Offering Authentic Worship opportunities is one of the most challenging parts of leading in Kidmin. It’s hard! Gina McClain spoke of this on her blog. As she admits, understanding what works in terms of teaching kids true, authentic worship is difficult…and not too many of us have a firm grasp of just how to do it.
So, if Authentic Worship is an “essential” in our Children’s Ministries, just how do we do it?
I won’t claim to have a complete answer…I struggle with it just like Gina does. But here are a few things I’ve learned that help move my Children’s Ministry toward being a place where kids truly can experience and learn Authentic Worship:
- Model Authentic Worship in my own life. More than anything, kids learn what they see. So it’s important for my leaders and myself to model it…I need to worship in Kid’s Church! Authentic Worship is a deeply personal, emotional experience, and as I model that by actually doing it before the kids, they will emulate what I do. Right actions bring right emotions (personal feelings). This is an important part of teaching kids Authentic Worship.
- Make Authentic Worship a focus in our teaching. Acts of Authentic Worship are part of virtually every Bible story. We must lead our team into intentionally highlighting these acts of worship in their teaching. Of course, these acts are not always what we might typically think of as “worship” — it might be in the form of simple obedience, sacrifice or service — but they are there, right within the stories we teach every week. We need to help kids understand that the stories we tell include Authentic Worship from the characters involved.
- Consistently provide kids the opportunity to practice Authentic Worship. Practice does not bring perfection, but it does bring performance. What we practice continually becomes part of what we perform regularly. We want our kids to perform acts of Authentic Worship, for it to be a natural part of who they are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying perform in the shallow, unreal way. I’m saying perform as a practice, something that is a natural and meaningful way of life. We as Kidmin leaders must give our kids opportunity to practice Authentic Worship every time we are together.
So how about you…what is your experience in teaching kids Authentic Worship?
