There are parts of 20th century evangelical church that I think do not need to be thrown away (youth camp and VBS). I want to add the children's choir to that list. Today at church our handful of kids got up to sing two songs; Away in a Manger and We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Are these the best Advent songs for following the worship calender...? Probably not, but it was definitely worth it.
Through singing, those kids embedded a sense of Christian memory in their heads as they learned those two songs, especially Away in a Manger. I remember a children's program when I was a child that taught us many of the great hymns of Christian Faith. I still know almost every verse of A Mighty Fortress is our God because of that program. I also grew up around the type of pageantry that gets overwhelming, but I learned so much about faith through the songs I was taught as a child. Yes, it is possible to just parade around kids in their parents bathrobes and utterly miss the Christian story, but it is also possible to teach them the deep hymns of faith. These are the things that stay alive in the back of our mind. When Meredith and I first started going to Nicholasville Baptist years ago, I remember all of the revival hymns that we sang because I had sung them as a child.
So lets not forget the children's choir. Instead of badly recorded backing tracks of Chris Tomlin songs lets teach them old hymns, especially around Christmas and Easter. It plants the story of God and salvation history (or Heilsgeschichte to show off a word I learned last night) in these very impressionable minds. It helps us to teach kids that they belong to something much bigger than themselves.
Great post, Chad. I agree with you. A lot of the Scripture I knew as a kid, I knew because I learned them in song form. At the time I didn't necessarily know I was singing Scripture. I figured that out later. But I was singing the story of God. It was embedded into my memory.
Posted by: Kelly Lawson | December 19, 2010 at 04:44 PM
I couldn't agree with you more on this point, Chad. I love it when the hymns are the most loved songs that I teach the kids in our Children's Choir program.....most loved....BY THE KIDS!!!
Thank you for making this point.
Posted by: julie | December 20, 2010 at 02:30 PM
"...badly recorded backing tracks of Chris Tomlin songs..." Awesome.
We had the kids sing two songs last Sunday as well, and for a change we had the worship team play the music for the songs they were singing. I think this made it even better, the kids were thrilled to have us accompanying them, and they sang with lots of heart.
Posted by: Jake Belder | December 21, 2010 at 06:24 PM
I actually thought about this post again over the holidays, Chad. Billy and I were trying to decide what gifts to get Eisley for Christmas. I found myself in a Christian bookstore one day and was standing in the kids music section. I decided I would get her a collection of kids Bible songs -- for the very reasons you mention above. Turns out, she loves it! The collection of songs I purchased for her includes a wide variety of songs-- all the classic kids songs, as well as pretty much all of the classic hymns. An added bonus is that the next-to-last track on the last disc is the greatest hymn ever -- "And Can it Be"! I couldn't believe it was there. It came on the other night in the car and she said, "Mom! This is one of my favorite songs." (I heard her singing it to herself in the bathroom just this morning. So great.)
Posted by: Kelly Lawson | January 04, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Amen, brother!
Posted by: Ihop | January 06, 2011 at 07:35 AM