it from the artist or an approved distributor.

Here are ten kids’ worship songs on YouTube to help you get started with your research:

Faster Songs

• “Every Move I Make”
• “Unshakable”
• “Put Your Hands Up”
• “I Am Free”
• “Nothing Is Impossible”

Slower Songs

• “Thy Word“
• “I’ve Got Peace Like a River”
• “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
• “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”
• “You are My All in All”

Spotify

Music streaming service Spotify is a great source of inspiration for kids’ worship. Like YouTube, though, Spotify’s basic account is only meant for personal use, not streaming in a public place. But fear not—you can get a commercial account for business/public use.

Check out these albums and playlists to get ideas your next gathering, and then buy the songs from the artist or approved distributor!

• 51 Must Have Kids Worship Songs by Integrity Kids is a great starting point with dozens of classics like “What a Mighty God We Serve” and “The Name of the Lord.”
• Capitol Kids! Worship by Capitol Kids! features kids singing powerful worship songs, including “Happy Day” and “Trading My Sorrows.”
• Totally Kids Worship–Everyday by Integrity Kids offers high-energy, kid-friendly renditions of songs like “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” and “You Are Good.”
• You Are Good: Kids Worship from the Vineyard by Vineyard Worship spotlights current Vineyard music made more accessible for kids, and includes “One Thing Remains” and “Love Came Down.”
• From the Inside Out for Kids by Worship Together Kids includes “Here I Am to Worship” and “How Great Is Our God.”
• Taste and See by Yancy and Friends was chosen by Worship Leader Magazine as an Editor’s Pick.
• Christian Kids Music compiled by Spotify is a great resource with classics like “Father Abraham” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Downloading Kids’ Worship Songs Online

Once you’ve found kids worship songs you love, purchasing and downloading music is the way to go. Buying music supports the artists who create these songs!

Here are some places to look.

• Worship House Kids has tons of music options, including song tracks, videos in HD and SD formats, and countdowns. Some of the song videos have suggested motions to get kids moving.
• Integrity Music has a wide variety of worship resources for kids, including the popular Shout Praises Kids series.
• Amazon can also be a great place to discover and purchase kids worship songs in MP3 format. Listen to samples from “10,000 Reasons” by Worship Together Kids and “Come Alive” by Bethel Music Kids just to get started.
• Yancy Ministries creates kids’ worship songs with the mission “music that makes Jesus loud!” You’ll find music in every format you need, including chord charts and lyric videos.
• Go Fish Resources offers CDs, DVDs, and downloadable print music. Their slogan: “Great music for kids that won’t drive parents bonkers.” You can listen to samples on YouTube.

What are your favorite places to discover kids’ worship music?

66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

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66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Download your free guide

Free Guide

66 Short Bible Verses Perfect for Kids to Memorize

Memorized verses are the rails the Spirit’s instructions run on. How much track have we laid? Download this guide on Short Bible Verses. With 1 verse from every book, kids will learn to hide God’s Word in their hearts!

Download your free guide

Free Guide