KIDS WORSHIP
SPRING CLEANING FOR KIDS WORSHIP | Yancy
Do you have spring cleaning on the brain ? Isn ’ t it amazing how the same things we ’ ve had in our house for years suddenly you have the urge that they need to go . Whether your focus of lately has been your closets , base boards or garage , just in the way that we are motivated to do some spring cleaning around our homes , I ’ d like to invite you to do some spring cleaning in your kids worship .
EVALUATE YOUR SONGS A great starting point is to evaluate your songs . One of the best afternoons I ever spent was getting feedback from one of our preteen students on the songs we were using in her class . She told me songs they loved and others they were getting tired of . She shared with me songs the girls loved but the boys didn ’ t . At times she tried not to hurt my feelings with an answer , but I also balanced out what she was saying based on the passion and facial expressions that varied throughout our time . I learned all sorts of insights that would have taken many more months to figure out based on audience reaction on Sundays . Evaluating our songs was so helpful . I was so thankful to have been able to adjust , edit , change , remove and add songs to make our worship times the most fruitful I could .
Review the songs you ’ ve been using this past year . Grade them . What are the songs that are excelling ? What songs , if you ’ re honest , are not connecting well ? What songs need to take a break ? Consider it a hiatus . There are songs that will work for a long time but you can ’ t do them too frequently . Just in the way church people love “ Amazing Grace ” but if we sing it every single Sunday it will be too much . What are your special songs that need a rest break before they get put in a set again ? What songs need to be cut completely ? Maybe it ’ s newer but just never took off . Maybe it ’ s old and its season has moved on . It ’ s ok to let it go .
WHAT KIND OF SONGS ARE YOU MISSING FROM YOUR REPERTOIRE ? Activity / action songs . Praise songs . Worship songs . Altar / Response songs . Identify where your gaps are and what kind of new songs you really need to research and find .
RESEARCH , PICK AND PLAN NEW SONGS TO ADD TO YOUR MINISTRY . What are some songs that are working well with your adult congregation lately ? Would any of those be good candidates for your children ’ s ministry ? Go on a site like worshiphousekids . com and look at both the new releases and popular sellers . Do any of those feel like a good fit for your group ? Hop on Facebook and the various children ’ s ministry groups there are . There ’ s literally a handful of them . Search for the worship song conversations . People post regularly asking for recommendations from others . Use those lists and contributions as a starting point for songs to consider .
IDENTIFY YOUR “ HOME RUN ” SONGS . These are the songs that work great every time . The kind of song that gets the highest amount of participation . I strategically place “ home run ” songs next to new songs I ’ m introducing . So that I ’ m always following up the new song that maybe not everyone participated fully on ( cause some people like to wait to engage until they are comfortable and know it ) with a super familiar , crowd favorite .
THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ’ RE TEACHING EACH WEEK ABOUT WORSHIP ? Are you teaching them about why their worship is important ? How to engage and participate ? Why their participation matters ? What do you need to teach them so they can better understand ?
WHO DO YOU HAVE LEADING WORSHIP ? Are you relying on only a video ? Is it someone a boy or your oldest kids can look up to ? Do you have a praise team of other kids helping to model worship to the larger group ? It ’ s the best form of positive peer pressure .
WHAT AGES HAS YOUR MUSIC BEEN FOCUSED ON CATERING TO ? Do you have the right target ? This is especially worth considering if you have a wide span of ages . Don ’ t cater to the youngest kids and in the process push the older ones away . The oldest students will graduate soon , and the younger ones will still be there . Their time will come . Make sure you ’ re leading them to the Father with what you ’ re presenting .
Just like a fresh coat of paint or a reorganized closet , refining what you do and how you accomplish it is always time well spent . Don ’ t just do songs but intentionally lead your group in worship every week .
© 2022 Yancy Ministries , Inc .
Yancy Yancy is a worship leader and songwriter for kids that travels the globe doing family concerts and training worship leaders . Every week her songs are used in thousands of churches around the world . Her Dove Award winning music is all the things kids love and everything adults value . Yancy has a passion to serve the Church which is why she created Heartbeat , a curriculum to teach kids the heart of worship . She recently authored the book Sweet Sound : The Power of Discipling Kids in Worshi ”. She lives with her husband and sons in Nashville , TN .
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