Worship Bags: what goes inside & why does it matter?

This past Sunday concluded our month-long Kindergarten Worship Education series. Kindergartners and their parents spent 4 weeks learning about the parts that make up worship and why it is important for children to be in worship. As part of their celebration for participating in this series, each child received their worship bag to fill with all kinds of good stuff for worshiping with their families. It seemed like this would be the perfect time to talk about worship bags and what should go into them!

Worship bags are essential for children because their little bodies are full of energy, curiosity and excitement. These are all characteristics that make it very difficult to sit still through an entire worship service (although a lot of adults have a hard time sitting still through an entire service)!

Worship bags shouldn't be thought of as just a bag of tricks for keeping kids quiet and occupied for an hour and half. What we put inside a worship bag itself is just as crucial as having it with you on Sunday morning. We know that children learn through stories, activities, and working with their senses. This is why so much glue and glitter is involved in teaching children. What your child does to learn during worship shouldn't be any different from what they’re doing in Sunday School. But please don’t put glue and glitter in your child’s worship bag—that is an inevitable disaster.

Worship bags should contain items that will help your child stay focused on the meaning of Sunday mornings. We are here because it is the Sabbath day and this is the day we worship God and learn about Jesus. After all, you've already gotten them dressed and out of bed on the weekend, shouldn't we make sure they learn something after all that effort?!

We know that realistically your child is not fully engaging in the verb of worshiping while they are sitting in the pew, except for those wonderful moments when they chime in on the Lord’s Prayer at parts they can remember or contribute their "golden epiphany" during the Moment with Children. Other than that, we know that you are just trying to get them to stay quiet and still enough that you and others around you can worship. But just remember this: to God, your children are worshiping when they are sitting in the pews, surrounded by a church family who loves them, singing words of the hymns that aren't quite right, and exercising huge restraint from grabbing more than one cup of communion juice—and that’s good enough for us too.

Here are some ideas of items to put in your child’s worship bag so they can keep their hands busy and their ears open to learn:

• A worship sheet that explains the different parts of the service
• Paper
• Notebook 
• Clipboard
• Crayons, markers, pens, pencils
• Small dry erase board and dry erase markers
• Magic Slate
• Offering envelopes for their money or gifts during the offering
• OR they could make their own offering envelope with blank envelopes they decorate and put their name on!
• Books with Christian meaning – click link for a list of titles
• Children’s Bible
• Stickers
• Small photo album of important things in the sanctuary and their names
• Shoelace lacing toys in shapes that represent faith (cross, heart, fish, butterfly, dove)
• Wikki Stix™ 
• Blank note cards and envelopes
• Bible people finger puppets
• If you want to get real crafty, there are lots of items you can make at home that help kids use their motor skills so they can listen and play at the same time (pipe cleaners in an empty spice bottle; rice in an empty bottle, glued closed, with toys inside; deflated balloons filled with rice or beans;)

We want your children to grow up knowing that worship is important and it is something you do as a faithful youth and adult. A well planned and prepared worship bag will make all the difference for helping your child participate and engage in worship!