My congregation uses the four 5th Sundays each year to do very unique worship that is children-oriented, lively and engaging. Besides the great benefits to the kids, the congregation gets the benefit of participating in non-traditional worship. I personally love the challenge to stretch my creativity and imagination to come up with a very unique worship service. Its a whole lot of work, time, energy, and thought but well worth everything put into it.
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Dude, you are such a "children's pastor" now.
ReplyDeleteDude, I am! One thing I find lacking among the resources is fun and energetic liturgical stuff aimed at kids and families-- prayers, litanies, responsive stuff that can be used. This past week I adapted on of the very few that I have found (changing it a whole bunch!). Here is what I had us do-- each line the people repeat what the leader has just said with motions:
ReplyDeleteCome On! Let's get ready (come here motion).
Let's get ready to worship the Lord (Point up)
Let's worship God by clapping (5 claps)
Let's worship God by dancing (dance steps)
Let's worship God by shouting Hallelujah: Hallelujah. Hallelujah! HALLELUJAH!
May the whole world worship the Lord (spread arms wide and point outside)
One of the best parts was for our congregational prayer time, I had the kids come and sit all down the middle aisle of the congregation. I then did the congregational prayer time the way we do it in Sunday School where I give the kids various categories of things they wish to thank God for as well as needs and problems they want God to fix. On this past Sunday, I would ask the kids and then after 7-10 kids would share in a category, I would then have the adults share. What is amazing is how expressive the kids are and the amount of prayer joys and concerns they are willing to share compared to adults. At the end, I had the congregation participate in a Body Prayer (something we do each week in Sunday School with the kids).
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised you can't find much for liturgy with children. Most of what is produced in children's ministry is mainstream and not much is on the edge.
ReplyDeleteA helpful resource could be "Teaching Kids Authentic Worship".
I love the use of Body Prayer. I still need to get that book, its awesome.