Using Sing! Prayer and Praise in worship
Get your youth involved:
- Youth are adopting Sing! Prayer and Praiseas their own. Encourage your youth to select some songs to work up in the song book. Help them to form a band, even seeking band members from outside the church.
- Have youth create a music video and post it on YouTube. Non-musical youth can assist in putting together the video and/or creating a video background when the youth offer the music in worship. (A bonus of having youth invite friends from outside the church, they just might find the church a creative place to be and want to stick around!) Remember, allow the youth to be in charge of their music with gentle guidance from a worship planner.
- Some of the more challenging songs in Sing! Prayer and Praise are perfect for youth to sing as solos.
Get your children involved:
- Little kids can provide creative rhythms to accompany songs. Fill emptied plastic water bottles half-full with beans, rice, or anything else that would make noise. Seal them tightly. Then invite the kids up front to shake as the congregation sings. The energy of the children will add to the spirit of the song. Make sure that the children aren’t being used for “entertainment” but are serving as worship leaders for the singing!
- More than a few songs in the song book are easily sung by children. Encourage your Children’s Choir director to select songs from Sing! Prayer and Praise. Or, if you don’t have a Children’s Choir, now would be a great time to pull one together. Tap grandparents to invite their grandchildren to sing. The added bonus, the parents come to church when the children sing!
Get all ages involved:
- Place rhythm instruments throughout the pews or chairs for worshippers of all ages to use as the Spirit moves. You might be surprised at how the more senior members of your congregation take to this! Some have never been “given permission” to move their bodies or get involved in the music in any other way than to sing. The joyful celebration of many rhythmic instruments accompanying the songs adds energy and fun to the worship experience. Yes, God works through fun as well.