What happens when jubilant children lead us in worship?

We experienced a treat this past Sunday: kids leading us in worship!

Children executed all parts of worship – ushering, conducting the Call to Worship, playing hand chimes, singing in choirs, and reading scripture. Here the Cherub Choir — representing our youngest — provided the musical reply to a responsive reading of Psalm 8.

Tucked into the service, was also a baptism of a young child. An appropriate opening to the musical that the kids put on about the story of Jonah! In a baptism, the sprinkling with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, signifies a new life and becoming a child of God. Did Jonah experience his own sort of “sprinkling” to help him see his faith journey?

Being baptized means you join in our community of faith. One of my favorite parts of a baptism is when the pastor takes the child down the center aisle amidst everyone — parents usually in tow — where the congregation repeats their promise to nurture the faith of the child being baptized. Surrounded by love!

On to the musical portion of the service! The Children’s choirs presented “Oh Jonah!”

You know the story: Jonah is a reluctant prophet who at first chooses not to follow God’s instructions. He ended up in the belly of a big fish.

 
I like how the kids portrayed Jonah (dressed in red) as being “inside” the big fish — surrounded by kids who were the “whale.” That’s a group of angels in orange, hanging out near by to offer guidance to Jonah.

This is a story about choices and responsibility. When he was “spit out”…with gusto, it was a second chance!

This time Jonah went to Nineveh and gave the people God’s message. (Look at all of those cool Ninevehites!)

How does the story turn out?

Photo credits:
I created Oh Jonah from a claymation video by Riley Marchand, shared under a Creative Commons License on YouTube. (I altered this screen shot to make Jonah appear much smaller than the big fish.)
Rest of photos from my archives.