5 Steps to a Better Worship Set

Photo by Liam Shaw on Unsplash

I’m not a worship leader, but somehow, I’ve led worship in front of kids and now youth for over 14 years. I can carry a tune, but my rhythm needs help. I can move fairly well, but dancing was never my forte.

When leading in kidmin most of that doesn’t matter, because they’re learning too. Don’t get me wrong, the musical part of your service needs to be done with excellence, but sometimes passion and energy outweighs talent.

Over the years, I’ve worked hard to get better and am forever thankful to people like Yancy and Orange Kids Music for helping me.

It seems to me there are two extremes in children’s worship. Either it’s silly, fun songs with little biblical truth or serious theological filled songs that kids barely understand.

We have to find something in the middle that’s fun, exciting, and theologically sound. Ultimately, we need to create an environment that leads kids into the presence of God where he can do His work.

With that in mind here are 5 steps to a better worship set.

1. Pick the music to support your main point.

I talked about this a little bit in a post before. You can read that here. When picking your music, don’t just pick your favorites or random songs. Look at the overall lesson and the main point and find songs that support it.

Kids learn in a variety of ways and the worship time is a great way for them to learn the ideas through singing and dancing (or motions). Your worship time should reinforce the lesson and not detract.

Many times, this is easier said than done. Not every song has to line up, but when they do it helps a lot. You can refer back to the lyrics to support your point and it will help kids remember.

The worship set isn’t an isolated part of the service it’s part of the whole, and we should plan with that in mind.

2. Practice

You would think this can go without saying, but sometimes our talent can lure us into a false sense of security.

I’ve stood in front of a group of kids more than once thinking that I KNOW the song only to crash and burn because I blanked. It’s not a fun feeling, and I’ve wasted an opportunity for kids to worship.

So, before every service, I take the time to practice. Not just the sermon, but the whole worship set. 

If you’ve recruited a worship team, they need to practice as well. When I had one, I usually asked them to arrive at least 30 minutes early. It may be just a quick run through to remember the tune and motions or we’ll do it several times until everyone gets it.

When introducing a new song, I’ll take some time during the week to learn and practice the motions. I’ll go into my kids area by myself turn everything on and move with the song. When I can do the whole thing with my back to the screens, twice, then I know I have it. There are some songs that took me more than an hour to get them, but it was worth it. I also burned a lot of calories!

Even when I learned the motions, I still may not KNOW the song, so I’ll put it on repeat while I’m working on other things or riding in the car. Yes, it gets boring and tedious, but for me, I need that song to be an earworm.

Learn from my mistakes. Practice before you get up there.

3. Teach the motions

So far, you’ve picked out the best songs and practiced them by yourself and/or with your team. Now it’s time to introduce the song to your kids.

First, don’t do what the adults do. When they introduce a new song, they just start singing with the words on the screen and you're left trying to figure out the tune and follow along.

Try that with a group of kids and you’ve lost most of them.

For every song, whether we’ve been singing for years or it’s brand new, I’d take a minute or so to teach a few key motions and lyrics. Most of the time this was part of the chorus, so they really knew what to do.

It’s a good idea to have a motion background on your screens with the people doing the motions. This keeps the kids engaged and shows the extra motions you didn’t teach in the intro.

Since I’m not much of a dancer and the people on the screen were, many times I’d acknowledge the disparity and encourage the kids to watch them. The kids who were really good dancers would follow along and do the more advanced moves while the rest of us danced the simplified version.

4. Teach the Main Point

When introducing the song, don’t just teach the motions, teach the point of the song. What is the song trying to say? What are we learning about God? What should we be thinking about while we’re singing?

Cue the kids before the song begins, and they’ll be much more engaged.

Many times, I’ll combine teaching the main point with the motions so I’m not taking too long between songs. This is super easy when the point is expressed in the chorus.

Take the song Alive by Hillsong Young and Free. The chorus says:

You are alive in us
Nothing can take Your place
You are all we need
Your love has set us free

I have a specific motion for each line and as I taught them, I’d do the motion. The kids then connect the words with the motions. This kept the service moving and helped the kids worship rather than just singing along.

5. Worship

One of the biggest mistakes I made in my early years was focusing too much on the technical aspect of the worship set. 

Did I sing the right notes? Did we do the right motions? How was the energy level? Were the kids engaged the whole time?

In all those thoughts, I never took the time to actually worship myself. Yes, these songs are different than what I sing in the adult service or in my private prayer time, but that’s not an excuse.

The kids are watching you. They don’t know how to worship and you’re the model. Show them how.

A worship leader leads. If you want the kids to experience the presence of God, then you need to experience Him as well.

A big change I made to help me engage with the worship more was to cut motions from some of my songs especially the slow ones.

Kids can become so focused on doing the motions, they won’t worship. In my experience, the slower songs are better for engaging with the Spirit, so I'd remove as many distractions as possible, including motions.

As I said before, you’re the model. They will do what you do. Do you close your eyes? Do you raise your hands? Do you cry? Do you pray? They will do the same.

Yancy has a great curriculum called Heartbeat that teaches you and your kids how to worship through the story of David. I strongly encourage it. It took my kids ministry to the next level in worship for weeks and months after.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a worship leader, you can still lead worship. Following these steps will help. Be confident, be passionate and energetic. Your kids will engage, and then you’ll have those exceptional services where they’re not just singing, they’re worshipping.

That’s the goal. You can do it, and God can help.