Recently at Ignite we played not one but two kids songs, back-to-back. Can you believe it? The songs were I’m gonna jump up and down and Nothing’s too big big big. They are lively, upbeat songs with simple words and energetic actions. As a worship team we’ve been wanting to incorporate more and more different styles and types of worship into Ignite so that all members of the congregation can respond to what God is doing in their lives. We were pleasantly surprised to see how many of the “grown-ups” engaged with that style of worship.

This was a great example of what I think we should be referring to as “all-age worship” rather than just “kids songs”. There’s nothing about lively, upbeat songs with simple words and energetic actions that means they can only be appreciated by kids. I believe they can be used by all ages to respond to God’s love and offered as worship to him.

The lively music can reflect how having God in your life is a liberating, joyous thing and provides an opportunity to celebrate it.

The simple words make the song accessible and memorable. The actions, oh the actions, for some people their least favourite part, for me, one of my favourites. Doing actions to songs are a great way to fully engage your whole body in worship, they can reinforce the meaning of the words and make them more memorable.

I like to try think about worship like Pixar films. Many people are quick to assume animation is just for kids but Pixar films are great examples of how this is not the case. Adults can enjoy Pixar movies just as much as kids. Pixar don’t make kids movies, they make family movies and it’s why they are some of my all time favourite movies.

So just like Pixar strives to make movies accessible and enjoyable for all, so should we strive to make our worship accessible and enjoyable for all.