KIDS WORSHIP
WHAT IF IT REALLY WAS THIS SIMPLE? | Yancy
I promised to give you more on the subject of getting boys to engage in worship. I want to continue leaning into this topic. Please know the same principles apply regardless of age demographic you’ re leading in worship. The nuances are fewer than the main core of what it looks like to lead worship. I believe these ideas will only help you to connect with boys and lead them well, but these ideas aren’ t reduced to just being guy things. I have convictions that they will enable you to lead everyone more effectively to be the worshipers God created them to be.
HOW COULD YOU TALK TO THEM AND ASK QUESTIONS? I’ d encourage you to dialogue with the boys that are giving you a challenge. Show interest in learning what captures them and what they are passionate about. Ask them specific things as to what they don’ t enjoy about your current worship time. Maybe even give them some voice to make some decisions on the songs you’ re editing from your playlist and the new ones you’ re adding. Find a handful of ideas. Play them for them. Maybe even make a fun game or contest out of voting for their favorites and reasons why they could be excited for you to lead that song in their class. Are there one, two or a few that especially seem hard? Hard to engage but also likely a bit of a hardened heart. Look for the underlying need, because it’ s never just behavior. What’ s happening inside that is causing that kind of outward expression? The Bible reminds us in Proverbs 4:23“ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”( NIV) or Luke 6:45“ For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Or the NLV talks about how it flows from your heart. I like that imagery. Have you ever been in a lazy river where some of those jets are? It causes you to move. You can’ t control it. It’ s incredibly hard to stop or alter once the flow begins to move you to. This is true of the heart. Our participation in worship is out of the abundance of what’ s inside.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PRAYED FOR THEM? I recently had a conversation that reminded me of the power of praying. Especially praying for people where there’ s some complicated layers to the relationship.( Think the dichotomy of the Christian parent and their prodigal child.) When there’ s tension and restriction on what you can say to them, you can still pray. Your prayers will go and penetrate atmospheres. It will send people into their life and path to impact them. Prayers can make space for blinders to be removed and those hardened hearts to become palpable, even soft. Never underestimate the power in praying for those that you lead. As much as you would like to, there’ s probably not enough time for a personal conversation with each child before service but, you could pray for them throughout the week. Pray for breakthrough, for your words to be ordained, and for connections both relationally and by way of revelation. I imagine the commitment of those prayers would affect not only how you lead them on the Sunday but the posture you lead from.
WHAT IF YOU TAUGHT THEM TO BE LIKE DAVID? Our biggest superstar of worship in the Bible, no doubt, is King David. Writer of the Psalms and of course the infamous Giant slayer via slingshot. There’ s no denying that worship was a key component to David’ s relationship with God.( Watch the“ House of David” TV show. Especially if you’ re a visual learner it will open your eyes to better understand what made David so special. His story will become more real as you see it unfold.) Throughout scripture we read how he sang, danced and shouted! There were times that he cried out from his despair. What if we changed our motivation from: how do we make the room appear to be all in and engaged? To how do we raise them up to be more like David? I can’ t help but wonder if that would unlock something. Both in us and in the kids we lead.
I want to be on mission giving God the glory that He deserves. I desire for this passion to be so contagious from my own life that the evidence touches all those I have contact with. As simple as the ideas of dialoguing, praying and pointing them to a boy that became a man after God’ s own heart may seem, I can’ t help but imagine if we put them into action everything could change.
© 2025 Yancy Ministries, Inc.
Yancy Yancy is a worship leader and songwriter with a passion for kids worship. Every week her music is used in thousands of churches around the world. Her Dove Awards winning music helps kids fall in love with Jesus one song at a time. Yancy authored the book Sweet Sound: The Power of Discipling Kids in Worship to help your church raise every generation to be worshipers. Through her program CHORUS, she coaches worship leaders for Next Gen Ministry. Stained Glass Kids is a podcast she hosts for PK’ s and ministry kids. Yancy lives with her husband and sons in Nashville, TN.
YancyMinistries. com
November 2025 Subscribe for Free... 39