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Creative Music Ideas for a Children's Ministry

When the grown-ups are listening to the sermon, many churches excuse the younger children to go to another part of the building for their own kids' church time. The idea is to make God's love accessible to them by using more interactive music, puppets, crafts and drama. Getting the children actively involved in music is a useful technique to garner their participation.
  1. Singing

    • Start with singing and use simple songs that have repetitive lyrics that involve echoing or answering back, such as "How Did Moses Cross the Red Sea?" Add a song with a lot of movement to use up the pent-up energy with which the children arrived. A good one is "Father Abraham." Even the smallest children can be persuaded to sing along with a puppet, especially if the puppet can't remember the words or is very silly or shy.

    Homemade Instruments

    • Children love to make things and making their own drums, rubber band guitars, paper plate tambourines and soda bottle wind instruments provides everything you need to act out Psalm 150. Set out lots of markers, paint, glue, fabric and paper scraps on the week you make the instruments. Let the older children do "sword fights," where they race to look up Bible verses about musical instruments. Next Sunday, practice a simple song using the instruments. Store the instruments at church so they are readily available during praise and worship by the children at kids' church. Put the creator's name on each instrument.

    Banners, Parades and Dancing

    • Contemporary worship often includes people waving banners and dancing. Children love this because it does not depend on verbal expression. Provide the children with light-weight banners to wave. Explain that there are meanings to the colors: green is for healing; gold is for the glory of God; red is for the blood of Jesus; and white is for purity. If your church supports missionaries in another country, provide small flags of that nation and have the children wave them while they learn a praise song in that nation's language. Use marching to accompany songs and to act out stories such as when the wall of Jericho fell. Whenever the children combine music, motion and information together, they are more likely to remember and apply what they learn later.

Singing

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