Praise and Worship

[Bernice Cousins]

We have a diverse age group during Praise and Worship from 5yrs t0 13yrs (Grades 0 - 7). I am very aware of the different tastes in music of such a group, and have emphasised to the children that we are all one family and so just as our families at home are all different age groups we need to tolerate and participate the differences. So every Sunday sees me mixing and matching, trying to minister to each group. For example: on one Sunday we could start off with a song for the Grade 0's progress to a middle grade song with actions and then end with a deep meaningful Praise and Worship song for the Grade 6 and 7's. It's a real dilemma every week planning this time, and one which I am aware is so important. Any ideas from people who have the same situations with their age groups on Sunday's. Any suggestions would be great. Bernice

[Andy Back]

Hallo. This sounds like the Hospital Radio Solution. If you don't like this song, you'll probably like the next one. Trouble is, the obverse of this coin is that as soon as you start liking it, you'll soon be not liking it. And I have to ask if a worship time should be like that, even for children.. and I have to ask if 'liking it' is the point? Does God like it when young teens are singing about Being a Sunbeam, or titny tots are left behind in a flood of 'Thine be the Glory', to use extreme examples.
So here's a radical suggestion: How about targetting a different group each week, rather than trying to target every group every week? I think it's possible to use a style of music which is preferred by at least some of the children and then ring the changes next time. Maybe you could provide a different form of worship activity for the others - drawing or parachute-play or something else to ensue that they have a chance to worship.
I'm not convinced that it's only about musical style: the complexity of the language and the concepts involved can be greater for older children, as their spiritual awareness develops.
Best of all, of course, is to have age groups which are not anything like as wide-ranging in age as the one you describe. Taking the two or three young people who are 11+ and providing music for them (over a period of time, since we all take a time to engage with change) will work wonders, if all they are used to is plinky-plonky tiny-tots-style songs with simple words and simple actions, which are suitable for little children, then their attitude towards worship songs will be downgraded and their experience of worship will be diminished.
I feel we should work hard (often inconveniencing ourselves for the Lord's sake) to help yp discover the glory and the celebration of worship, as well as the Bible-Story song and the grace to serve the little children.

[Bernice Cousins]

Absolutely agree with all that you have said. We have a children's church of 120 a Sunday and we do have a lot of fun. I do realise that Praise and Worship cannot be a hit and miss situation and thankfully we have engaged all of our children much better than where they were with the previous Children's ministry supervisor. Our 8 - 13yrs are very keen on adult worship songs: eg Michael W Smith, Our 8-11 love the Hillsongs, as do the 12,13s - however where the younger group loves the actions you won't catch the older ones doing 'THAT'gosh gasp. We don't have a music band - do with CD's or the volunteers to have the perfect age split. So I am stuck with what I have and I have to make it work and worthwhile. Therein lies the dilemma. I tried to use the little ones in waving flags - we were so busy trying to calm Sir Lancelot and save Guineveres eyes that the idea was abandoned. Then someone had a fantastic idea - make the flags small. So now we were protecting everyones legs from getting free body piercing. So you can see where the flags went. Then we tried a few non-intrusive musical instruments for the 5-8yrs - like shakers - we put all bands to shame with the amount of noise that was made, and the older children were exasperated.....Our older children are able to engage in amazing Praise and Worship way beyond where I was at their age. I just need something that works for the younger ones alongside the older ones bearing in mind the lack of reading ability and understanding levels. Excuse my ignorance but what is parachute-play?

[Brenda Lord]

Hi Bernice

Multi-colour parachutes are not too expensive to buy & can be used creatively for games & in worship. "Parachute for the puppet team and children's ministry" by Jan Dyer available from www.onewayuk.com is a small booklet that would be a good introduction to this.

On the theme of safe flags and dance, you may like to check out the link below on wrist ribbons.

http://www.detm.org/katechetika/ChEd/5ci.doc

The sign language actions that Doug Horley has introduced are very user friendly for all ages, probably because they are based on a real meaningful language. I think that we can also explain that different ways of using our hands in worship can be used by different age groups within the same song. I don't like using children's actions personally unless I am engaging with children, but I do like to use my hands very expressively in worship in general in a more spontaneous way.