[ Yancy ] What is your hope and prayer for those that read your new book Kids Worship: Awakening the Church of Today?
[ David ] The hope is truly an awakening of the church. An awakening to the power of worship in spiritual formation. An awakening to the urgency of teaching kids to worship in those early formative years. An awakening of worship leaders to see that one of the best things they can do for the Kingdom is invest in the kids at their church. An awakening of pastors to see their kids’ worship service not as a sideshow but as the real work of the church.
[ Yancy ] Obviously, generalizing the American church here, but what do you see most churches are doing or maybe not doing for generational worship? Why does it matter?
[ David ] Oh man. How much time do we have? It’ s important to acknowledge that every church is different, and these are broad strokes, but here are a few general statements:
Too many children’ s experience of“ worship” is a couple song videos played off of YouTube( so there’ s many issues there). Children are less likely to be led by live worship leaders, and especially to have live singers. We are seeing less opportunities for generations to come together in worship. And we are seeing less opportunities for kids to lead worship and be developed as leaders.
It matters because kids are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. They are not sitting on the bench waiting to enter the game, they are in the big leagues! Not only does their weekly worship experience deserve our best effort— because God is worthy of our best— but this is the most crucial period of spiritual formation in their entire lives.
[ Yancy ] What do you hope this message will awaken in our local church worship leaders?
[ David ] I hope that as local church worship leaders we can remember what we are called to do. We are called to serve— and not just the adults, but the kids as well.( In fact, perhaps most importantly the kids!)
But even deeper, it’ s about who we’ re pursuing. Hebrews 12 calls us to fix our eyes on Jesus. He is the goal. His mindset should be our mindset. His priorities should be ours. But for my entire career I have fought the temptation to instead fix my eyes on celebrity worship leaders who lead worship in huge churches or in arenas.
I’ m grateful for those leaders and what they contribute to the“ big C” Church. But if we fix our eyes there— if our goal is for the stage to keep getting bigger and bigger— we’ ll miss so much of our calling to serve. We’ ll definitely miss the kids in our churches.
[ Yancy ] You’ ve walked this out in your local church. What was the biggest win of intentionally leading kids, students and adults in worship?
[ David ] The biggest win is watching a child’ s heart come alive to the power of worship. It’ s watching people like Lilly, who started in our children’ s worship choir and is now leading worship for her school chapel. Or people like
Bailey, who went from a quiet background singer in sixth grade to a prominent leader in our student ministry and our regular worship team.
[ Yancy ] Share your favorite tips for utilizing students to help you lead worship.
[ David ] For many of us, the place to start is simply by creating opportunities for kids and students to lead. There’ s so much that kids and students can do with just a bit of intentional training, particularly if we expand to include all the roles that go into a worship service— tech, vocalists, musicians, hand motion leaders, speaking roles, and more.
Research tells us that serving in church has more positive impact on a child’ s spiritual future than mere church attendance. So, when we find a place for a child to serve, we’ re making an investment that will pay off.
There’ s a lot we could say about the ins and outs of effective volunteer ministry, but I think this is the principle that makes the most impact: the best thing you can do to raise the effectiveness of your team is to invest in their sense of belonging. When a kid or student feels
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