Kids’ Worship: Get on Their Level to Point Them to Jesus
Have you ever led kids in worship? Kids worship is night and day different than leading adults.
Kids want to jump around and shout and get sweaty in worship. They want to have fun, that’s what kids do! I think parents and children’s ministry leaders love to have their kids dancing and singing, but sometimes it is hard to for them to join in fully.
I get that.
We are getting older, we are tired, we haven’t had enough coffee, it’s not really our thing, etc. But there is something awesome that happens when we lay all of that aside and get on a child’s level.
In all my experience with children’s ministry, both in church and at camp, I have learned that the key to the children’s ministry is the volunteers. You can have a well-planned program and curriculum, but how the volunteers execute that makes all the difference. The same is true in kids’ worship. If we dance and sing our hearts out, the kids will too. If we stand in the back, tapping our foot with our arms crossed, the kids will too. They follow the lead of the volunteers. They need us to show them the way and to lead them in worship that helps them love Jesus more.
Leading the kids in worship by dancing and singing is more than just trying to get kids to imitate you. When you do this, you are getting down on the same level as these kids, you are entering their world, you are meeting them where they are. You are saying to them that you care about them and you want to be with them, and you will do this even at great cost to yourself. They do not have to do anything to come up to your level, you come down to theirs. This helps kids drop their walls and trust you and open up to you and that paves the way for you to build a relationship and share the gospel.
I know this works, not only because I have seen it, but because this is what God has done for us.
The Old Testament is full of stories about man’s failure to obey God and his requirements and rules. We just couldn’t do it. But then God sent his son to us. Jesus entered into our world. He came down to meet us at our level, right where we are. And it came at a great personal cost to him. Jesus left the comforts of heaven, put on flesh, walked this earth with people that mistreated him, misunderstood him, spit on him, abandoned him and finally killed him. He was a king that took the form of a servant. He knows what it is like to step outside of your normal operation. He know what it feels like to be uncomfortable. God knew that we could not come up to him, so he came down to us. And in Philippians 2, Paul asks us to have the same mind. To have the same love. Even toward kids.
That is how we need to lead our kids in worship. We need to come to them, leave our comfort and be willing to get goofy and even look foolish. We need get sweaty and jump around on our weak knees and dance with perhaps our less than stellar moves. We need to look to their interests, not ours. We need to regard them as more important than ourselves and our image. This is godly. When I ask our kids ministry volunteers to get on the same level as our kiddos, that is exactly what I mean.
Are we willing to do whatever it takes for these kids to know and love Jesus?
Are we willing to lay down our lives that they may know more of God?
Or do we expect them to conform to us?
This may be hard to do at first, laying down our lives and wants and desires for others always is. The good news is that we have a great high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses and we have the Holy Spirit to help us. So pray and ask God to help you loves these kids like he has loved us. Ask him to help you get on their level and watch what happens. I think you will also find that this fills you up! There is something life changing about loving these kids the way Jesus loves us.
For more resources for kids ministry and leading kids in worship check out www.onlyjes.us!
This article originally appeared here.
