I love worship! I love kids worship! I AM TERRIBLE AT MUSIC! That is the beauty of the technological day that we live in. Music is so accessible today, all you need is an iPhone (if you don’t have one, use one of the kids- amazing). In this post I outline some tips that will help give you a successful worship experience:

1) LESS IS MORE

When leading kids worship it’s important to remember that many kids have a limited attention span. It is a temptation by many children’s leaders to sing different songs every service for kids. However, I have found it to be more effective to sing two or three really great songs and use them as anthems. You turn songs into anthems by playing the song until kids know it by heart. They are able to sing every word, they know every action and are consumed with the song (Think VeggieTales).

2) LEADERS LEAD

Leaders lead songs. I think it’s really important for every adult in the room to be engaged with the songs, standing on their feet and doing the actions. When children see the leaders doing the songs the excitement is contagious.

3) LEADERS TEACH

I believe one of the greatest things that you can do as a children’s leader is to cultivate child worship leaders. I always try to bring three or four children up to the front when I am leading kids songs. They love to be involved. RIGHT NOW is the time to start creating leaders of our kids.

4) USE A VARIETY OF SONGS

While I don’t think you should do new songs every week, I do believe you should use a lot of different types of songs.

• A) WORSHIP – It is crucial that we help our children experience the privilege of worship. One of my favorite resources is Rev. Mark Condon’s Obvious Kids Praise. Another great worship resource is Hillsong Kids Worship.

• B) FUN SONGS – There are a lot of exciting songs that teach kids the joy of the Lord. These are great songs to use during games, transitions and many other ways. Uncle Charlie has some unique and fresh music for kids. Yancy also has neat kids music.

• C) MOVIE SONGS – Most of the songs available today can also be found in video format that has the music and words embedded. The visual stimulation of the song helps them to engage in the worship experience. A great resource to find movie songs is worshiphousekids.com. Of course, there is always YouTube.

5) TEACH KIDS THE ACTIONS

Kids love to do actions for songs they sing. You can find most kids songs on YouTube with the actions. If you can’t find the actions, and you don’t feel very creative, then have the kids make up their own actions. My wife and I do that with our daughter Rose. We will play a song and ask her to help us. This gets her involved in the process and it is a LOT of fun.

CONCLUSION

Most importantly, have fun! Make the worship experience memorable for your kidz!