NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Picture a worship service with singing, drama, Bible reading — and science experiments?
Add in arts and crafts and you have the makings of a worship service designed for the unique worship needs of children and older preschoolers.
LifeWay Christian Resources has developed Worship KidStyle, a resource available for the first time this summer for churches interested in providing interactive children’s worship services. Designed for small and large group settings, Worship KidStyle offers easy-to-use and reproducible leaders’ guides and materials that incorporate creative, active worship elements within a biblical context.
“This resource is ideal for churches that are unable to meet children’s needs during their current worship services,” said Todd Capps, Worship KidStyle team leader at LifeWay. Capps has 10 years of children’s ministry experience and currently is pursuing a doctorate in children’s worship.
“Throughout the years we have had people call and say, ‘My pastor wants us to start children’s worship and there is nothing really great out there for what we need,'” Capps said. “Worship KidStyle is LifeWay’s solution to meet that need.”
During the Worship KidStyle service, children sing and move along with music videos, watch age-appropriate life application videos, pray, hear Bible stories, learn and apply Bible knowledge and give their offerings.
“The material is very hands-on so the kids aren’t sitting still for long periods of time,” Capps said. “It has a lot of excitement and incorporates more experiences geared toward the children’s age levels and development.”
Each worship session contains music videos with choreographed motions, life application videos, arts and crafts ideas and other small group activities such as dramatic plays and games.
“The various options are designed to meet the differing interests of the children,” Capps explained.
Designed for children’s worship on Sunday mornings or evenings or Wednesday evenings for special children’s ministries, Worship KidStyle is compatible with LifeWay’s Bible Teaching for Kids curriculum.
The preschool edition of Worship KidStyle is designed for 4-year-olds and kindergarteners. The children’s edition is intended for elementary school-age children.
The creators of Worship KidStyle are intentional about developing a user-friendly resource for churches of any size.
“We field-tested an initial version of the resources with 25 churches of different sizes and discovered that what we at LifeWay thought was easy to use was not necessarily easy to use by those in the churches,” Capps said. “So we went back and reworked the materials to make them as user-friendly as possible.
Understanding that children’s worship leaders frequently rotate with different teachers each week, LifeWay designed the Worship KidStyle materials to be reproducible for as many leaders as necessary. (Due to copyright restraints, the music and videos are not for reproduction.)
“People have expressed frustration over resources that could only be accessed through the computer,” Capps said. “We took the computer out of the classroom and simplified the entire preparation process.”
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Churches interested in learning more about Worship KidStyle can visit www.lifeway.com/worshipkidstyle for additional information, sample lessons and a video preview.
