Children in Worship

Over this past summer, our music minister enlisted the help of our children to chime the hour. Some children are able to use a handbell while others use a chime. It has been amazing, and a true testimony to the importance of having children in worship. Take for instance this past Sunday.

A rising 3rd grader stood in the chancel with her hands grasping a large chime. Her eyes where focused on her mother who was sitting in the crowd with her hands in the air. As the mother held up one finger, the girl rang the first chime. Their eyes continued to be locked on one another as the mother held up a second finger to which the girl chimed another bell tone. This continued until all eleven chimes were completed.

The chimes’ sequence was not even, but from where I was sitting, I could see the congregation’s eyes focused on this little girl and their smiles grinning from ear to ear. What had become to many a mundane part of worship has taken on new meaning. For starters, people are paying better attention to the chiming of the hour and know that we are entering worship! In the case of this mother and daughter, they now share this experience that probably means more to them than what I said in the “Time with Children.” It has also been an intergenerational experience – sometimes a deacon will work with the child instead of parent. So, thus we see old and young, parent and child, deacon and student working together to worship God. But, most importantly, it has given our children another way in which they can participate in worship.

I say “another way” because there are other ways in which children can participate in worship. They can acolyte, read the call to stewardship, read scripture, pray, etc. Things may not be perfect, but in the long run a church that has children in worship teaches and engages the children in tradition, spoken and unspoken history, and the act of worshipping God as a community in the larger body of Christ.

Vanessa M. Ellison