Summer = Party Time!
During the summer months, many of our churches get a little more creative. Because of this seasonal flexibility, it can be a great time to try something new that will help welcome and engage children in worship. Maybe you’ve moved to a different worship schedule, gone more lax in attire, are testing out new ways of doing liturgy, or have guest preachers in the pulpit. It’s summer! Party time!
So, we’ve thought up one thing you can try out this Sunday. We hope it’ll help you welcome and engage children who come through your doors.
Simplify
It can be overwhelming to think about incorporating one of those “Top 20 Changes You Must Make” articles to engage children in worship. I don’t know about you, but making twenty changes to anything is too much for me to think about. This can also be difficult for leaders to implement. It’s often confusing for parents and their kids, too. And, really, who wants more difficulty and confusion?! Not me.
Engage Children in Worship Beyond Entertainment
To truly engage children in worship, we have to move our thinking beyond entertaining them. Simply keeping them occupied may keep them quiet. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t accomplish the goal of welcoming, engaging, and teaching them.
As children participate in worship they learn how a life of faith looks and feels. We are experiential creatures as humans. The children will take with them how they were involved in worship as they grow and look back on their faith journey. So, it’s important that worship is experiential for them, and really for all of us. If we engage children in worship, we’re almost certainly going to engage the adults, too. Win-win!
Invitation to Participate
Leaders who make an intentional effort to do this help children feel welcome in church. And welcoming children doesn’t have to require a ton of preparation. In fact, this one thing you can do on Sunday morning that would engage children in worship is simply to invite them to be a part of it. If there are sections of the service that would be appropriate for children to assist with, ask them if they’d like to help. Children who are active members of a congregation tend to gain more ownership of their faith journey and often possess a deeper desire to become an integral and lasting part of a faith community in the future.
The significance they will feel as individual parts of their church and their understanding of worship practices is invaluable. If you’re interested in learning ways to specifically invite children into playing an active role in worship, we’ve made it easy to download a few of our ideas! Click here to download our list of ideas – and then pick ONE to try and implement this Sunday.
What are the ways you engage children in worship in your congregation? Share what’s been fruitful in the comment section.