Download Music & Healthy Kids

CHILDREN’S DAY (CHILDREN AND HEALTH)

MUSIC & WORSHIP RESOURCES

Sunday, October 16, 2011
(See the attached PDF that contains a great article by physician John Clarke and Elizabeth Clarke on the use of Hip Hop to help kids stay and get healthy. Music is a powerful teaching tool.)

Brandon A. Boyd, Guest Lectionary Liturgist
Director of Music Ministries, Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church, Nashville, TN, and member of the Young Adult Lectionary Liturgists Team

Worship Planning Notes

Consider the following suggestions to make this worship experience effective:

• Remember today’s theme: HEALTH. Do not design a worship service that simply allows children to participate. Thread today’s theme throughout your worship service. This can be done through including healthy foods in the bulletin/order of worship, listing resources for families who are in need of nourishing food, listing free exercise programs for families, and using fruit and vegetable shapes (apples, bananas, oranges, broccoli, etc.) for paper buttons. The buttons can contain the words: I WANT CHILDREN TO BE HEALTHY. These can be pinned on everyone as they enter the worship service. Allow children to assist in this. They can help draw and cut out the shapes and pin them on worshippers as they enter the service.



• Ask youth counselors/ministers of the church to create a list of active and inactive children of the church and write their names on small pieces of paper. As worshippers enter worship they can take a name from the basket and pray for that child. If the children’s names are minimal, then duplicate them according to size of the congregation.



• Create a banner with pictures of the children from your church and place it in the Sanctuary so that it’s visible to all. Incorporate the health theme in the banner.



• Have the pastor or the director of the children’s department of the church create a personal e-mail, letter, or radio announcement honoring the children of your congregation the week leading up to your Children’s Day Service. Again, remember the theme.



• Be sure that children lead and participate in all aspects of the worship service. Use a youth minister (under age 21) and have children usher, sing in the choir, and more. Remember that this is NOT a Youth Service. Children are NOT teenagers.



• It is suggested that the worship leader for designing this service be a Youth/Teen.



• Remember, children can sing and love singing adult music.

1. Call to Worship
(a) Responsive Reading

(b) Invocation

Lord, today we lift up the lives of children in our church and community. We pray that children who are broken and hurting because of neglect, physical ailments, or abuse will feel the warmth of your loving spirit in their hearts today. It is our prayer, Lord, that you would place compassion, wisdom, and love in the hearts of those caring for children. Come Holy Spirit, and show us the way.

2. Hymns and Congregational Songs
(a) All around Me. By Cecilia Olusola Tribble

(b) Praise Him, Praise Him, All Ye Little Children. Anonymous. Tune, (BONNER), by Carey Bonner

3. Traditional Songs for Children
(a) Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. By Nellie Talbot. Tune, (SUNBEAM), by E. O. Excell

(b) I Am a Promise. By William Gaither and Gloria Gaither

(c) We Must Dream. By James Selway

(d) Joy in My Heart. Arr. by Rollo Dilworth

4. Gospel Songs
(a) I Need You to Survive. By Hezekiah Walker. This arrangement is for children.

(b) God Made Me. Traditional

5. Liturgical Dance or Mime Ministry Music (For Children and Youth Dancers Only)
(a) More Than I Can Bear. By Kirk Franklin

(b) I Like Me. By Kirk Franklin and Emmanuel Lambert

(c) We Offer Praise. By David Miner

6. Anthems
(a) Little Eyes Are Watching You. By Ruth Elaine Schram

(b) Jospeh’s Song. By Linda Marcus and Ruth Elaine Schram. This selection is set to the familiar tune of “Yankee Doodle.”

7. Offertory Song or Instrumental
Have children who play instruments (piano, organ, clarinet, violin, etc.) participate during the offertory period.
(a) He Has Done Great Things for Me. Arr. by Stephen Key

(b) Even at My Age. By Raymond Wise

(c) Young and Positive. By Bernice Johnson Reagon. This is a fun song that can be done with adult/youth and children’s choirs.

8. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer
(a) Order My Steps. By Glenn Burleigh

(b) Be Blessed. By Kurt Carr

(c) When Children Pray. By Brian Wren. Tune by Anne Wilson

9. Sermonic Selection
(a) God Is a Healer. By Kurt Carr

(b) Healing. By Richard Smallwood

(c) I Am His Child. By Moses Hogan

10. Invitational Song or Instrumental
(a) We Offer Christ. By Joel Britton

(b) Let Him in Today. By Raymond Wise

11. Benediction Song or Instrumental
(a) As You Go, Tell the World. Anonymous. Tune by Valeria Foster

(b) Go Now in Peace. By Natalie Sleeth

(c) God Be with You. By Thomas A. Dorsey and Artelia Hutchins

Cites and Additional Information for Music and Material Listed

1. Call to Worship
Responsive Reading, Invocation, and Litany for Healthy Living by Michele Morton. Used with permission.