Fostering an attitude of worship in kids takes being intentional. Dawn Holloman shares tips that kids ministers can communicate with parents to help them make it a part of their home.
–Jana Magruder
Parents in your church may be looking for ways to incorporate worship in their homes. Here are a few simple suggestions you can share with them to get them started.
1. Recognize your role.
“Parents have much more influence in a child’s life and it is their responsibility to teach and model for their kids what it means to worship,” says Kendra Fleming, Director of Children’s Ministry with North Point Ministries based in the Atlanta area.. “Our role (as the church) is to set them up for success. It’s our job to create environments where they can worship and their kids can worship.”
2. Start with prayer.
“I always encourage parents to start by praying every night with their kids,” Fleming explains. “That’s an easy step and a great way to wrap up a day together. It’s a good time to start conversations with their children about God and their days.”
3. Savor story time.
If you have little ones, Fleming suggests reading a storybook Bible together and then talking about the stories. “As kids grow, encourage them to take a verse or two and try to memorize them and to talk with them about what they think it means,” Kendra says. “It’s also a great idea to encourage them to read stories for themselves.”
4. Incorporate music.
“I can think of so many Bible verses and key truths that I still know today because I learned them through music as I was growing up,” Fleming shares. As she watched kids at church participate in worship, she discovered there were a handful of songs that kids really engaged with and loved to sing. “We found that they were songs with clear, kid-level messages, simple lyrics, a lot of repetitions, and a current style,” Fleming explains.
Her church began to craft more songs like those centered around the core messages they wanted kids to learn. Those songs culminated in the release of North Point Kids: Shine! last year. “One of the great things about this CD is that we now have the opportunity to place worship music in the car and home of every child,” Fleming says. “Our hope is that kids and parents will sing these songs often as they go throughout their day.
Fostering an attitude of worship in kids doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does take intention. Colossians 3:16 encourages, “Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God.”
Dawn Hollomon is a minister’s wife and mom to two boys adopted from Ethiopia.
