‘Doing church’, and connecting to God through sung worship can seem so simple when we’re in a church building. Perhaps our kids are sat with their friends, another adult is watching them or, even better, they’re out in their groups.
Worshipping together at home is certainly different. It’s still church. We’re still together, just at a distance. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that it’s probably messier, probably noisier and almost definitely more chaotic. Perhaps our worship together now looks like dancing in the kitchen with music blaring in the background, or watching a song on YouTube together, or perhaps your kids are way less wriggly than mine and you’re managing to still watch your whole church service online together (we are definitely not!) Whatever it looks like, I think that when we can say ‘it’s different and that’s ok’ then we can sink into the wonderful messiness of doing church all together as a family.
I have seen kids connect through all types of worship songs whether they were written for adults or for kids so this list is a mixture of all sorts of different types of worship. I will keep adding to it as people send me suggestions or I think of more songs to share!
Here are some of the songs I (and the other parents I’ve asked) are loving when it comes to sung worship.
- The wonderful Nick and Becky Drake have written lots of fantastic Worship for Everyone songs. City on a Hill is a particular favourite of mine as I have so many memories of doing it in services with congregation ranging from babies to people in their 90s all worshipping together. You’ll find lots of others here. There’s a whole range of songs there, the earlier ones with actions are particularly good for under 5s and there are lots which will be very easy to learn and sing together as a family.
- Nick and Becky are also currently doing twice weekly family Worship For Everyone: Family sessions (which you can watch back). You can find the first one here.
- Hillsong Young & Free, who came out of the youth group at Hillsong Church, a good option for slightly older kids. Although my younger ones also love putting on a song like Let Go or Alive and having a good jump around or a speedy tidy up (another friend on Facebook also suggested these songs for that activity!)
- Then there’s also Hillsong Kids. I’m not a massive fan of some of their older stuff but songs like We Came To Meet With You are great for kdsand it looks like they have kid’s services and some other fun videos on their YouTube channel which might be worth checking out!
- The Little Worship Company have got lots of worship videos and resources which are great for kids – I’m not sure how much of their Youtube content is in full as they also have an app you need to pay for but if your kids like the content it might be worth it.
- I love Rend Collective! My Lighthouse may already be a song you’ve sung at church, we also really like Rescuer in our house – mainly because it features a tractor in the video!
- Then there’s Rend Co. kids. They recently did an album called Sparkle. Pop. Rampage. To be honest, I’m not a massive fan as I felt a bit like they made new (not as good) versions of songs that were already brilliant, and which my kids already loved without adding ‘la la la la’ to. However, please don’t let my ridiculously strong opinions put you off! King of Me is very catchy and would be fun to sing as a family and I love Feels Good (Upbeat Song) for a dancing around the kitchen song!
- We listened to Spirit of the Living God by Lucy Grimble during breakfast earlier this week and I said, ‘it reminds me of a bird flitting around’ and Big bro said, ‘it makes me think of a little ant taking a walk in the sunshine around the garden’. What a wonderful picture! Could you listen to a song together this week and ponder as a family what the music makes you think of?
- Sometimes it’s easy to think that our kids aren’t taking in what they’re listening to, or that they wouldn’t understand, but my kids constantly surprise me with how they connect with God when I’ve not even been paying attention. We love Pat Barrett in our house and it’s often just on in the background. One day in the car I realised Big bro was singing along to Canvas & Clay in the back of the car. We sometimes no idea how much the background music is going in and especially now that we’re all together in our houses a lot more it’s a good time to think about what we want on in the background. What’s your favourite worship album to have on in the background?
- A friend on Instagram suggested You Keep On Getting Better (feat. Majesty Rose) by Maverick City Music. I don’t know how I’ve missed Maverick City Music! I’ve just queued up a whole list of songs to listen to. The lyrics for You Keep On Getting Better are so simple and I can already imagine Big bro singing along.
- Someone else on Instagram suggested The Blessing by Kari Jobe & Cody Carnes and I just got a bit lost listening to it. I’ll be playing and singing that over my family tomorrow.
- Housefires – I’ll Give Thanks // feat. Kirby Kaple is such a powerful song and it would be an amazing one to play over your kids or your family if you’re feeling worried, focusing on how God knows what we need.
- I wrote a piece for Iridescent Women a little while ago where I shared my top 5 worship songs and why I loved them. I still stand by my choices so do go have a read but I wondered if that was also a great prompt for us with our families. What’s your favourite worship song and why? Perhaps you could create some time to listen to each other’s choices together and talk about them?
I could keep adding to this list forever but for now I’ll stop! I’ll keep adding though so do keep letting me know if you’ve found something wonderful you’d like to share and I’d love to hear your stories of doing worship together as a family!
Sending so much love to you all as we face this new, weird, normal together, at a distance.
A x
2 Comments
pocketoflife · March 27, 2020 at 2:48 am
Love! Thank you for sharing!
Finding hope in this new 'normal' - Honest Conversation · July 5, 2020 at 10:42 am
[…] he instructed me get pastries and biscuits ready and to lead his group, and we worshipped together and connected with our church online. His ability to connect with others and with God in […]