{"id":1207,"date":"2018-11-20T09:18:44","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T15:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2018-11-20T09:18:44","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T15:18:44","slug":"beyond-the-christmas-program-engaging-young-people-in-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/1207\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Christmas Program: Engaging Young People in Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Today\u2019s post is by Pastor Janelle Rozek Hooper, Program Director for Ministry with Children, ELCA.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1210 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-222x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"222\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-768x1039.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-757x1024.jpg 757w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-250x338.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/handsraised-259x350.jpg 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px\" \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I often hear that children participating in the Christmas story, whether rehearsed or spontaneous, holds strong emotions and memories for family, friends and especially grandparents. The time, energy and availability of children, family and youth leaders has changed over the years but the desire to have children participate in worship during the Advent\/Christmas season has not. We can\u2019t even fathom only hearing the Christmas story with words; we want to see donkeys in fur and angels with glitter piping. We can\u2019t imagine not using as many of our senses as possible or the beauty of the imperfect perfect telling of the Good News that happens when real people tell this amazing story.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1209\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/candle-525x350.jpg 525w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>So why not the rest of the year?\u00a0 How come we can only handle kids voices leading worship or acting out scripture once a year? Were the kids engaged in worship of God? Yes! Were the adults? Yes!<\/p>\n<p>How can we\u00a0involve children in such leadership throughout the church year, trusting the Holy Spirit is imparting spiritual gifts at all times? Not every Sunday has to have the same high production value. If our places of worship would commit to even one more way of engaging young people in worship over the course of a church season and then be open to another way the next season, I truly believe the engagement of all ages would double.<\/p>\n<p>Here are seven suggestions to get you prayerfully thinking about what might be the \u201cone thing\u201d to continue past the Advent\/Christmas season for engaging young people in worship.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Songs accessible for children who can\u2019t read, such as repetitive choruses, Taiz\u00e9, camp songs.<\/li>\n<li>Scripture reading geared toward children\u2019s learning style, such as a children\u2019s Bible with lots of verbs<\/li>\n<li>A senior and a young person co-reading a lesson or leading the prayers<\/li>\n<li>Experiential aspects of worship, such as a youth pouring water into the font<\/li>\n<li>Children\u2019s artwork for slideshows, bulletin covers, or other places in the worship space<\/li>\n<li>Adults and youth working together on Audio\/Visual (AV) ministry<\/li>\n<li>Congregations with SundaysandSeasons.com can download and print \u201cpre-reader\u201d and \u201creader\u201d versions of children\u2019s bulletins<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And many more! I offer a whole host of ideas about how to offer intergenerational worship and engage young people in worship at <u><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ministrylinks.online\/\">www.ministrylinks.online<\/a><\/u>. In fact under the tab \u201cMinistry\u201d there is a drop down for \u201cSeasonal Resources\u201d that begins with the liturgical calendar. Wonderful and yet easy Christmas Plays can be found there. As Program Director for Ministry with Children for the ELCA, I\u2019m also available to chat about your specific needs in your context. <u><a href=\"mailto:Janelle.Hooper@ELCA.org\">Janelle.Hooper@ELCA.org<\/a><\/u>. Please be in touch!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1208\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1208\" class=\"wp-image-1208 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-250x167.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper-525x350.jpg 525w, https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/60\/2018\/11\/baptismhooper.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1208\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of Amanda Faucett Photography<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s post is by Pastor Janelle Rozek Hooper, Program Director for Ministry with Children, ELCA. I often hear that children participating in the Christmas story, whether rehearsed or spontaneous, holds strong emotions and memories for family, friends and especially grandparents. The time, energy and availability of children, family and youth leaders has changed over the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beyond the Christmas Program: Engaging Young People in Worship - ELCA Worship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/worship\/1207\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beyond the Christmas Program: Engaging Young People in Worship - ELCA Worship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s post is by Pastor Janelle Rozek Hooper, Program Director for Ministry with Children, ELCA. 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