"Too often the children have been ignored in the present resurgence of praise and worship. They are often shuttled off to a film room or a game room somewhere on the premises while the adults enjoy their worship experience. If this continues, our revival of worship will perish with us."
- Judson Cornwall

...And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
(Matt. 21:16)

One thing about worship is that it is a universal language. Worship transcends all generations and all cultures. Toddlers and even little babies will respond to anointed praise and worship.

If an up-beat praise song begins in church, toddlers will naturally start dancing to the beat of the music. (It takes an adult to teach them not to dance in church.)

I believe this is one thing that Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 19:14, "Except you change and become like little children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Jesus told us we need to change and become like children.

In other words, there is much that little children can teach us about praise and worship, but how can we learn if we are never together for praise and worship?

I am not advocating that we never have children's church or youth group worship services. I believe we need both. There needs to be a time when families worship together, and there should be a time when children and youth have their own worship services.

I was talking to a friend of mine who mentioned to me that some of the parents in the church would ask for prayer because their children just weren't worshiping in the adult services. Greg was surprised because they worshiped really well in children's church.

(It was easier for the children to learn how to worship in children's church because they felt intimidated in the adult service. I think many times kids think that the service isn't directed to them so they click out or maybe they feel intimated by the bigness of it.)

This tells me three things:

• We need to have children's church worship services because it is easier for kids to worship in those settings.
• Pastors and worship leaders need to do a better job of including teens and kids in the worship services by communicating that praise and worship is for them, and have teens and kids be part of the worship team.
• Parents need to have a praise and worship time at home. This doesn't have to be a thing like we will worship every day at 8 a.m.

In fact, I think it's better if it's spontaneous. Every once in while I put on a CD and dance around the house with my wife and the kids. Many times I'm freer to dance at home than at church.

What I'm saying is that this helps me to get free in worship as much as it helps my kids.

We were created for this purpose: to worship the Lord and bring Him glory. Sometimes I wish we called ourselves "worshipers" instead of calling ourselves "Christians." It would help us to remember why we are here.