What Serving in Kids Ministry Does to You

The Part Nobody Tells You About

Serving with kids is humbling in the best way. You spend a lot of time wondering if anything you're saying is actually landing. Kids don't always give you feedback, and you often don't see the impact until years later, if ever. Sometimes a parent will share something their child said at home that came from kids church. Sometimes a child will say something in the room that tells you they absolutely get it. Those moments don't come on a schedule. You just have to keep showing up and trust the process.

But the bigger thing, the thing that genuinely caught me off guard, is worship.

This Is How We're Supposed to Do It

Kids worship differently than adults. If you've never seen it, I'll try to describe it.

There is jumping. There is dancing. There are motions, when the song has motions, and completely improvised motions when it doesn't. There are kids doing their own thing entirely, completely lost in the music, completely unconcerned with what anyone around them is thinking. No self-consciousness. No wondering if they look weird. No holding back.

They worship like they have nothing to prove and no one to impress. Because they don't.

Every time I watched that, something in me wanted to grab every adult I know and bring them into that room and say, "See this? This is it. This is what it's supposed to look like."

Psalm 150:4-6 says: "Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord!"

Kids take that literally. Most adults have slowly, quietly forgotten how.

What It Did to Me

Musical worship is one of the ways I connect most deeply with God. There's something about singing, really singing and not just mouthing the words, that opens something in me that nothing else quite reaches.

Being in kids church gave me permission to do that without embarrassment. Because when everyone around you is jumping and doing arm motions with full commitment, you stop worrying about what you look like. You just worship. With exuberance and abandon. The way we were probably always supposed to.

I got more out of kids ministry than I gave. I connected with God in a simpler, more childlike way, hearing messages like "you are loved," "God is always with you," "nothing is too big for Him." Those aren't complicated truths. They're just the truest ones. And sometimes the best thing you can do for your faith is go back to basics with people who have absolutely no reason to complicate it.

I Know Worship Isn't for Everyone

Not everyone connects with God through music. There are people who go deep during the message, people who meet God in quiet prayer, people who find Him in serving others or in conversations in the hallway before service starts. The way you connect with God is yours, and there's no wrong answer.

But if you haven't found your way to really connect yet, consider serving somewhere. You might find that the thing you came to give ends up giving you more than you expected.

How to Get Started

Serving in kids at Grace Fishers is one of the most in-demand serve opportunities we have, which tells you something about how much people love it once they're actually in it. If you're curious, check out all of our serve opportunities here or head to our Kids page to learn more about what we do on Sunday mornings.

You might go in thinking you're doing something for the kids. You might be surprised who walks out changed.

About the Author

Beth Montgomery is the Communications Director at Grace Fishers Church. She started in kids ministry and still thinks the worship room on Sunday morning could teach the adults in the auditorium a thing or two.