April 28, 2008
One of the biggest challenges as a Kids Worship Leader is to keep the kids excited, engaged and present. Kids have so many distractions it is hard for them to maintain focus in large doses. A few of my tricks to gather my groups together is by yelling, loud, let it out with all your energy and enthusiasm:
Leader: “Hey Kids!!” cupping your mouth with your hands if necessary
Kids respond: “Hey What!” this may take coaching at first
Leader: “Hey Kids, Hey Kids…”
Kids: “Hey What, Hey What!”
Silence
Don't try to fight for the floor. Meet your kids where they are. Last week during choir practice, the kids were tired after three songs and we are five weeks away from production!! Do I panic?? No. I simply asked the kids to sit.
Leader: “What should we do??”
One of the kids responded: “Let's sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
Leader: go with this…quick! I pulled one of my helpers and a 6 th grader and broke us up into three groups and yes we sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat, about 10 times.
After the break up of our grueling schedule, the kids were ready to give their best to God during the time remaining for our practice.
Another group response to “gain the floor”
Leader: “Are you with me?” or “Are you ready to give your best to God?”
Kids: “Yayyyyyyy!”
Leader: “What?”
Kids: “Yayyyyy!”
Use your imagination, keep your worship time alive, be present and always be ready to switch gears if things aren't going smoothly. Meet the kids where THEY are at, even to the point of eliminating YOUR agenda if necessary.