How do You Teach Children to be Worshipers?

July 2, 2010 in For Worship Leaders with 9 Comments

This is a question I’ve been pondering for a while, especially as our daughter gets older and starts to understand things and ask more questions.  I also found this fantastic post from The MOB Society (Mother’s of Boys) that I just had to share.  It was so good to read and think about.  An excerpt:

He listens, learns, and knows the words now. He can’t read yet, learning by hearing is his way. He gently raises his hands, the air accepts them, and he closes his eyes. He is mouthing the words now, no sound.  Not yet. Halleluia! Sweet tiny sound breezes through my ears.  A wee voice with a big heart.  I open my own eyes to look. He is worshiping.

So, what do you do?  What have you done?  What has worked?  And I’m not talking about just teaching your kids to sing and do actions with Sunday School songs.  While that’s great and is a good starting point, I’m wondering how you teach children to be worshipers. I want to know how you’ve developed lasting results.  Will you leave me a comment and let me know?

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About Ryan Egan: Ryan is a follower of Christ, husband, father, worship leader, & creative. He is heavily involved in the Association of Free Lutheran Churches and desires to teach others to live a life of worship in everything they do.

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  • http://joysandrewards.wordpress.com Linda

    Hi Ryan! So glad you sent me that email earlier!! It led me first to your Twitter, then to your blog….which I LOVE! My hubby and I are involved in leading worship at our church (I sing and play violin, and Jim sings and plays guitar). I’ve had only a few minutes to read through a few of your posts…will be back soon to read more when I have more time!!

    We have always made worship a part of our family life. Family worship times are important to all four of our kids (23, 21, 19 and 6). Jim and I often spontaneously break into singing praise and worship (or intercession) at the most interesting moments….and that habit of spontaneous worship has rubbed off on our kids!! I love hearing my kids respond to life’s moments with worship of their Creator and Savior!!

    It’s great to “meet” you! Hopefully we’ll meet in person in Iowa one of these days!!

  • http://joysandrewards.wordpress.com Linda

    Hi Ryan! So glad you sent me that email earlier!! It led me first to your Twitter, then to your blog….which I LOVE! My hubby and I are involved in leading worship at our church (I sing and play violin, and Jim sings and plays guitar). I’ve had only a few minutes to read through a few of your posts…will be back soon to read more when I have more time!!

    We have always made worship a part of our family life. Family worship times are important to all four of our kids (23, 21, 19 and 6). Jim and I often spontaneously break into singing praise and worship (or intercession) at the most interesting moments….and that habit of spontaneous worship has rubbed off on our kids!! I love hearing my kids respond to life’s moments with worship of their Creator and Savior!!

    It’s great to “meet” you! Hopefully we’ll meet in person in Iowa one of these days!!

  • http://www.iamanoffering.com Ryan Egan

    Linda,

    Thanks so much for your feedback and for stopping by! Your ideas are great encouragement to me.

  • http://www.iamanoffering.com Ryan Egan

    Linda,

    Thanks so much for your feedback and for stopping by! Your ideas are great encouragement to me.

  • http://worshipwhileiwait.blogspot.com Amy

    Ryan!

    I am finally getting into this blogging ‘thing’ and so will probably be checking your wonderful blog more often. I was messing around with myyahoo.com and saw your post on there. Interesting topic indeed!

    We have pretty much gone to the same church since the older kids were born – it is the only church they’ve known. Now, while it is an excellent church and we’re not itching to leave, I will say the worship ‘atmosphere’ is not always condusive to teaching my kids what I want them to learn about what worship means. There is hardly any (and by that I mean 1, maybe 2 people…on a day the Spirit is moving we might see 5) who raise their hands in worship. It is sometimes like pulling teeth to get people to clap during an upbeat song. There is no, and never will be any, dancing in our church. haha It was a bit of a fight to get drums and saxophone!!

    With that said, we have tried to be models of true worship when we’re out in the congregation with the kids and not up leading worship. We’ve also tried to show where in the Bible it says to do all these things in worship. The BIGGEST help in their education has been exposing them to different worship settings – Lifelight, Christian concerts, their school (Christian Center Elem), and other churches (when we get the chance).

    I still remember when our girl was about 5 or 6 and I dared to raise my hands in church (or maybe it was clap – but I do that pretty frequently) and she whipped her head around and glared at me with her best ‘teenager’ look and hissed through her teeth “What are you doing? Don’t DO that.” hahaha Needless to say that afternoon I took the opportunity to do a teaching from the bible on worship.

    So I guess my best advice would be to expose her to many different types of worship settings while also giving her the foundation of what is biblical worship. :)

    Thanks for a great topic to discuss!!!
    Blessings,
    Amy
    Worship While I Wait
    Grace-Full Living

  • http://worshipwhileiwait.blogspot.com Amy

    Ryan!

    I am finally getting into this blogging ‘thing’ and so will probably be checking your wonderful blog more often. I was messing around with myyahoo.com and saw your post on there. Interesting topic indeed!

    We have pretty much gone to the same church since the older kids were born – it is the only church they’ve known. Now, while it is an excellent church and we’re not itching to leave, I will say the worship ‘atmosphere’ is not always condusive to teaching my kids what I want them to learn about what worship means. There is hardly any (and by that I mean 1, maybe 2 people…on a day the Spirit is moving we might see 5) who raise their hands in worship. It is sometimes like pulling teeth to get people to clap during an upbeat song. There is no, and never will be any, dancing in our church. haha It was a bit of a fight to get drums and saxophone!!

    With that said, we have tried to be models of true worship when we’re out in the congregation with the kids and not up leading worship. We’ve also tried to show where in the Bible it says to do all these things in worship. The BIGGEST help in their education has been exposing them to different worship settings – Lifelight, Christian concerts, their school (Christian Center Elem), and other churches (when we get the chance).

    I still remember when our girl was about 5 or 6 and I dared to raise my hands in church (or maybe it was clap – but I do that pretty frequently) and she whipped her head around and glared at me with her best ‘teenager’ look and hissed through her teeth “What are you doing? Don’t DO that.” hahaha Needless to say that afternoon I took the opportunity to do a teaching from the bible on worship.

    So I guess my best advice would be to expose her to many different types of worship settings while also giving her the foundation of what is biblical worship. :)

    Thanks for a great topic to discuss!!!
    Blessings,
    Amy
    Worship While I Wait
    Grace-Full Living

  • http://www.iamanoffering.com Ryan Egan

    Amy, (can I call you that? Always hard to call former teachers by their first names! :-) ) thanks for stopping by, first of all!

    Our church is fairly laid back when it comes to physical expressions of worship as well. I blame nothing but a lack of spending some time teaching, though (including lack of teaching from myself as well).

    But you do offer some great advice in exposing her to several types of worship settings. So many times we get stuck in being used to…what we’re used to, and think it’s the only way to worship.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  • http://www.iamanoffering.com Ryan Egan

    Amy, (can I call you that? Always hard to call former teachers by their first names! :-) ) thanks for stopping by, first of all!

    Our church is fairly laid back when it comes to physical expressions of worship as well. I blame nothing but a lack of spending some time teaching, though (including lack of teaching from myself as well).

    But you do offer some great advice in exposing her to several types of worship settings. So many times we get stuck in being used to…what we’re used to, and think it’s the only way to worship.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  • http://www.theuniuni.com/ Payton_vege

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