Sunday, January 31, 2021

Welcome to Worshiping with Children

Many worship planners want to include the children in their congregation’s worship in ways that help them experience God’s presence now and help them grow as worshiping disciples.  Figuring out how to do that on any given Sunday is not always easy.

This lectionary-based blog offers specific helps for specific Sundays.  It is not about children’s sermons, although I hear people are using the ideas here to create them.  It is not about children’s church services which separate children from the rest of the worshiping congregation, although I hear people are using these ideas to build those services too.

It is really about inter-generational worship which intentionally includes God’s people of all ages in a single service.  This lectionary blog offers ideas about ways to read scripture in the sanctuary so that children understand it, scripts for prayers and liturgy that draw children as well as adults into worship, plans for folding worship education (for all ages) into the worship service, and essays about how children understand and participate in worship and sacraments.

There are two kinds of posts:
  1. Lectionary-based resources: For each Sunday of the Revised Common Lectionary year, there is a post with commentary on each text from a child’s point of view and suggestions about ways to draw children into worship using those texts.  Use the Lectionary, Scripture, and Date Indexes to find what you need.
  2. Short articles exploring all sorts of issues related to worshiping with children.  These aim to help you clarify your own thinking, introduce new possibilities, and start conversations with other worship leaders and parents who bring children to worship.  Use the Topical Index to find the posts you need to read now.
October 2016:  I have now made my way through 2 complete cycles of the lectionary and have shared pretty much what I have to offer.  So, from this point forward I will no longer be adding fresh material.  I will, however, keep what is here posted.   I hope they will continue to provide grist for the mills for all of you who are planning worship that includes children as well as adults. 

October 2020:  I am no longer posting links on Facebook.  Everything I have will remain here.  I hope it continues to be useful.