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June 2000 Table of Contents
Petite Praisers
Bring In The Kids!
By Don and Lorie Marsh
Lorie fell yesterday and broke her leg. Wouldn’t you know it? It was in the parking lot of the house of God. It had been raining non-stop for two days, the ground was saturated and the driveway was slippery. She was on her usual overloaded non-stop schedule, rushing through her to-do list at neck breaking (well, make that leg-breaking speed) when, whoosh! One foot went right, and one foot went left, and she ended up sitting in a puddle with a broken ankle. Thankfully, it was only the ankle, and not her neck, but she did end up with a cast up to her knee, and on crutches for a couple of months.
Sometimes God will do something drastic to slow us down and make us reevaluate our priorities. Projects, deadlines, phone calls to return, etc. can consume our time and our thinking to the point where we lose sight of what is really important, both in our professional and our personal lives. The adult choir, the orchestra, the temperamental pianist or a demanding pastor can make us forget about one of the most important parts of our church music ministry…our children! Developing young musicians that will grow up to be a part of the music of the church should be one of our top priorities as ministers of music. We believe this can be done in a variety of ways that will enhance the life of the body.
Teaching kids to love music to love to sing praises and to love the ministry of music can begin when they are just little toddlers. Get them started early in those graded choirs, and use them often in “big church.” Graded choir programs, starting with the little guys, special music programs, etc. should be a part of your regular church calendar. But, we believe that an even better way to make children a vital part of the music of the church family is to bring them into the sanctuary and worship center more often. We suggest you do this by being creative in your morning worship services. Use your children to teach the congregation a new worship chorus. 4-6th grade kids can really get into some of the new worship and praise choruses, and can join the adult choir as “worship leaders.” Don’t let the complications of getting them in and out of the service keep you from using them. Teach them one verse of a song or hymn that they can sing along with the congregation as they are filing into place, then segue directly into their number. They can then exit during another song or chorus, or during announcements. Have them participate in the scripture reading or even the prayer. They are a vital part of the body of Christ. Involving them in the worship service will not only make them realize how important they are to Jesus, but also teach the adults and children alike to worship together.
You might also use your children’s choirs with your adult choir and orchestra. We have taken various choral anthems and divided up the song between the various choirs, taught each choir their verse, and then put it together. This worked very well one Thanksgiving when we lined up all our choirs (the adult choir was in the loft in the sanctuary) out in the foyer, then brought them all in during the verses of “Come Ye Thankful People, Come.” Each choir learned their verse, which they sang once they were lined up at the front. The choir in front (which ended up being quite a large group) was made up of children through adults. The congregation joined them on the last verse. It was a wonderful moment of praise and thanksgiving!
We have sometimes taken a choir anthem and divided it between a children’s choir and the adult choir. The children are often able to sing the melody line or a counterpart. They can do one of the verses by them selves or with the high voices from the adult choir. We did this with the Sandi Patti song, “I Will Rejoice.” The adult choir sang the first verse; the children sang the second verse. Both sang the chorus. Kids, “I will rejoice,” adults, “till the mountains and the valleys sing,” etc. It was fun for everyone, and worked very, very well.
Use your children throughout the year, but especially use them at Christmas! We just wrote a children’s musical for Lillenas Music called, “Star Journey.” There are several songs in “Star Journey” that would be great pullouts for the Sunday morning worship service. “Heaven and Nature Sing” is a fun medley with a short original chorus that ties several Christmas carols together. In this case, the kids would sing the short “Heaven and Nature Sing” chorus, then the congregation would join them on “Joy To the World,” then into a short version of “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” and “Noel.” There is also a wonderful moment in this musical where the children sing a song about how God leads us and gives us wisdom, called, “He’ll Light Your Way.” He is always calling us and drawing us to Himself. The children could sing, “He’ll Light Your Way,” and then segue immediately into the beautiful old song, “The Light of the World Is Jesus” by Philip Bliss. This is a familiar, older song set in a fun, contemporary setting that is great for old and young alike. A congregation would love to hear it, then join in and sing it with the children. Don’t be afraid to pull something from what the kids are working on at Christmas and bringing it into the worship center. Not only will it be a great “teaser” for your kid’s musical coming up, but bringing the children into the morning service will delight and bless your children and adults as well.
Don’t be like Lorie and get so busy with your “to-do list” that you forget one of the most important and precious resources God has given you in the life of your church. He speaks through children – and speaks to children of all ages through music.
God bless you as you seek to serve Him!
Don and Lorie Marsh live in Franklin, Tennessee with their three children, Amanda, age 14, Erik, 12 and DJ, age 6. Don is an arranger and orchestrator with well over 200 published works, musicals and octavos. Don is also the winner of one Dove award, two Emmy awards, and the prestigious Angel award for his fine work. His best-selling America’s 25 Praise and Worship Choruses is “gold,” with over 500,000 albums sold. Others in the series are approaching that mark. Don and Lorie have several published musicals together, both children’s and adult. The most recent is a new children’s Christmas musical for Lillenas called, “Star Journey.” They are currently launching an Internet company called, “TheWorshipCompany.com” that will provide pre-planned worship services in three styles from leading churches and worship leaders across the country. Don and Lorie’s years of “real” church music experience have given them a passion for the worship, and helping those who plan and lead it. Their last church ministry was with John Maxwell, at Skyline Weslyan Church, in San Diego, California.
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