Blown Away At Worship

Joey and Carla Link

August 21, 2019

We visited a church in downtown Chicago one Sunday morning. It was an old church building that survived the infamous “Chicago fire”. A modern day worship band replaced what must have been where the church choir with full orchestra and bells had once rang out their majestic call to worship. While the contemporary sound from the band didn’t fit the building, something else caught my attention in this ornate structure.

Two hundred or more older teens were standing in worship of the Lord their God praising Him with all their hearts, many with hands raised, others with heads down in contemplation to the words of the songs that were penetrating their hearts. What an amazing sight to watch young adults who had committed their hearts and lives to Christ expressing honor to the Lord their God for forgiving them of their sins and filling them with His Holy Spirit.

Would this have been the picture we would have seen of your family had you been part of that worship experience? The church was full of young teens and adult professionals. Will this be your children when they leave your home? Recently a friend shared with me his disappointment and frustration of his daughter’s upcoming marriage. She is marrying a man who doesn’t go to church and who grew up in a church that most Christians call a cult. This dad is now beating himself up for not making church and worship a greater part of their family life as his kids were growing up.

When your kids go to church with you as a family:

Why do they go?
What is their purpose for going?
What do they expect to get out of it?
Is it to see friends or to meet with Jesus?
Are they open-minded to God working in their lives?
Are they singing from their hearts like these kids giving their Heavenly Father their honor and praise?

As our friends Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo have said many times throughout their parenting curricula, “Begin as you mean to go”. If you want your kids to grow up to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then you need to train them up in how to worship.

Practical Tips for Training Your Kids for Worship:

Have them dress differently than everyday dress. It’s a mindset of going someplace for specific purpose, like you would dress for going to a sports event. While it is not the norm to dress up for church, there is something about dressing your best to meet God in worship.
Play worship songs on Sunday morning in the house before you go to church.
Encourage your kids to carry their own Bible. We know many use their phones for this, but how does that make God’s Word different from everything else on their phones. The question is, what will help make God’s word special to your kids?
Have them memorize a Bible verse each week and ask them to share it with you on Saturday night before they go to bed.
Make going to church a priority each week and not an add-on.
Ask them what they learned at church or in the children’s program.
Ask them how that can help them live for Jesus and to share one way they will work on it that week.
Throughout the week play Christian music they can sing along to. Especially songs your church sings.
Read Bible stories to younger kids. Have older kids read them to you and their siblings.
Talk about the stories and have your children imagine what it would be like to have been there at the time the stories took place.
As your kids grow, transition them to have their own “Quiet/Devotional Time” where they read the Bible, devotional book and pray.
Talk about what they are learning around the dinner table a couple times during the week.
Several times a week, read a devotional book as a family. Discuss what the book and verses share.
Pray with your kids when you tuck them into bed. It’s something they will always remember!
Pray with your children throughout the week as things come up that are praises or stressful to them.

These are all acts of worship whether you do them at church or at home. Going to church is an outward expression of the priority God has in your life. For your kids to worship God when they get to be teens and young adults, they need to be brought up worshiping God in their daily lives so that the Sunday morning worship service is truly a weekly celebration of who God is to them.

What can you work on with whatever age your kids are

to help make Jesus real in their everyday lives?