This week’s Resourcing Article comes from a member of one of our Hatching Faith Cohorts. We asked Rev. Bill McClung, pastor of Grace United Methodist Church on the Eastern Shore, to reflect on how participating in the cohort has helped Grace UMC welcome children and families into worship.
Children and Family-Friendly Worship
Often, faith communities look around and will say… “We wish we had more children and families at church”. Sadly, many of our churches will have a family with young children visit, and when the child makes a noise, most of the crowd makes a face about “the disruption or distraction”. Families notice right away and, more often than not, will not come back. If we are to be the church of love and grace, we are called to embrace the noise as part of God’s song and to change the way we view young children in worship.
Through our participation in the Hatching Faith Cohort, we have learned the importance of creating worship that is easier for children and their families to understand, some of whom have never been part of a faith community. So, we use intentional, simple language to explain what is happening in worship. Making worship more interactive to allow for noise and connections to be built. And in our case, a once-a-month children- and family-focused worship service.
Our Monthly service involves the following
- Replacing hymns with fun songs that have motions that the children will engage with. We also had a box of “children’s musical instruments”. We hand them to everyone and encourage them to play like “Jimmy Fallon does on The Tonight Show with famous recording artists.” Sometimes we use music videos from older Bible school curricula.
- We find simple liturgy that the children can read and respond with.
- We offer a craft related to the scripture. Sometimes we have children act out the scripture. We may use animated videos of the scripture story for children. We have also included a series of books by author Glynes Nellist that are faith-based, and we give a copy to each family.
- Some months we offer a snack food close to the story as well.
- We involve the children in leading the worship elements like scripture reading or taking up the offering. One little girl who is 3 loves to collect the offering. She and her friends will pass the plate around the congregation. She is passionate about that being her job, so she is sure to come on the other Sundays of the month to collect the offering as well.
- Sometimes we hold a meal after worship.
- We build an intentional time of fellowship in the service so everyone can engage in conversations and get to know each other.
- This is leading us to our next step: beginning “Messy Church” https://messychurchusa.org/
Outside of worship
- In the summer, we did a weekly “Pray, Play and Popsicles” at the community playground where we read a bible story, prayed, and then played.
- We will have a group from our congregation attend events at our local schools to support the children from our community.
- We have created some games and activities to coincide with our town’s annual Trunk or Treat event on Halloween night.
As we finish our first year of this intentional work, one story still sits with me the most. The one child we more consistently saw before these worship experiences would never receive Communion from the pastor. In October, a week after Worldwide Communion Sunday, we held a children’s worship about communion. As part of that experience, I served the congregation communion with Nilla Wafers and milk. At the end of the service, the children who participated came up and helped themselves to multiple rounds of communion. The difference is that after that worship, anytime we offered the bread and cup of communion, that one little girl would receive it now. She understands that it is a meal of love, representing Jesus in her life.
This is why we know the work God is doing through us at Grace UMC is bearing fruit in the lives of young children.
Rev. Bill McClung, Grace UMC
________
Hatching Faith Cohort Year 3 Registration open now
The registration for Cohort 4 and Cohort 5 opened August 3, 2026 and closes February 14, 2027. Churches who commit to Hatching Faith Cohorts receive $2,500 or more in micro-grants to support their ministry.
Cohorts 4 and 5 will run simultaneously, joining together in a Kick-Off event in Spring 2027. The registration link, as well as FAQs, cohort timeline, and contact information, can be found at vaumc.org/hatchingfaith.